‘The next song is about unrequited love,’ Jay said. ‘It’s a song Johnny wrote for Rabbit, a song I played her a couple of days before she died. I’m not going to tell you what she said or did that day, that’s between us, but this is their song.’

Louis hit the piano keys, Jason’s voice filled the room, and by the time the band kicked in Davey was sobbing behind the kit. For fuck’s sake . . . The lads noticed but no one made a joke; it wasn’t the time for that. The gig ended with thunderous applause; they played two encores. Davey had stepped back into the past for one night and it was a beautiful thing, playing with the boys, reliving their glory days, the banter, the laughter, the kinship.

Afterwards, as Davey waded through the crowd, shaking hands and high-fiving with familiar and strange faces, he bumped into Francie’s mad ex-girlfriend, Sheila B. Oh shite. His eyes darted around the room to check if Francie was a safe distance away.

‘Don’t worry, I’m not here to cause trouble,’ she said.

‘Ah no, Sheila, I wouldn’t think that, it’s good to see you.’

‘I’m on me meds, you don’t have to be scared. Francie’s with his family. I won’t go near him.’

Davey relaxed. ‘How are you, Sheila?’

‘I’m grand. Look, I just wanted to say that I was sorry about Rabbit. I should have gone to the funeral but I was just out of the nuthouse, everything was a bit raw, you know yourself.’

‘Yeah,’ he said. Once a beauty, she was ravaged by grim circumstance.

‘Are your parents around? I’d love to give them my condolences.’

Davey looked around and saw his dad standing at the back of the room.

‘My da’s at the back there.’

‘Right, then. Good luck to ya, Davey,’ she said, and he felt sorrow as she moved to walk away. As unpredictable and scary as she was, Sheila B had been a big part of the history of Kitchen Sink – she was Francie’s first real girlfriend, now she was a stranger.

‘Sheila?’

‘Yeah.’

‘It was really nice to see ya,’ he said. ‘You deserve good things.’

‘You were always a softy, Davey,’ she said, and she moved on through the crowd.

Marjorie had been crying. She wiped her eyes and sniffed. ‘Like old times,’ she said, and they hugged. Juliet bounced up and down. ‘That was brilliant. I loved the song for me ma, can we put that on my phone?’

‘’Course.’

‘What’s the news on Grace?’

‘She’s good, Davey. It’s all good.’

Davey exhaled and sat down and put his head in his hands. ‘Good,’ he mumbled.