He nodded at Mummy Noreen to make the plate up, and she took the biggest one she could find from the sideboard and she piled the food up so high I was afeart she would spill it all over the floor. We took it downstairs, and I still remember the smell of it, steaming hot. I can’t mind a single other time I had hot food down there. The three of us dug in with our fingers and all the fighting and thran was forgotten about while we ate. I’d never tasted food cooked in honey before that, and I can still now mind the sweetness of it on my tongue.

The Mummies let me clean the plate, running my fingers round it, getting the last wee scraps. Then I lifted it to my mouth and I licked it till it was shining. I was so busy with that I didn’t hear the noise from upstairs. The first thing I noticed was the Mummies had gone terrible still and quiet. When I lifted my mouth from the plate, I heard the voices up there, thundering.

It was Daddy George, mostly. Shouting at the other two. Daddy Ivan’s voice was calm. Daddy Tam was laughing, the hoots of him over everything else. I couldn’t make out all the words, but I heard Daddy George telling them he wasn’t the eejit they thought he was, they always treated him like he was stupid, but he wasn’t, he knew things too. They never let him have anything for himself, he was shouting, why would they never let him do what he wanted to do?

And Daddy Tam laughing harder and harder, and that must’ve hurt Daddy George more than anything, for that’s when there came the big crash, a bang first that shook the dust from the ceiling, then cups and plates smashing, cutlery clattering above us.

Mummy Noreen put her hands over her ears and put her head down to her knees. Mummy Joy stared straight ahead of her, and I could see she was trembling. I reached over and took her hand and she squeezed mine so hard I was afeart she would crush my bones to pieces.

There came a terrible thumping and rumbling from up above and I knew Daddy George and Daddy Tam were bating each other up there and any moment Daddy Ivan would have the belt off him and swinging. Right enough, I heard the snap of it, and them men squealing.

Then it got awful quiet and all I could hear was my own heart jumping and kicking like it wanted loose from my chest. Mummy Joy squeezed my hand harder still and I would’ve cried for her to stop if I’d had any voice left in me at all.