I don’t mind what age I was then, I suppose ten or eleven or so, but that was the first time the thought entered my head that the Mummies weren’t much more than wee girls themselves. I’d no notion of it then, but when I think of them now, I suppose they were only in their twenties.

Mummy Noreen, she started to cry awful hard, like I never seen her cry before. Wrapping her arms around her middle, hugging herself. Then Mummy Joy starts crying too.

We’ll never get out of here, Mummy Joy says.

Yes, we will, Mummy Noreen says, yes, we bloody will.

I should be married now, Mummy Joy says, I should have a family of my own. I wanted to be a schoolteacher. My big sister, she had a job in a bank. She used to go to the dances. I used to watch her get ready, doing her hair and putting on her make-up. I used to pretend it was me getting ready to go to the town hall, going to meet my friends, and the boys would be asking me to dance with them. I should’ve done that. I never got to go to a dance. That’s not fair, is it?

No, it’s not, Mummy Noreen says.

She crossed over to Mummy Joy’s bed and put her arm around her, helt her tight.

It’s not bloody fair, says she, and them bastards up there thieved that from us. But we’ll get it back, I swear to God we will.

What’s all this?

I mind I near jumped out of my skin at the sound of his voice. The Mummies let each other go and Mummy Noreen went back to her own bed.

Daddy Tam came down the stairs, them creaking under his weight. Says he, What’s going on here?

Everybody kept whisht, so he roars, Answer me when I ask you a question!

Mummy Noreen spake up. Says she, Joy was upset and I was comforting her, that’s all.

What’s she gurning about? says he.

And, here, doesn’t Mummy Noreen look him in the eye and says, What do you bloody think?

I didn’t see it happen. As soon as she said that, I looked down at the floor, and so did Mummy Joy. I heard his boots on the stairs and across the floor, and I could feel the weight of him through the mattress I was sitting on, and I could feel the anger of him, I could hear it. And Mummy Noreen says, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it, I’m sorry.

I heard his hand agin her head. I felt it.