Someone shot the archduke of Austria-Hungary several months earlier.
Your father and my father were both away, gloriously defending the country, as our mothers put it.
My aunt -your stepmother- decided it would be a good idea to move to the countryside. Two weeks later, you were my new neighbour.
You started going to my school.
You started coming around for dinner every other day, and on the days that you didn't come around, my mother and I went to your house.
They needed each other, our mothers; it was obvious.
And I didn't know it at the time, but I needed you too. I needed someone who understood the unshakeable trepidation which came with the absence of a parent. I needed someone who could genuinely empathise with me –not just assume they knew how it felt.
I needed a friend.
I needed you.
