I did and the change for the collection jingled in my pocket.

‘There it is.’ And he smirked at me, licking his lolly, and went off after Connor.

I didn’t know everyone else was doing Saturday morning pictures. It was a long walk once you got over the busy crossroads down Nine Elms to Battersea. It was hot and dusty. My legs started to ache, but then they got excited as we got nearer and crowds of children were pushing and shoving to get in the cinema – hundreds of them yelling and calling and whistling without their mums and dads there.

Manus and Connor put their shoulders in and I came up behind, pushing to stay together. We all gave Manus our money as he reached out to the kiosk. He kept the change and gave us melted ice poles from the popcorn counter that dribbled over my chin as I watched the first film. Charlie Chaplin was pushing and shoving people in through a door and they wouldn’t fit – everybody laughed. Then he gave the crowd a kick up the bum, and the house fell down with everyone laughing. But the main film was about a man chucking the big stones of the Ten Commandments down at our feet.

‘Who’s that?’

‘Charlton Heston,’ Manus said, his eyes reflecting the screen.

‘Moses,’ Connor said, chewing on bubblegum.

‘God,’ said the boy next to me, his face squeezed up tight over his knees from his feet up on the seat.

I looked up at the white beard and bushy hair. He looked angry like God, coming down off the mountain to see the Golden Calf. There was a burning bush where he had to take his shoes off. He opened the Red Sea and drowned the Egyptians. There was thunder and smoke. Screams for Pharaoh’s son. He was a murderer. His big stick shook with lightning and turned into snakes. ‘I am who I am!’ He wasn’t telling you his name but you had to believe him.

‘Hold on,’ said Manus. He looked up at the flats in case anyone was looking, pulled his pants down and sat over a low wall. There was a gargle then a stream of poo came out his bum.

Connor made a face and walked off, ‘I’m not with you.’

‘I had to. Get me that chip paper,’ Manus said. There was a twist of newspaper with the smell of vinegar still on it under the wall. I handed it to him and he wiped his bum.

‘Run!’ he said.

An old lady was looking at us off the balcony. We ran past Connor and kept on going. My hands felt dirty.

‘Why d’you do that?’ I said.

‘Because I couldn’t hold it in.’