The fact that I’ve been used as a go-between doesn’t seem to bother him at all. If I didn’t understand what was happening at the time, he says, then it doesn’t matter. I’m no more to blame than the knife is to blame in a stabbing, or the car in a collision. “But I’m not an inanimate object,” I argued. “I’m a person.” He looked confused for a moment and then laughed. “Of course, Charlie. But I wasn’t referring to now. I meant before the operation.”

