I never lifted my head, just kept on at the scrubbing. But I listened, and I watched from the corner of my eye. Daddy George let himself in and locked the front door behind him. He came into the kitchen, and Mummy Joy turned away from the window. He put a big paper bag full of food on the counter next to the sink.

Says he, Where is everyone?

Tam’s out in the fields, says she, and I think Ivan’s in the yard.

Says he, What about Noreen?

Never worry about her, says Mummy Joy. Well, what happened? What did they say?

And here, Daddy George started to giggle and titter, and so did Mummy Joy.

Says she, Did they take the offer? Is it done?

Aye, says he, they took it. The place in Waringstown is mine just as soon as I hand over the money. You know what that means?

Aye, says Mummy Joy, I do.

He telt her anyway. Says he, It means we’ll have a place of our own. It means we can be a real family.

I could feel his happiness from all the way across the kitchen. It glowed out of him like light from a lamp. It touched everything. It made me dizzy in the head. Even though I knew it was all a lie, even though I knew it would never ever happen, it felt like a real and good thing, just for a wee moment.

He took her in his arms, and she looked awful small in them, like he could crush her, just ball her up like a piece of paper. And she hugged him back, even if she couldn’t reach all the way around him. I wanted to giggle too, and I had to put my hand over my mouth to keep it in.

And then I saw when he tried to kiss her, she pulled away, turned her face and only gave him her cheek. I knew then it was false. I knew it all along, but I knew then most of all and I felt sad for him, even though he didn’t deserve it. I felt sad for myself too. I knew I’d never have a father, not a real one, nor a real mother nor a family. I mind the notion came into my head, what a thing it must be, to have that. A family and a home where no one’s afeart of anything.

Then I heard Daddy Ivan’s boots tramping up to the back door, and says I, He’s coming, and Daddy George and Mummy Joy near leapt apart from each other before he walked in the kitchen.

He stopped there in the doorway to the back hall, looking from one to the other of us, those wee eyes of his hunting for secrets.

And he found them in the end, like I knew he would.

There was never any secrets from him.