My Sweet Orange Tree

if I wasn’t in the mood, I’d say, ‘You’re out of your mind, Luís. Just look at the storm coming!’

Uncle Edmundo was separated from his wife and had five children. But he lived all on his own and walked so slowly … Maybe he walked slowly because he missed his children? And his children never came to visit him

Father’s out of a job, isn’t he? It’s been six months since he had the fight with Mr Scottfield and they kicked him out. Did you know Lalá’s working at the factory now? And Mother’s going to work in the city, at the English Mill? Well there you go, silly.

Until not long before that, no one had ever hit me. But then they heard things and started saying I was the devil, a demon, a sandy-haired sprite.

and the old black one was so tame that we could even scratch her head.

No baulking, ’cause you’re a big kid now.’

peg them all out

she’d wring out the clothes

With an apron around her waist, she’d spend hours and hours plunging her hands into the water, turning soap into lots of suds.