‘Nothing wrong with socks,’ Joe said, leaning back into the sofa, his legs crossed.

‘I know there isn’t, I just don’t know what to say about them. They’re just socks.’ Sheanna piled everything on top of each other and looked at Matty. Looked to the carpet as if trying to think of something to say. ‘What did you get for Christmas?’

A step nearer to jail. ‘A book and a couple of CDs.’ The latter from the man who would be putting Matty behind bars.

‘What did you want for Christmas?’ said Joe.

What I’ve wanted every Christmas, Matty wanted to say, hating how much it hurt.

In the afternoon, Joe slept on the sofa. His beard was the colour of wet sand at his cheeks, and grey at his chin and towards his throat. Matty watched him, looked at the folds at the base of his neck, the looseness of the skin there. Saw that he was still handsome, really. Imagined his lungs blooming not with water but cells, flowering with them, speckling him like the end of an old video game.

A cigarette on the front step that night, waiting for Cormac to lead a line of Gardaí vehicles up the road. Handcuffs at the ready. Head being pushed down to get into the back seat. Court, testimonies. Brigid. Being seen as one thing. Labelled.

Joe came out and sat down, gingerly. ‘Sheanna’s in bed. She wants to know if you’d read with her. I said I’d ask.’

Matty took another drag.

‘Just so you know, she doesn’t ask either of us to anymore. She reads just fine on her own.’

‘I’m all right, thanks.’

‘OK.’ He looked out towards the lough’s blackness, indistinguishable from the sky, the trees.

‘I can’t just – you can’t just expect this all to be easy.’

‘I know. I don’t. Just … I can’t apologise for her. I can apologise for everything else until the cows come home, and I will, until my last bloody—’ He stopped. ‘I can’t apologise for her existence. I won’t.’

Franklin finally changed his expression after two days when Sheanna told them about the bullying girls, and how Matty had warned them off. He knelt in front of her, his hands on her feet. ‘But honey, why didn’t you say anything?’

‘Because you were busy with everything with Daddy.’ Sheanna looked at her hands.

‘No,’ said Joe. ‘I’m not important. We’re never too busy to see off two spiteful little gobshites who should know better. Though it sounds like someone else took care of it.’ He looked over at Matty. ‘Thank you.’

Sheanna had slipped away.

‘Her teacher knows,’ Matty said. ‘Probably worth keeping an eye on.’

‘Thank you,’ said Franklin. ‘We appreciate it.’ He put his fingers to his forehead. ‘I can’t believe she didn’t want to tell us.’