JM gave me very little time to consider the sense of his suggestion.

‘Just hold my hand tight, and everything will be fine’ he instructed. Then we jumped the twenty feet from the balcony into the school hall below.

JM landed neatly upright on his feet. Meanwhile I still had so much momentum that I floated above the surface of the floor for several minutes. Indeed I did not touch down again until we reached NP’s house for the wee gathering in Nine Mile Burn.

At  the party we reminisced with SL about NP’s old flat. Then I wondered about TPR. Would he still be packing the tiny rental car for the trip to Pitlochry? If only he would use his mobile phone, then I would be able to ring and ask him.

JM suggested that he take me to fetch TPR. We walked up the gravelled hillside, admiring the shadows that the trees cast in the late afternoon sunshine. I was enjoying JM’s company so much that I began to wonder whether we should just leave TPR to his own devices.