“I’ll deal with them.” For the first time today I’m starting to feel tired.

—

It’s still raining hard when I pull up outside the station. “Well, goodbye,” Tom says, with the almost baleful stare he gives me when he has a lot more to say.

“What?” I prompt him.

“Oh, I don’t know. I wish I knew what you were doing, Dad.”

I laugh. “Don’t worry about me, dearest Tom. Get on with year two. Have fun.”

He gives me a mock salute, gets out of the lorry, and makes for the station entrance. I watch him dodge the puddles, the photo albums crammed into his rucksack. I could have given him more reassurance, told him how much I was looking forward to this new post, but honestly, on a wet evening with five hours’ driving ahead of me, I hadn’t the energy. I leave the station and work my way through the traffic toward the West Country, reach Fulbrook, swap the lorry for my car, and drive all the way back to Upton.

—

As so often, I get a second wind on the journey home. I’m wide awake by the time I reach the vicarage.

I find a torch and an umbrella and set off down the lane to the church. My torch beam sweeps through the rain to light up the wet verges, the hazel trees on the bank, the startled striped face of a badger.

The church door opens with a scrape of wood across stone. I’ve been here several times over the course of the summer and the feel of the flagstones, the way they dip in the middle under the tread of parishioners across the centuries, is starting to feel familiar. But I’ve never yet visited after sunset. I switch on the main lights. A clear brownish glow rises to the roof and fades into dimness only at the very highest point. The font is formidable in the low light, a huge piece of limestone bare of decoration, made functional by the hewing of a circular hollow in the top. I am to use this font on Sunday morning, the day after tomorrow, to christen a child. So far, all I know is that the family are called Sutton.

Running my hand across the bowl I become aware for the first time of eons of fossil shells, and wonder where this great block of stone comes from.