‘Maybe it wasn’t. What does that matter? She was carrying it in her body. Which gave her the final say on whether to keep it or not. You’ve seen what Kelleher has done with that creepy Catholic home for scared young women – where he has my mother and her psycho friend Teresa convincing them to be battery hens. After the baby is born they sell the kid on to rich Catholic families who’ve had to make a donation of at least twenty grand to the Angels to get on their adoption list. Do you know what then happens to the mothers of those babies? A few days after they’ve given birth … out they go onto the street.’

‘How do you know all this?’ I said.

‘I’ve been doing some research into Kelleher ever since we’ve learned that he wants to take us over.’

‘It’s a charitable donation, Klara – and one that is going to allow you to keep your job.’

‘Why do you think he wants to be our benefactor, Poppa? For the same reason why – as a right-winger who distrusts anyone who isn’t white and Christian – he set up those acting scholarships in the name of the woman he initially dated when she was eighteen. No power imbalance there whatsoever. And yeah, I know that being eighteen makes you legal in this country. But he was still sleeping with a kid – and got away with it at the time. Now those scholarships are being given to minorities by a man who has been on the record in the past as saying that homosexuality is against God’s will. Just as he was once overheard at a fundraising dinner saying he still can’t get his head around interracial relationships. Of course he denied it all afterwards.’

‘Maybe he had a change of heart,’ I said. ‘Maybe he realized that he was wrong to think such things.’

‘Oh please, Poppa. What’s he’s doing … it’s called “running interference” in football. Coming across like a good guy by supporting that which you privately hate, while meanwhile undermining the serious people who want to really change things. The guy was an alleged wife beater, so why does he want to throw money at a shelter for battered women? To show the world he is really into women’s rights while simultaneously trying to impose his own program on us.’

‘Which will be what exactly?’ I asked. ‘Is Kelleher going to professionally force you to forgive men who beat women?’