MEG: We have a game we play every year. We sneak presents home, we hide them, we wrap them up in secret even though we can hear the sticky tape tearing and the paper rustling; we hide them in the stuff we take away, we pretend not to see them until Christmas morning even when we know they’re there and we know what’s in them because we’ve already put in our orders so there’s no waste or surprise. And Dad always hides his in a pathetic place that’s so obvious it’s a joke and we all laugh at him behind our backs but we play along! You knew what was in that box. You left it behind. I want to know why.

GWEN: Where have you picked up these ugly manners?

MEG: What were you trying to do, what did you want to gain?

JIM: It’s only old presents. Slippers and your new breadknife.

MEG: Did you want to have something we’d all have to be sorry for the whole holiday? There’s always something we do wrong that takes you weeks to forgive.

GWEN: Where did you learn to say all this?

MEG: You have to tell me.

GWEN: The things that are taken away on holidays always go in the proper order, so everything will fit. I can’t help it if someone decides to be smart and funny and try to hide things in a little cardboard box. I wasn’t going to have the whole routine upset, that we’ve been following all these years and that I thought was giving people a good life, though it seems I’m very wrong, for the sake of someone’s joke.

MEG: But to do it deliberately!

GWEN: You’re developing a nasty streak. A very nasty, cruel streak. You know what you’re be coming? Snide. A nasty, snide girl. No-one likes a snide girl, always arguing, always throwing a tantrum, getting your own way, answering back, correcting people, criticising, complaining, no-one likes that sort of girl. Unless you count your foulmouthed little English chum. You’ll make a great pair. Throw your future away. Give it away. Throw what I have done, we have done, in our faces.

MEG: What have you done?

JIM: Let’s all calm down.

GWEN: Sacrificed! Gone without. Gone through hardship so what happened to us will never happen to you. So you’ll never know what we saw—never, never, never. Never see people losing jobs and never finding another one, never be without a home, never be without enough money for a decent meal, never be afraid that everything will fall apart at any second. Isn’t that something, miss? Tell me? Isn’t it?

JIM: Let’s all relax and calm down.

MEG: I’m sorry.

JIM: Just sit down, nice and quiet.

MEG: I’m sorry.

GWEN: Why are you so cruel?

MEG: I’m sorry.