Your man Del Brogan brings his daughter on. His daughter Eden, in a chair, onstage. This is my heart, he says. Give me a fucking break, Barney says. A little girl can be your heart, for god’s sake, I says to him. In this snake glow everything seems perfect. It is here right Now. Your man Del Brogan singing to his daughter is addressing his heart, addressing his fucking heart and no doubt about it, his heart is there in front of him with a white dress on and wearing knee socks just as surely as if somebody had slipped their fingers into the flesh of his chest and torn his heart free of its veins and its arteries and presented it to him, right then and there, his daughter, singing to the audience, is his heart to himself,

my heart’s come back to me

across the sad and lonesome years

my heart’s come back to me

darling can you see through the tears

my heart and I

returned

my heart and I

and the audience is beating, audience is pumping blood, this blood that words, inside of us. Can’t you feel it rising? Can’t you feel it surging and rising and passing through? It’s so powerful, this sharing of blood. Aren’t you crying?

*

Afterward we go backstage and your man Del Brogan has a gaggle of women around him. Eden is sitting on a stool on her own sucking a lollipop. Fuck me, but that’s a bit suggestive, is it not? Barney says to me, and he winks. You’ve got blow jobs on the brain, I says to him. Everyone in Ireland has blow jobs on the brain, he says. Doesn’t Wee Robin suck your cock with her outfit on? I says to him. He shakes his head. She says it’s disgusting, he says. Nightmare, I says to him. I bet your man Del Brogan is getting his cock sucked every night of the week, I says. We look over and your man Del Brogan is sitting on the edge of a table talking to this gorgeous blonde number. Speaking of which, Barney says, did you crack one off in the toilet? He points to the stain on my crotch. I had a fucking accident, I says to him, that’s all. Do I look weird to you? I says to him. No more than usual, he says. Then your man Del Brogan catches sight of us and waves us over. Fuck me, he says, it’s my two favourite stalkers. Are youse looking for autographs, boys?