My mother named me Ava because she liked how the English letters looked - the big A a beak pointed upward, the v a sharp slash of wings, the small a round and flat as a parrot's eye.

The cane was undoubtedly of foreign make, for it had a solid silver ferrule at one end, which was not English hall–marked.

We are not yet on a first-name basis.

Wearied of cardplay the Chinese sprawled across the seats like drowsy primates, resting their noggins indecorously in the aisle, and gracing the floorboards with their hair as, upside down, they tracked the movements of various kiddies […]