‘Isn’t he feeding you?’

I shook my head and looked into her face, ‘I want you.’

‘Sh,’ she said, rocking me in her arms. Manus and Connor were on the sofa looking at us like we were in a film. Busola was holding Mr Adebisi where he’d stood up to help my mum. My dad was sitting tight because it was all going on.

My mum put me down. ‘I have to catch my bus,’ she said.

Mr Adebisi put his hand in his pocket and threw his car keys on my dad’s lap, ‘You are driving her.’

Looking for Monkeys Up in the Zoo (Je t’aime ... moi non plus)

The next day there were lots of cars and my mum came back. Everyone came, Nana and my aunts, some of the cousins and Tess’s husband, Uncle Eamon, carrying the bags up to the bedroom. My mum was back in her normal clothes and looked fresh like she’d been having a good time. My dad was helping them bring things in from the cars. They had bottles of Guinness, egg-flip for Nana and lemonade that all went up into the front room, and Annie had some records to put on the radiogram. Tess got me first, ‘While the cat’s away, eh? What you been up to?’ I was standing in the passageway out to the backyard, watching people go up and down the stairs to the front door. I got out her way as she went to the loo. ‘I’ve got an eye in the back of my head for you,’ she said, yanking open the back door in a hurry and leaving it ajar. I went over and bolted it shut and ran upstairs.

A strange man was upside down in the front room, standing on his head with his feet up against the wall. My mum was smiling at him from the sofa, looking shy with her hands on her lap and her feet crossed. I didn’t like him, he was in the way, so I went to push him over but he was too heavy. He just looked up at me with the blood rushing to his red face and his jacket hanging down. My dad pulled me away and held me as the man pushed himself off the wall and stood up facing us. ‘I had to do that,’ he said.

‘Then please, you are welcome,’ my dad said. ‘Sit down. I won’t be long,’ and my mum echoed him, making a space beside her and saying, ‘Ejoko ...’ My dad rushed out the house taking Manus and Connor with him.