With her, my love, my safest place.

Her devil’s tongue, her angel face,

A broken heart will heal in death, a man in love cannot regret.

Mrs Faye walked through the open door with a tray of cupcakes.

‘They’re not songs, you know, they’re prayers,’ she said.

‘Davey, have a cupcake.’ She picked it up and put it in his hand before he could say no. ‘Eat it,’ she said before throwing one to Francie, who reached up and caught it. ‘Feet off the bed,’ she said, and he shot up and took a bite.

‘There’s so much sadness in this world,’ she said, and the men nodded. She looked at Davey holding the cake and waited for him to put it in his mouth. He took a bite. She nodded and smiled.

‘My Johnny had a terrible end, didn’t he, lads?’ she said, and Davey nodded with a mouth full of cake.

‘If I had been a stronger woman I would have picked up a pillow and smothered him long before his last breath.’

‘Jesus,’ Davey said.

‘Not physically, you understand, I mean emotionally. If I was emotionally stronger I’d have smothered him or drugged him or poisoned him or hired someone. I even read up on it. The internet’s great for so many things. Hire a killer, buy a birdcage – you can do it all online these days.’

Davey threw Francie a searching look. WTF. Francie just smiled.

‘I’d say your ma would have done what needed to be done, Davey.’

‘Ah, I don’t know,’ Davey said, spitting crumbs.

‘If she had witnessed what I witnessed, I think she would. She’s a better woman than I am.’

‘It’s murder all the same, Mrs Faye,’ Davey said.

‘Ah, it is and it isn’t. You’ve both smelled bedsores.’ They nodded.

‘I haven’t been within fifty feet of a bedsore in twenty years and I can still smell it.’ Her eyes brimmed and the tip of her nose reddened, but she smiled.

‘To many my boy is just some sad story, but there were good times, great times, when there was so much promise and he was flying. Wasn’t he, Francie?’

‘Yeah, he was,’ Francie said, placing his hands on her shoulders.

‘Do you think they’re together, Davey?’

‘I don’t know, Mrs Faye, but I’d like to think so.’

‘I do. I believe. I think our Rabbit left this world early to be with him. Why else would they both die so young?’

Davey and Francie didn’t have any answers.

‘Take another bite, Davey,’ she said, pointing to the cupcake.

‘I’m grand.’

‘One more.’

He bit into the cake.

‘It’s good, isn’t it?’ she said, and he nodded. ‘The little retarded fellas make them and sell them on the stalls.’

Davey spluttered a little.

‘What?’ she said.