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and start talking.’
    Rabbit exhaled loudly behind the old curtain. ‘Two boys are always calling me names. Today they took me glasses and said if I don’t bring them money tomorrow after school they’re going to break them.’
    Johnny was annoyed by Rabbit’s revelation. ‘What did they call you?’ he asked, maintaining an even tone.
    ‘Don’t want to say.’
    ‘Have they hurt you?’
    ‘They pushed me into a wall, but I’m OK.’
    ‘How long has this been going on?’
    ‘A while.’
    ‘Who are they?’
    ‘Better not to say.’
    Johnny unclenched his fist, then pulled back the curtain to reveal his young friend in her school uniform, two scraped knees raised to her chin as she held her spectacles to her tear-stained face. ‘I need you to tell me,’ he said.
    ‘Why?’
    ‘Because me and the boys are going to sort it.’
    ‘I can’t.’
    ‘Rabbit, we’re either going to frighten the shite out of two boys in your school or every last one of them, so spit it out.’
    For a moment she looked as if she was going to cry again but then she didn’t. Instead she smiled a big, wide smile. ‘Frighten the shite out of them?’ she said. He nodded. ‘Can I watch?’ she asked. He nodded again. ‘Nice one,’ she said.
    He helped her up, and as they walked along the little corridor that led to the kitchen, he pressed her to his hip. ‘You’re my family, Rabbit. Don’t forget that.’
    The next day Rabbit stood with Johnny at the meeting spot by the clump of big trees two minutes from the school. Francie and Jay waited too. They practised hitting golf balls. Francie used a putter, while Jay messed around with a wood. The two twelve-year-old boys arrived. Chris was the big one, but not as big as either of the two sixteen-year-olds with the golf clubs, and Eugene was the short stubby one with large fists. They noticed the two lads before they saw Rabbit leaning against the wall with Johnny. He had his arms crossed, and when they met his eye, he raised an eyebrow, winked and looked towards the lads, giving them the nod. They responded with a sniff. Then, before the two boys knew it, they were being approached by two lunatics swinging golf clubs.
    Francie kicked the legs from under Chris and knocked him to the ground. Then he sat on him and held the golf club to his throat. Jay backed Eugene into a tree, shoved a golf ball into his mouth and practised swinging while the kid held his hands up and started crying.
    Rabbit watched, terrified and thrilled. ‘They’re not really going to hurt them?’ she said urgently.
    ‘Nah,’ Johnny said. ‘They’ll be happy when at least one pisses himself.’
    They didn’t have to wait long. Eugene was the first to go and, as urine darkened the leg of his red tracksuit bottoms, Johnny took a Polaroid camera out of his bag. ‘Say cheese.’ He took a photo of the boy, with a golf ball in his mouth, who’d just messed himself. The kid on the ground was crying so hard he had mud tracks on his face. Johnny snapped him too. The lads held the two boys where they were while Johnny waited for the Polaroid photos to process. When they were ready, he peeled them. ‘The miracle of the modern age, boys.’ He showed them the photographic evidence of their humiliation. Francie and Jay allowed them to stand up. Johnny called Rabbit over from the wall and she walked to him cautiously, still scared and exhilarated, her heart beating in her ears. Johnny handed her the photographs and she shoved them into her schoolbag.
    He turned to the boys, his friends holding them by the backs of their collars. ‘See her?’ He pointed to Rabbit, and both boys nodded vigorously. ‘From now on, your job is to protect her. Anyone lays a finger on her, or says anything that upsets her, you need to sort them out or the penalty is you both lose your little dicks, understand?’
    ‘Yous can’t do that,’ Chris said, in a voice full of tears. Eugene, with the ball still stuck in his mouth, nodded again,