But as the organist started up, Doris made the first move and took a place beside the coffin. Dad followed and went in front of her and Uncle Bill positioned himself behind. Pete moved to take the back-right corner, opposite his father-in-law, so James joined them and stopped in the front-right spot.

‘Rightyo,’ Dad muttered, and they simultaneously hoisted Tony onto their shoulders in a swift movement.

The sudden weight made James panic for a second. The funeral attendant stood in the aisle, looking too short to assist but going through the motions of clearing the way, though it was clearly unnecessary.

‘Stay here,’ Yvonne said to the girls. ‘Mummy’s going to help Daddy, and then we’ll go and play in the park, okay?’

James noticed the look his cousin threw at the organist, who nodded that she’d watch over the girls while their mother helped with this unexpected task. As they started down the aisle, Yvonne slipped past the attendant, avoided eye contact with James and slid her shoulder under the box behind him.

The coffin lightened a little with her below it.

‘We’ll take it slow,’ Dad said.

James sensed his father at his left, felt the brushing of their arms together. The tiled floor was slippery and everyone’s shoes made scuffing sounds above the strains of the music. Drooping flowers niggled at the top of his head.

Ahead, the open doors sent a harsh light towards James’s eyes and he squinted. There was no use averting his gaze, because the same light was picking up the tiles and the ends of the pews. It was like they were marching Tony into some light-filled vortex.

Thinking of his cousin only brought the idea of his remains to James. Bodies were forlorn, especially those in police photographs. Abandoned until the facts were known, no one to care for them, shoved in a freezer somewhere.

Nevertheless, James’s desire to see Tony again started to become overwhelming, his face only inches away from his cousin’s behind the polished sheen of the casket. It wouldn’t hold the animated beauty, the sheer spark of Tony’s face, so bright that James had always wanted to look deep into it; but he had never been given the chance to gaze at it for more than a moment.

Outside, the merciless glow encased them all.

As they shoved Tony through the opening of the hearse, James and his father made more involuntary contact as their arms and hands were forced to turn and change positions. He noticed the bitter scent of sweat and saw dark patches of it in Dad’s armpits.

Once the hearse had taken Tony’s weight, they fell apart in an embarrassed cluster.