Noreen turned to go, heading for the back hall, but Joy grabbed her wrist.

“Don’t,” Joy said.

Noreen tried to jerk her wrist away. “Let go.”

“You’ll say nothing to anyone.”

“Or what?”

Joy shoved Noreen into the wall with one hand and reached into the sink with the other. Her fingers found the wooden handle of the knife, and she pulled it from the water. She threw her weight at Noreen, pinned her against the wall with her forearm, brought the blade to her throat, light reflecting on the underside of Noreen’s chin.

“You say anything and I’ll kill you myself,” Joy said. “I’ll cut your throat if you try and stop me.”

Small hands reached up and gripped Joy’s arm. She looked down, saw Mary looking back at her.

“Look,” Mary said, “she’s bleeding.”

Joy turned her gaze back to Noreen and the blade beneath her chin. She saw the thin trickle of red on the metal, blood melding with dishwater before it dripped onto her fingers. And the fear in Noreen’s eyes.

“Just keep your mouth shut,” Joy said.

She took the blade away and allowed Noreen to spill to the floor.

39: Mary

39: Mary

After a while, Mummy Noreen gathered herself up and disappeared away off somewhere with a tea towel pressed agin her throat. Mummy Joy stood at the sink, staring out the window, saying nothing. The house came over terrible quiet then, and after it was all over, after they were all dead, I took the notion it had been taking a breath, holding it, ready for what was to come.

But right then, in that moment, I no more knew what was coming than I knew the number of hairs on my head. I still had the notion things were going to be all right. Wee fool that I was.

I mind I looked down and I saw drops of blood on the floor, in the corner, where Mummy Joy had Mummy Noreen up agin the wall. Says I to myself, I better get that cleaned up afore Daddy Tam or Daddy Ivan sees it. If they sees it, they’ll bate the hides off all of us. There was still hot water in the pot on the stove, so I poured some into a bucket, fetched the hand brush, and got down on my hands and knees and scrubbed.

Here, didn’t I scrub the whole kitchen floor, as clean as it had ever been? I’ve no notion how long it took, but Mummy Joy never moved from the window in all that time. I was glad Daddy Ivan nor Daddy Tam never came back, because she would’ve got a hiding just for standing there, her two arms the same length.

Then, all of a sudden, she spake up.

He’s back, says she.