I don’t mind too well, but I suppose I must’ve cried or screamed because Mummy Joy came running in and she got down beside me, between me and Daddy Tam, and says she, Get you away from her.

No one ever talked back to Daddy Tam. Never, never, never. I could see the anger in him. He was always angry, that man, they all were, but this was not the same. He was raging so much he went all quiet. And pale, except for the red blotches on his cheeks. I remember his big hands opening and closing. I remember feeling Mummy Joy starting to shake.

Then he points at me, and says he, Get thon child out of my sight, then you get back up here.

Mummy Joy didn’t argue with him. She picked me up and she carried me out into the hall, then into the kitchen, and through the door and down the stairs. She put me on the wee bed I had in the corner and put a blanket around me.

I suppose I must’ve been crying, and Mummy Joy was too, and says I, Don’t go up there, but says she, I have to, and away she went. She left me holding one of the wee dollies I’d made from tying sticks together with twine, the ones I kept hidden under my mattress so Daddy Ivan wouldn’t take them from me.

I heard all of it, Daddy Tam shouting and raging, the banging and the thumping, her screaming. It sounded like he was dragging her across the floor, back into the kitchen, and the way she was squealing, I suppose he must’ve been dragging her by the hair. Then I heard Daddy George telling him to quit it, he was going to kill her if he kept on.

So what if I do, says he.

Then I’ll kill you, says Daddy George.

Then them two went at it. Mummy Joy closed the door behind her and came down the stairs in the dark. She found her way to me and got into the bed and we cuddled up in the dark, under the blanket. All the time, from upstairs, banging and thumping and shouting. Then we heard Daddy Ivan come along and that was the end of it. As afeart as I was of Daddy Tam, him and Daddy George were more afeart of Daddy Ivan.

A wee while later, I don’t mind how long, Mummy Noreen came down and she lit the lamps and said we should stay down there for the rest of the day, just till things calm down. Things is bad, says she. Daddy Tam’s thran, he’s in a terrible twist, and he’s on the drink again. Don’t show yourself, either of yous, not till tomorrow, not till he’s sobered up.