She stood for a moment and looked at the front door, which was slightly ajar. Her mother never closed the door, and it used to irritate Sarah. Taking a deep breath, she pushed it open. As she slowly entered the room, her nose picked up the familiar musty odour. She could see her mum lying on her mattress with a blanket up to her chest, but her stomach looked swollen and her skin was yellow. Sarah quietly knelt on the floor and studied her mother as she slept. Her long black hair looked greasy and unwashed, and her eyes appeared to have sunk into her head. She was wondering if she should disturb her, when her mum slowly opened her eyes. Sarah was shocked to see that even the whites of them were now very yellow.

‘Hello, Mum, it’s me, Sarah,’ she whispered.

‘I can see who you are, you stupid bitch,’ her mother said, though Sarah noticed her voice was weak and without its usual venom.

‘I hear you’re not feeling too well?’

‘Yeah, that’s right. Come to gloat, have you?’

‘No, of course not. I’ve come to see if you need looking after …’

‘You needn’t have bothered. I don’t need you looking after me, or anyone else. I know I’m going to meet my Maker, and the sooner the better. Did you bring me any gin?’

‘No, Mum, that’s what got you in this state, so of course I didn’t. Please, Mum, let me help you …’

‘Why would you want to help me? It ain’t as if I ever did much for you,’ she asked, then began to cough heavily.

Sarah waited for her mother’s chest to clear, and gazed at her with pity. It was a shock to see her so desperately ill, and now she was glad she’d plucked up the courage to come. ‘You’re still my mum. If you won’t let me look after you, will you at least go into hospital?’

‘No,’ Annie replied firmly, ‘I’ll die in my own bed, not in one of them places with them taking blood out of me and doing Gawd knows what to me. I’ll go out of this filthy world the same way I came in … alone.’

‘Please, Mum, you don’t have to be alone. I want to help.’

Sarah saw a tear slip from her mother’s eye and streak down the side of her face before disappearing into her dirty hair.

‘You’ve always been a good girl, better than me, and you’ve been a good mum to your brother. I ain’t got long left … hours, maybe a couple of days. There’s something I should have told you …’

Sarah took her mother’s clammy hand. She’d never seen her mum cry before, or heard her speak so gently. She noticed her mother’s arms were scabby and covered in scratches.