And that would have been good, because they liked each other, and he gave my mum lots of support and she said interesting things to him I never heard her say otherwise, but Busola pointed at me and said, ‘He’s the one who’s missing.’ They all looked, ‘He spent his collection money going to the pictures.’

I thought the ground was going to swallow me up, but it didn’t. I was still there, my face burning in front of them.

‘You?’ my mum said.

I looked at her and didn’t say anything.

‘I’m the only one who goes,’ Busola said.

My mum put her head in her hands. She looked at Canon Byrne and said, ‘What am I to do?’

‘Was it a good film?’ he asked.

‘It was Moses,’ I said.

He laughed. Still holding her head in one hand, she shook her fist at me, ‘Ye’ll go to the devil, all of you! And you’ll never see the face of God!’

It was my turn in the backyard, digging up earth in the cracks and watching the cock in its white feathers poking about in the corners. It moved in behind the bins and came back in jerky slow motion, trying not to notice me. Canon Byrne was upstairs, laughing with my mum and dad who’d brought up bottles of Guinness.