She drove towards Wexford. She knew that her mother's offices were on the quays overlooking the old harbour, and she wondered if she would get parking near there. She thought she should phone Hugh – he would surely wait at home this morning until she rang – and then she would face her mother.

Two years after her father died, her mother went back to teaching, getting a job, with the help of Fianna Fail, in the local vocational school. Soon \a151 Helen was not sure when \a151 she began to give commercial courses in the school in the evening, until the designing of these courses to suit the needs of the students and the finding of jobs for those who took part became an obsession with her.

Then, with the arrival of computers, her mother began to talk to business groups and others about the need to computerise. She was the first in the county to include computer skills in her commercial course. And this led, eventually, to the setting up of her own computer business, -where she taught basic skills and later began to sell machines to businesses and individuals. The previous summer, her grandmother had shown Helen a full-page advertisement in the Wexford People for Wexford Computers, with quotes from clients in Waterford and Kilkenny who said that they came all the way to Wexford because the courses made using computers easy and the sales force made installation and maintenance problem-free. There was a large photograph of Helen's mother at the top of the page.

'Will you look at Lily!' her grandmother said.

When she had parked the car, Helen phoned Hugh and told him where she was and what she was about to do. She realised as she spoke to him that she had put no thought into what she would say to her mother, and that she would make any excuse \a151 phone the school, move the car, have tea in White's – to postpone her visit to Wexford Computers Limited.

The boys had been up since early light, Hugh said, and had gone down to the strand with their cousins, wearing their raincoats. Everything was fine, he said, and he would come down whenever she wanted him. She told him that she would call him later in the day.

'Things are never as bad as you think they're going to be,' he said.

She was surprised when she saw the lift in the hallway of the Wexford Computers building, and surprised, too, by the lighting and tiling and paintwork, which were all modern and cool, as though from a magazine, and not like anything she expected to find on the quayfront in Wexford. A sign in the lobby told her that the showrooms were on the first floor and the reception on the second floor. She pressed the button for the second floor.

She was checking herself in the mirror, expecting to arrive into a hallway or lobby. She wondered if she would be able to find a bathroom up there and put on make-up before she saw her mother. But when the lift doors opened, she stepped into a vast room with windows looking on to both the harbour in front and the street behind, and skylights in the high-beamed ceiling, the attic having been removed. There were twenty or more people seated on chairs in the room; some of them turned to look at her, but most of them continued to face her mother, who was standing.

Her mother was in mid-sentence when she appeared. Helen found herself helpless, exposed; she could not retreat or try to find a bathroom. She moved forward until she found a chair. She noticed how beautiful and bright the room was, and how expensive-looking. Her mother kept talking, and acknowledged Helen's presence merely by moving her spectacles from her hair to her nose and peering short-sightedly in Helen's direction. A few others looked behind as her mother continued to lecture, slowly, almost absent-mindedly putting her glasses back where they had been.

'Now you must all remember', she was saying, 'that we are here for you. If your company installs a new system, or if you find that you need to expand your skills, then simply call us, just as you would call a plumber if you had a leak in the house, and we'll sort you out as quickly as possible, even if it means coming here in the evening or at the weekend. Just call us and we'll be here for you.'

Her mother stopped for a moment and put her glasses on again, peering once more at Helen as though to make sure that she had not been mistaken the first time.

'Now,' she went on, 'we began only as a provider of courses in computers and word processors, but, as we worked, we found that almost everyone coming here had a horror story about buying or installing a system, or about maintenance. So it is by default that we have the best range and the best sales and technical force in the southeast. And I can tell you that it wasn't hard to be the best. You can laugh all you like, but you'll find that our prices are lower, and we have a twenty-four-hour service. Our showrooms are on the floor below, but you're not here to buy computers, you're here to use them, and for each of you we have a special programme; we've studied your needs, and we're ready to start now. There's a machine here for each of you as well with your name on it, and if you could move your chairs to the computers, we'll start. The staff are the ones with name-tags on.'

Helen watched her mother moving towards the table beside a window which looked on to the harbour. Her mother spoke to one of the staff, then picked up a sheet of paper and looked at it. Helen resisted an urge to go back down to the street in the lift, drive to Dublin and inform Declan that he could send his friend from the European Commission to tell his mother. She waited as her mother moved about the room, checking names and details, clearly in command. Eventually, her mother moved towards her, but suddenly thought better of it and went back to the table beside the window. Once she had satisfied herself about something there, she crossed the room and approached Helen.

'I thought it was you when you came in, and I wondered had you come all the way down here to learn computers,' her mother said.

'No, thanks. Your offices are lovely.'

'It's all new,' her mother said.

'I need to talk to you. Is there a private office?'

'I don't have much time,' her mother said, but as soon as she had said it, she stopped and searched Helen's face. 'Has something happened?' she asked.

They went into a small private office opposite the lift. Her mother closed the door.

'What is it?' she asked.

Helen sighed. 'It's Declan.'

'Helen, tell me!'

'He's in hospital, in Dublin, and he wants to see you.'

'Has he had an accident? Has he hurt himself?'

'No, not that. He's sick, and he'd like to see you. He's been there for a while, but he didn't want to trouble us.'

'Trouble us? What is it you're talking about?'

'Mammy, Declan is really sick. Maybe it would be better if you talked to the doctors about it.'

'Helen, do you know what's wrong with him?'

'No, not exactly. But he wants to see you today. I have his car outside and I can drive you to the hospital. He's in St James's.'

Her mother went to a desk and flicked through her diary until she found the right week.

'What day's today?' she asked.

'Wednesday.'

'Right. You wait outside and I'll make two phone calls and then I'll be with you.'

'Why don't I see you in White's?'

'If you wait outside, I won't be a second.'

They drove to Dublin as the day brightened. Her mother did not speak until they were beyond Gorey.

'I hate this road,' she said. 'I hate every inch of it. I never thought I would have to travel on it again on my way to a hospital.'

'I stayed with Granny last night,' Helen said.