[Lyon. Thursday May 24. 11:07 CEST.]
The photo came through at seven minutes past eleven.
Bzzt.
An old man on an airport tarmac in a wheelchair he was clearly mid-argument about, one hand raised at a nurse in green, the other holding a red and blue scarf into the wind. Behind him a small white jet with its door open and a medic carrying an oxygen bottle down the steps like it was a bag of shopping.
Sarah's text under it.
Eagle has landed. He made the pilot do a circle over the stadium first. The pilot did it. Nobody says no to this man.
I was standing in a hotel corridor in Lyon with my match suit over my arm, and I laughed out loud, on my own, like an idiot.
Bzzt. A second photo.
The old man out of the wheelchair. Standing. One fist up at the camera.
Mama's father had arrived in France the way captains' fathers should.
[Groupama Stadium. 18:50 CEST.]
Two hours before kickoff I took Mama up to the box.
