‘I don’t want any fuss … so don’t …’

‘No.’

‘She’ll be over at the end of July. We’ll maybe … I’d like … You never know what might happen … I’ll get a decent job.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘Don’t be thick. We might get married.’

Joe heard his own voice coming out, cold and ugly.

‘She’s going to be married to someone else.’

Brendan laughed.

‘Where did you get that bit of news?’

‘She told me so herself. She doesn’t tell you everything, so she doesn’t.’

‘You’re a bit gone on her yourself?

‘I am not gone on her, but I can tell you something … she’s not gone on you. She thinks you’re weak. She told me so. She’s going to be married to someone anyway. She loves him. She doesn’t talk to you. She didn’t even want to listen to you. She told me that too.’

Brendan threw back the clothes and put his feet down on the floor.

‘You’re a liar.’

Joe took a step backwards, away from him.

‘I am not. Ask her. That’s all you have to do. Ask her.’

‘Is anything wrong up there?’

An anxious voice from the bottom of the stairs.

Brendan was coming across the floor after him, his bare feet squeaking on the lino.

He reached out and grabbed Joe by the back of the neck,

‘Lying little shite,’ and began shaking him.

‘Boys. Brendan. Joe.’

Her footsteps started on the stairs.

‘It’s all right, Mam,’ called Brendan. The footsteps stopped.

‘I even know his name. She loved him yesterday. She talked about him yesterday. She writes him letters telling him everything.’

Brendan hit him across the face with the palm of his hand.

‘Everything.’

Slap.

‘Mammy, he’s hitting me.’

‘For the love of God.’

The door banged open and she stood looking at them.

‘Brendan. Leave the child alone.’

‘I’ll leave him alone when I’ve finished with him.’

‘What’s he done to you?’

Her face was distracted.

‘He’s a bloody little liar.’

‘Fred Burgess is his name.’

He wriggled out of Brendan’s grip and dashed behind his mother.

‘F.R.E.D.’

‘Will ye shut up and give a man a chance to sleep?’ A roar came from Dad’s room.

Brendan made a grab at Joe.

‘Burgess. Do you want me to spell that too?’

‘Brendan. I don’t know what it’s all about …’ She put out both her arms to stop him.

‘And he’s a soldier.’

Brendan stood quite still and looked at him.

‘Liar.’ He said the word uncertainly.

‘Joe,’ begged Mam.

There was nothing stopping him now though.

‘A British soldier. She wears a ring, you know. And she tells him everything.’

He stepped cautiously on to the top step.

‘Wait,’ he said with madness in his voice, ‘till she tells him what you told her last night.’