Memories in chapter 1

The story is written in the first person and it presents the memories of the narrator, who is an elderly man. It is June. It is summer. A powerful perfume brings back the smells of the plants and gardens of the narrator's childhood into his mind, and activates his memory.

The narrator remembers his childhood in a suburb of London.  He remembers his friend Keith and Keith's mother with her brown eyes, laughing and a moment later, crying
Other apparently disconnected memories flash into his mind.: "A shower of sparks...A feeling of shame...someone unseen coughing, trying not to be heard...a jug covered by a lace weighted with four blue beads... " He also mentions six words, which “changed everything” but he doesn't reveal them yet.

All these glimpses into the narrator's childhood arouse our interest and attention as readers. We feel curious. We want to know what were the six words that his friend Keith said and how all these fragmentary memories are related, so we want to turn the page to find out what happens when he visits his childhood neighborhood.