Says she, Imagine if you had your own land, your own animals. Imagine if you had a wife of your own, all your own, and a child. Maybe a daughter.

Whisht now, says Daddy George. Go away on and get them upstairs windows cleaned.

She walked out into the hall, and she stopped when she seen me on the stairs. I thought maybe she would scold me for idling, but she didn’t. She smiled and stepped around me and went away on upstairs. I got up on my feet and went to the kitchen door. I saw Daddy George in there, still at the table, still at his tea. But he wasn’t drinking it. He was staring away off into some dream or other. He never knew I was there, watching.

When it was time to go to bed, I asked Mummy Joy if I could sleep in beside her. She lifted up her blanket for me, and I cuddled down into her, my back agin her belly. She wrapped her arm around me, the blanket around us both. I was awful tired and my eyes were hanging on me. I yawned, and I felt her nose and mouth at my neck.

Says I, Tell me about outside.

Says she, What do you want to know?

About the seaside, says I.

I could feel her smile agin my skin.

There’s a place called Portrush, says she. We went there on our holidays. There’s two beaches.

Says I, Two beaches?

I couldn’t believe it.

Aye, says she, There’s the East Strand and the West Strand. And in between them, there’s the Arcadia Café. My mummy and daddy went to the tea dances in the upstairs there when we were on holiday. A band would play and a singer would sing, and all the people would dance.

I closed my eyes and I tried to imagine it, all of them, dancing.

Says she, If I was good, I was allowed a mineral. Like lemonade or cream soda. I liked orangeade the best. All fizzy on your tongue, and if the bottle was fresh, the bubbles would near burn you. We stayed in a guest house along the front, near the harbour, and in the mornings you’d get breakfast, oh, such a feed. Bacon and sausages and eggs, and potato bread, and soda farls, and fried mushrooms.

Mummy Noreen spake up from the other bed. Stop it, says she, you’re making me hungry.

But Mummy Joy didn’t stop, and I don’t think Mummy Noreen really wanted her to.

We’d go to the beach, says Mummy Joy, and I’d paddle in the water and jump into the waves. Sometimes it was so cold I could hardly stand it, but my mummy near had to drag me out. I’d go climbing over the rocks, find the wee pools, looking for crabs and all sorts.