‘Manus helped you wipe it up,’ I said. ‘You wouldn’t piss in front of the nuns.’

Busola looked at me across the empty squares. ‘God is watching you,’ she said.

I looked up, there was no one watching from the windows, they were shut. Even if someone was standing behind the net curtains they couldn’t hear us.

‘Mummy’s wrong,’ I said. ‘The nuns don’t love us.’

She stood holding the chalk, with one hand on her waist like she didn’t care what I said. I looked up again to make sure no one was there.

‘They don’t have to love you,’ she said. ‘Jesus does. Sister Anne says.’

‘What if she doesn’t even like you?’

Busola shrugged, ‘She wants me to be a nun.’

‘Because you’ll give in?’

She pointed her chalk finger at me, ‘She wants to stop me being like you.’

I didn’t like the sound of that. I couldn’t remember which one Sister Anne was, but I didn’t want any of them to know who I was. I didn’t know what Busola had told them.

‘Being like me what?’ I said.

‘You don’t believe in God, and you’re scared.’

The game was over. But I wasn’t ready to let it end, I didn’t want her to win. She didn’t believe God was watching her being cruel to me. She wasn’t doing it for my mum. She was doing it because she was horrible, and the nuns understood about being wicked. And my mum was making her do it.

‘Mummy doesn’t trust you,’ I said.

‘You shut up,’ she said. ‘Who asked you?’

‘You can’t shut me up.’

‘I can.’

‘How?’ And I put my jaw up and had my hard face on, I was going to hit her in a minute.

‘You’re the devil,’ she said.

‘Who’s the devil?’

My dad looked at me over the edge of the book and pushed up his glasses, ‘The angel who refused to bow down to Adam.’

‘Who’s Adam?’

‘Adam and Eve,’ he said. ‘What do you want to know?’

‘Is he bad?’

My dad shrugged and shifted in his seat. Busola was in the bottom bunk next to me in her pyjamas while Nana got ready for bed upstairs. I could feel Busola getting ready in case I tried to get her in trouble. ‘That can depend,’ he said.

‘On what?’ Busola said.