‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ said Dora.

‘Your folks’d like to hear about what you been up to, I bet,’ he said.

Dora pushed past him and went up the path and indoors, not waiting for him to say another word. He was just a jealous kid, that was all. Not worth her attention.

The week passed slowly down at the grocery store. She was kept busy cleaning out the stockroom, weighing out goods into brown paper bags for customers. Finally Saturday came round again, and she was free. She went to the memorial, and there he was, waiting. This time he kissed her more deeply, making her head spin. In broad daylight!

‘Don’t,’ she said, glancing nervously around.

‘Why not?’ He was smiling.

‘It’s . . . I dunno. My parents wouldn’t like me going out with you.’

‘They ain’t going to know about it.’

‘William Maguire spoke to me last week. Said he’d seen us together in town.’

‘What, that kid who was at your sister’s do? The dumpy one with the freckles who thought he’d have a go?’

‘That’s him.’ Dora tossed her head. ‘He’s jealous, that’s all. He’s been hanging around me ever since school.’

‘Cheeky little fucker.’ Dickie’s face was livid.

‘Ah, ignore it. He’s off his head,’ said Dora.

They went to the pics again, and came out and had tea and scones in a Lyons corner house, then he walked her home.

So life went on. Work was like school. You got through it, day to day. It was boring, but you did it and you got your pay packet on Friday, and then came the reward. The weekend. Saturday, and the pictures with Dickie.

One Saturday, June passed Dora on the stairs as she was off out the door – to meet her girlfriends in town, she’d told them all, but really to meet Dickie.

‘Here, our Dor. You heard about that Maguire boy?’ said June, hanging on to the newel post and eyeing up what Dora was wearing. ‘All dolled up, aintcha, just to see the girls?’

‘I like to make an effort,’ said Dora.

Dora didn’t like June. She was a right sourpuss. And she hated Lil, who looked down her nose at her youngest sister now that she herself was a proper married lady. It would have been nice if Lil’s marriage to that twat Alec had meant she was moving out, but no; instead Mum had cleared out the front room – which had always been kept for best – and the newlyweds were living in there, until they scraped enough cash together to get a gaff of their own. The place had been crowded before, but with one extra person in it, the crush was damned near unbearable.

Watching from the sidelines, Dora thought that marriage looked like hell on earth. From a passable bridegroom, Alec had quickly turned into a wreck who’d scream and hurl himself behind the furniture if anyone so much as opened a bottle of pop. At first Lil seemed to tolerate it gladly, blinded by love; then, as time passed and Alec wept and wet the bed in the night, less so. Strong and capable though Lil was, Dora could see that the weight of propping up her husband was telling on her, and what little prettiness she’d once had was beginning to fade.