CUTE

‘Hello,’ I said to the child came over to me as I opened my front door.
She said something.
‘What’s that?’ I said, interested.
‘She’s calling her little brother cute,’ said her mother who had a can of Tenants and was kneeling in front of a pushchair had in it a baby crying.
She was living across the way, though I’d not seen her for a while, not since the Filth was asking about them. There were dark patches under her eyes and I wondered if her drinking was why she spoke to me seeing she’d not done so before apart from in the lift, and that wasn’t friendly like now.
‘Oh,’ I said to mother then turned and looked down at the daughter, ‘You like him, then,’ I said, ‘your brother?’
‘Cute,’ she said.