First up, apologies. This is a long story, but it’s the real story. There will be no TL;DR here.

A few weeks ago my parents were driving me up to see my cousins. We always visit them during the summer. On the way there we drove through a little village. Some church by the road was having a car boot sale. A massive banner told us it was in aid of charity. My dad parked the car and got out, eager to have a little sniff around. He always had a thing for raking through people’s old stuff and finding hidden treasures. While he was off treasure hunting I decided to go off on my own little wander.

Most of the stuff on sale was the usual crap. Cakes and ugly crockery and junk. Someone was holding a raffle. An old woman was painting kid’s faces, but only seemed to know how to do one animal; there were zebra kids everywhere.

I remember a couple standing out over all that the happiness and sense of community. A man and a woman with dead eyes taking no interest in their customers at all. Just staring into the distance.