Nana looked at me, ‘You not eating?’

I shook my head.

‘And when he’s only bones,’ he said, ‘I’ll finish the job!’

I didn’t mind him eating my fish and chips, or tapping his foot loudly out of step to the music when he couldn’t keep up with it going double-quick. He was fierce but he was keeping Tess and Annie quiet and making Nana laugh as he grinned over a bad chip and chucked it on her plate, ‘That’s for you!’

‘Go on,’ Nana said, knocking the side of my ribs with her elbow, ‘see if they’re finished in there.’

My mum and dad were dancing to the music, going down really low and lifting each other up again. Manus and Connor and Barry were on the sofa with their plates empty on their laps and their mouths open watching Gerry doing a mad dance of his own in front of the window. Maggie was looking at the album cover by the radiogram where she’d taken over, ‘Funny music, in’t it?’ But no one listened to what she was saying. Carmel came in behind me and looked round the room. ‘Can you wiggle your bum like that?’ she said. I looked at her, because the last time I saw her she didn’t say two words to me. ‘No,’ I said, ‘you have to be a girl.’ I looked over her shoulder for Busola, but my eyes dropped when I heard her down in the hall with Eileen and remembered she was calling herself Kat. ‘Your mum’s nice.’ I looked at Carmel again, and felt jealous she’d had my mum off me. But it wasn’t her fault and she’d brought her back. ‘So’s your dad,’ I said. She looked at me. Her face was soft and white like bread and anything you’d say could hurt and leave a mark because she took it all in and her eyes were half closed trying to stop it. She looked at me from a long way away, seeing who I was, and then suddenly switched off and turned away and I could feel it was me who wasn’t being nice to her. I felt a pang about pushing her away. ‘Do you want to dance?’ I said. She turned and looked back at me as I bobbed up and down. ‘No,’ she said, ‘dance with Uncle Gerry,’ and went down the half-stairs to the kitchen.