I look back up at MC2. I don’t know whether to be happy because Ama has made me a brilliant video or sad because she can’t come to my birthday. And I thought she didn’t like athletics. MC2 smiles.

‘Almost as good as your man, Bob Beamon.’

I smile back as the Bob Beamon video replays in my head. The run-up, the jump, the commentary. I’ve barely thought about Bob Beamon for two days. The last two days of Leap 2048 were so full of Oopses. But I almost never thought of Bob Beamon. Maybe I’ve changed.

Grandma turns from the sideboard, where she’s just added the last flour to the cake mixture. I can see it’s a real effort for her to mix but I don’t offer to help. She wants to make the cake on her own.

‘Elle, did I not teach you manners in this England?’

She’s reminding me to say thank you for the present. In Nigeria, some people don’t say please or thank you at all. They think it’s very English to do that. But some Nigerians say please and thank you all the time. That’s how they learnt English. Grandma’s like that.

Everyone stays for the birthday tea. Grandma puts on the special white tablecloth, the one we use for guests, extends the table and lays the food out in the middle. It’s a real feast. I tell GMT she can eat the moi-moi and rice because we never use meat stock in it. And the fried yam. Grandma’s looking at GMT with her what-big-eyes. She takes a deep breath like she’s going to run the 100 metres, though she can barely walk it. I wonder what she’s going to say.

‘This your boyfriend enjoys his food-o! A man likes his meat. But you,’ looking at GMT, ‘you are vegetarian?’

‘Yes, ma’am,’ says GMT.

Grandma smiles. ‘I am very pleased with you. Some members of our church do not let meat pass their lips. They say man and beast have all one breath. Man should not have pre-eminence above a beast.’

Everyone goes quiet. I’m thinking about MAN=BEAST, Le Temps mixing Leapling DNA with sheep DNA to make sheap to kill and sell to those who can afford it. I’m glad Grandma isn’t anti-vegetarianism. Maybe she won’t mind so much that I’m a flexitarian now. I’ve decided to only eat meat on special occasions. Like this. Or if someone’s cooked it and I don’t want to be rude. Mrs C Eckler says I shouldn’t give up meat and fish completely until I’m able to eat food in colours other than white, so I get a balanced diet.