I'm a fusser

"I know I'm a fusser. I just came down to be sure you were all right."

"Of course we're all right."

"And you'll take no chances? This is a dangerous lake."

"Daddy, please!!"

He went off, and they saw Anna grumbling and following him.

"He's very nice, your father." said Clio, fitting the oars properly into the oar locks.

"Yes, when you think of the fathers we might have got." Kit agreed.

"Mr Sullivan up in the home." Clio gave an example.

"Tommy Bennet, the bad-tempered postman."

"Or Paddles Burns, the barman with the big feet.."

They laughed at their lucky escapes.

"People often wonder why your father married your mother though." Clio said.

Kit felt a bile of defence rise in her throat. "No, they don't wonder that. You might wonder it. People don't wonder it at all."

"Keep your hair on I'm only saying what I heard."

"Who said what? Where did you hear it?" Kit's face was hot and angry.

She could have pushed her friend Clio into the dark lake and held her head down when she surfaced. Kit was alost alarmed at the strength of her feeling.

"Oh, people say things.. " Clio was lofty."

"Like what?"

"Like your mother was a different sort of person, not a local person.. you know."

"No, I don't know. Your mother isn't from here either, she's from Limerick."

"But she used to come here om holidays. That made her sort of from here."

"My mother came here when she met Dad, and that makes her from here too." There were tears in Kit's eyes.

"I'm sorry." Clio said.

She really did sound repentant.