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one to talk to all day and this stuff comes pouring out as he picks our mugs off the tree, wipes them quick with the tea towel and pops the bags in the teapot. He doesnā€™t work. I can barely get a word in edgeways.

I sit at the kitchen table and pull the ashtray towards me, smiling, listening. I can hear the tellyā€™s on in the front room, playing to no one, burning up pounds. The tellyā€™s on all day long in our house. Itā€™s dear but itā€™s not just for the programmes. Itā€™s for the psychological glow.

Itā€™s childrenā€™s BBC, all thumping music and excitable presenters. Andrewā€™s turned the sound down before running to open the door to me, I can tell. He doesnā€™t like me to know he watches the kidsā€™ telly. I can see why, a twenty-four-year-old young man. Heā€™d feel daft, I reckon. But I canā€™t see why he shouldnā€™t watch it if thatā€™s what he wants.

Itā€™s all very sophisticated these days. As far as I can tell, itā€™s all sex. And kids today learn all they need to about life and the facts of life from Neighbours. They cover every issue and more. Everyone on Neighbours has been married to everyone else, one time or another. Thatā€™s why I get confused with it. Miss one episode and youā€™ve missed all-sorts. Youā€™ll have to struggle to catch up. Sometimes I think itā€™s very true to life.

When I used to watch kidsā€™ TV with the twins when they were small, it was all puppets and animals. They wouldnā€™t have that now. Now itā€™s virtual reality and what have you.

Coming in from work, then, I smoke and rest meselā€™ and let Andrew make me tea. I canā€™t smoke at work. Not even in the staff room because we have what Eric calls our delicatessen counter. He means the fridge unit with the cheese and that in.

Eric wants our place of work to be a healthy environment and that son of his is even more fanatical. Alex is a bit of an albino, he looks like someoneā€™s gone over him with a potato scrubber. Those pink eyelashes. If Iā€™ve had a fag on the way to work and Alex can smell it on me breath, heā€™s turning his nose up straight away like Iā€™ve farted or summat. Little bastard. I wouldnā€™t care, but heā€™s lathered in great big red spots. I wouldnā€™t buy cheese off him if you paid me to.

My bairns never had spots while they were teenagers. Havenā€™t got them now. Theyā€™ve the complexions of angelsā€”like their mother always had. Mind, Joanne spoils hers with all that make-up. She errs a little on the orange side, does Joanne, yet she wonā€™t be told.

ā€˜Mam, man,ā€™ sheā€™ll shout at us, and she gets dead riled at owt like this. ā€˜Mam, man, your day is over and gone! Fashions have changed and nothing you can offer me in the way of beauty tips is any use. If I painted meself like you say Iā€™d be laughed out of town! Face itā€”youā€™ve got an old womanā€™s face and Iā€™ve got a youngā€™un. I have to follow young womenā€™s fashions!ā€™

And thatā€™s how our rows about make-up end. But on my mornings off I watch This Morning. I know how todayā€™s young women get themselves up to go out on the town and that. Not to mention all the magazine articles Iā€™ve flicked through. You canā€™t tell Joanne, though. She doesnā€™t realise how much the seventies are back now. Why, I was in my thirties in the seventies. Pale lipsticks and blue eyeshadowā€”I couldnā€™t have been trendier then or now.

What our Joanne doesnā€™t see is that sheā€™s still in the eighties. What with her frizzy highlights, her tangerine face. And God, but that makes me feel old! My own daughter in a fashion time warp already at the age of twenty-four. Sheā€™s peaked her peak and all she can do is wait for the eighties to come back round. Probably when sheā€™s fifty.

Andrew is winding the pot up, poking a spoon in to mash the teabags. Heā€™s using all his concentration and the hot mist ruffles through that fringe of his. I reckon heā€™d get a job with a haircut but you canā€™t say owt. Not because heā€™d bite my head off like Joanne would, but because heā€™s too sensitive. Iā€™ve given up criticising Andrew. His face crumples up like a paper bag and he looks at you like youā€™ve just said the worst thing in the world. Like he canā€™t believe how cruel you are.

I think Iā€™ve over-mothered him. I worry heā€™s not had a proper manā€™s influence over him. But if he had it would only have been some silly sod making him wear a tracksuit to play football and stuff when he didnā€™t want to. Whoā€™s going to blame me when I say my heart goes out to sensitive boys? Whatā€™s wrong with it if Iā€™ve said itā€™s all right that he never went out much to play? That he drew pictures or preferred to read? Or that now he watches kidsā€™ TV instead of having a job?

ā€˜Itā€™s a grunge thing,ā€™ Joanne said when I said maybe Andrew could get a job with a haircut. She was on her way out one nightā€”dressed like something out of Bananarama, but I kept me trap shut. ā€˜And thatā€™s why he cuts holes in his jeans.ā€™

ā€˜He cuts holes in his jeans? I thought they were natural.ā€™

ā€˜Mam, man,ā€™ she said, about to slam the kitchen door. ā€˜Sometimes youā€™re so naive.ā€™

Ay, I reckon I am naive. Because Joanneā€™s definitely up to something these days. Something thatā€™s not just going out with her mates of a night. Sheā€™s up to something with someone I donā€™t know and I havenā€™t a clue what it is. But I know there must be something wrong with it. Otherwise sheā€™d say.

All the powerā€™s with her now and sheā€™s making me wait to find out. Only Joanne can make this storm break.

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