If you gave that fellow a good push in the chest, thought Joe, those eggs would break. That’d be a laugh … or maybe it wouldn’t. His feet were frozen. He clutched the school bag close to his side and did a little dance for warmth. He wondered what they would do with Dad. Turf him out onto the floor, as like as not. He had to smile at the thought.

After about half an hour they were allowed back into the house. The cupboards had been pulled out from the walls and most of the drawers emptied on to the floor. They had raked out the fire from inside the stove. Even the dustbin in the yard had been turned over and the week’s rubbish was blowing round trying to escape. They had gone through the anthracite and left black boot-marks all over the kitchen floor. Mam had two geranium plants that she nursed carefully on the window sill in the front room, now the plants lay on the floor, the earth scattered round them. She picked them up and stood with one plant in each hand. The head of one of them was broken.

‘Go on up to your bed,’ she said to Joe. ‘I’ll straighten the place in the morning.’

‘I could give you a hand.’

He still had the school bag tight under his arm.

‘No, son. You won’t be fit for school if you don’t get some sleep. I’m all right. My plants.’

She bent down and began to scoop the earth off the floor and press it back into the pots.

‘My plants.’

‘I’m cold,’ said Joe.

‘Weren’t you the fool to go out without your shoes. You’ll warm up in bed. Look in on your Daddy on the way past.’

‘I could help.’

‘Just do what you’re told.’ Her voice was tired to death. Her fingers pressed and soothed the dry earth, pushed the roots in firmly, nipped off the broken head. She was crying very quietly again. He just did what he was told. His father was sitting in a chair in the middle of the room. Around him on the floor were tossed the sheets and blankets from the bed. He was dressed in his shirt and trousers. He had probably got into bed like that when he had come in. He stared at Joe as if he had never seen him before. He was still very drunk.

‘I said to them, get out, you bloody British bastards.’

Newspapers and dirty clothes were heaped on the floor with the blankets. There was a pile of soot on the floor beside the fireplace. The doors of the press were hanging open.

He pulled himself together suddenly.

‘Is it, Joe?’

‘Aye.’

‘Where’s your Mammy?’

‘Below.’

‘Tell her to come up and make my bed for me.’

‘I’ll do it.’

‘Your Mammy.’

‘She’s busy. They left a terrible mess.’

‘I said to them …’

‘You told me what you said to them.’