Queenie was livid. Not only had her sons blatantly lied to her, they were begging, something she had always forbidden them to do, outside the station where poor Aunt Edna lost her life so tragically. ‘How bleeding dare they?’ Queenie spat. She grabbed her grey winter coat. ‘Viv, keep eye on Brenda for me. I gotta go to Bethnal bastard Green.’

‘We should get going in a minute, Vin. Mum’ll kill us if we’re late,’ Roy warned his brother.

‘Penny for the guy, please, mister,’ Vinny said, as a suited man with an umbrella came out of the station.

When the gentleman threw half a crown on to the piece of cloth they had lying next to their deformed-looking guy, whose head was actually a football, Vinny disagreed. ‘All the rich people are coming home from their posh jobs up town now. We gotta stay longer. Mum won’t mind if we’re a bit late.’

‘Vinny, Roy,’ Michael prodded his brothers to get their attention.

They’d had an altercation earlier with some older boys who’d turned up wheeling a guy in a pram and accused them of nicking their patch. When they’d insisted the Butlers take their guy elsewhere, Vinny had retorted, ‘Make us,’ before telling the older boys to ‘fuck off’.

‘Penny for the guy please, ma’am,’ smiled Vinny.

The woman bent down. She was dressed in a fur coat, classy clothes, had a very posh voice and was obviously pissed as not only were the fumes of alcohol potent, she was also slurring her words. ‘Look at you three. So handsome. I was unable to have children, but I would have given my right arm to have sons like you. What are your names and how old are you?’

‘I’m Vinny and I’ve just turned nine. This is my brother Roy. He’s nearly seven.’ Vinny pointed at Michael. ‘We call him little squirt but his real name’s Michael and he’ll be five next month. We’re only sitting ’ere today because our dad’s out of work and we want our mum to have a nice Christmas. Every penny we get, we will give to our mum.’

‘Oh, how sweet!’ the woman gushed, fumbling inside her handbag. ‘What a credit you are to your mummy. You take this and make sure she has a wonderful Christmas.’

Vinny could not believe his eyes as the woman handed him a ten-pound note. Neither could Roy. Only Michael wasn’t taking any notice. Reason being, he knew he and his brothers were in big trouble.

‘Thank you, ma’am. That’s so very kind of you,’ Vinny beamed.

‘My pleasure,’ the woman said, before kissing all three boys on the head then staggering off down the road.

‘What a fucking result!’ Vinny said, staring at the note in his hand. He turned to Michael. ‘Whaddya keep poking me for? You never even thanked the lady. You need to watch and learn.’

‘They’re back, Vinny. Them older boys. Look! They’re over the road screwing us out.’

‘Shit!’ Roy said. He turned to Vinny. The older boys were at least eleven or twelve. ‘What we gonna do?’