‘OK,’ I say. I don’t want him to go to the bar. He’s only just got here. I want him to stand behind me and circle his arms gently round my body and for us to listen to Blondie together.

‘See you shortly.’ Salvi pulls me towards him suddenly and clutches at my waist, a bit too tightly. He kisses me loudly on the cheek, my good one. He smells fantastic. He squeezes my bum. He traces a hand down my left arm, then he is away into the crowd, a dark shadow. I realize he hasn’t asked anyone else if they want something.

‘So that’s the mime artist, then,’ Kemp says to me, about two songs later. I’m dancing to ‘Heart of Glass’ and waiting for Salvi, who’s been gone ages.

‘The mime artist?’

‘Vince has just told me he’s a street performer. And don’t mime artists dress all in black like that?’

‘He’s a barrister,’ I say.

‘Oh right, sorry.’ He doesn’t sound sorry.

‘Thank you again for the tickets,’ I add, in brittle tones. I wish Kemp would just go away.

‘Looks like a mime artist …’

‘Oh, shut up!’ I turn away from him to talk to Dad. ‘All right, Dad? Enjoying yourself?’

‘Yes!’ he shouts above the music, and it makes me feel so incredibly happy, how Dad is tonight. ‘I can’t believe I’ve been such an idiot!’

‘How do you mean?’

‘Missing out on music for so long. To miss out on this. It’s fantastic, Prue. Thank you for bringing me out again.’ Does he mean out on another trip, or out again after such a long time sitting in The Palladian, with me, doing nothing? It doesn’t matter. What matters is Dad is out in the world again, when the world has been closed off to him for so long. He is swaying in time to the music, a look of sheer bliss planted on his face.

‘I’ve turned a corner, Roo!’ he cries. ‘I’ve turned a bloody corner!’

He has called me Roo. My dad is dancing at a concert in a room packed with people and he has called me Roo again. He has turned a corner. We have turned one together.

‘Oh, Dad,’ I say, and we have a dancing, laughing hug, here in the crowd, to Blondie. We’ve turned a corner and have found our way back to each other again, haven’t we? This summer. Almost all the way back.