‘They knocked it down, Arthur’s Quay,’ he said, with a sweep of his arm, ‘and you wouldn’t mind, the houses were haunted!’ He turned round, ‘Isn’t that right, Nana?’

She looked up. ‘What?’

‘You’d to leave that house?’

She looked round at everyone, and shook her head.

‘Back home!’ He was raising his voice like she couldn’t hear him. ‘You’d to lock up the door and go!’

‘Is he deaf?’ she said, and turned to Sean. ‘Your father, tell him put in the hearing-aid.’

He looked round at Uncle Eamon and pointed to Nana’s drink, ‘She says put in the lemonade, Dad.’

‘And a whisky while you’re at it,’ Tess said, holding up an empty glass.

‘I’ll lemonade you!’ he said, getting off his elbow where he was leaning on the window ledge and bringing the bottle over to Tess. It made a loud pop! as he pulled out the top and it started glugging into the glass. ‘Haunted!’ he said in a deep, breathy voice like he was trying to blow out the fire.

‘Stop!’ Tess pushed the glass up to clink on the bottle and stop it spilling on Carmel.

‘And wasn’t it the fright, Nana,’ he said, ‘turned your hair white!’

I looked at Nana, her hair wasn’t white. She had it back in a bun and it made her glasses look big reflecting the fire as she kept still and looked at him. ‘I’ll be dyeing again tomorrow,’ she said.

‘Give us a song, Nana,’ said Tess, pushing Uncle Eamon away by the leg.

Nana shook her head and smoothed her dress down over her knees. She had on a white woolly cardigan, I couldn’t remember her in light-coloured clothes before. I had my white Sunday shirt on, we all did, everyone was in white, except Sean who was in yellow and my dad who was wearing his white flowery Nigerian clothes spotted with round holes edged in red stitches with a silver-blue cloth hat folded over. Busola and Carmel were in the same white, flouncy dress with a round collar and short puffy arms, except Carmel had white shoes on. That’s why they were looking at each other. I suddenly felt something was going on. I looked at my mum in her white blouse and black skirt, Tess barefoot in a cream miniskirt. All the lights were off in the house, and I could see everyone beginning to be bright by the fire as the light was going.