For a few moments Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni simply stared at the photograph. His thoughts were muddled. Who is this man? I do not know. Why is his arm around Mma Ramotswe? There can be only one reason. How long has she been seeing him? When has she been seeing him? The questions were jumbled and painful.

The young man was watching; he had guessed that the photograph of Mma Ramotswe was a shock. Some of the photographs he handled were like that, he was sure; but he did not normally hand them to the husband. “This photograph of the house,” he said, pushing it into Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni’s hand. “I know that place. It is off the Tlokweng Road, isn’t it? It is the Baleseng house. I know those people. That’s Mma Baleseng there. Mr. Baleseng helped to teach soccer at the boys’ club. He is good at soccer, that man. Did you ever play soccer, Rra?”

Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni did not respond.

“Rra?” The young man’s voice was solicitous. I’m right, he thought: that photograph has ended something for him.

Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni looked up from the photograph. He seemed dazed, thought the young man; on the point of tears.

“I won’t charge you, Rra,” said the young man, looking over his shoulder. “When there are only one or two photographs on a roll, we don’t charge. It seems a pity to make people pay for failure.”

Pay for failure. The words cut deep, each a little knife. I am paying for my failure as a husband, he thought. I have not been a good husband, and now this is my reward. I am losing Mma Ramotswe.

He turned away, only just remembering to thank the young man, and went back to his truck. It was so bright outside, with the winter sun beating down remorselessly, and the air thin and brittle, and everything in such clear relief. Under such light our human failures, our frailty, seemed so pitilessly illuminated. Here he was, a mechanic, not a man who was good with words, not a man of great substance, just an ordinary man, who had loved an exceptional woman and thought that he might be good enough for her; such a thought, when there were men with smooth words and sophisticated ways, men who knew how to charm women, to lure them away from the dull men who sought, so unrealistically, to possess them.