It also went without saying that, when Carmel had her own baby, many years later, she did not give it to any man. That would be like holding it out at arm’s length and dropping it right there, on to the concrete. When Carmel had her baby, it came out of her silently, and it looked at her silently, and when they took it over to the other side of the room, she said, ‘Bring it back.’ She may have said this quite loudly. Because this baby was hers, and hers alone.
