It was almost dark and the beam from Tuskar had begun to wash across the front of the house when Declan's stomach cramps started. Helen noticed the spasms coming lightly at first, with Declan gasping and holding his breath, and then as time went on she witnessed Declan's panic each time the spasm approached.

All of them tried to talk to him. Lily knelt down in front of him and held his hands, but he would not look directly at her or speak to her. Paul sat quietly at the kitchen table, watching him. Mrs Devereux did the dishes and swept the floor and went out again in search of the cats. Helen stood at the window.

'Could you turn off the light?' Declan asked.

There was still a faint glow in the sky so that after a while when they got used to the semi-darkness, they were able to make out shapes in the kitchen. At regular intervals now Declan began to groan. He asked for the basin under the sink to be put near him, and soon, with each spasm, he vomited and retched into it. When he had vomited the first time he put his head back and cried out. When Helen came near him, he motioned her away. He was breathing heavily all the time, waiting for the next heave to begin, holding his stomach and then moaning when it came, and putting his head back when it was over.

Helen signalled to Paul to come outside; Lily and Mrs Devereux were already in the dining-room. They left the kitchen door ajar, aware that Declan had observed them crossing the kitchen.

'If everyone stays outside here,' Paul said, 'I'll talk to him. It's probably too late to ring Louise, and we could ring the local doctor again, but he really wouldn't know what to do. I think I know what it is; it's one of the common opportunistic infections, and it can be treated. So if it lasts much longer, and doesn't look like going away, then Declan will have to go to Dublin, whether by car or by ambulance.'

Helen felt that Paul was enjoying his authority and the sound of his own voice. Her mother and grandmother listened to him respectfully, grateful that he knew what to do. He moved quietly back towards the kitchen and closed the door. The women waited in the dining-room.

'I don't know what the two of you are doing,' Mrs Devereux said, 'but I am saying a prayer.'

'Do you know if it is the first time he has suffered like this?' Lily asked.

'I don't think it is,' Helen said.

'Say a prayer now that his suffering will be eased,' Mrs Devereux said. She knelt down and bowed her head, but Helen and her mother remained seated.

They waited for something to happen in the kitchen, hearing at intervals the sound of retching and spluttering and hearing, too, low cries of pain. Helen could not imagine what Paul was saying to Declan. In all the years she had known her brother, she had never seen him rude or sulky or difficult. As she sat there and waited, she regretted her feeling when Paul spoke earlier that he was pompous and self-regarding. She realised that if Paul were not there they would be helpless, unable to deal with Declan or know how to manage.

After half an hour Paul came out of the kitchen with Declan leaning on him. 'He needs to go to the bathroom,' Paul said, 'and he wants to go to bed.'

Paul helped Declan up the stairs. Lily and Helen went into Declan's bedroom and smoothed his bed, putting his pillows in place, switching his light off but leaving the light on in the dining-room. They sat in the dining-room waiting for Declan to finish in the bathroom. When Paul called down for fresh pyjamas, they went into Declan's room again and rummaged in his bag. Helen brought the pyjamas upstairs and handed them to Paul through a chink in the bathroom door. She could hear the shower going.

'We won't be long,' Paul whispered to her and closed the door again.

When Declan came down the stairs he was still leaning on Paul, gasping at each step he took as though moving caused him pain.

'You're all right now, Declan, you're all right now,' his grandmother said as Paul brought him into the bedroom.

'He's too hot,' Paul said. 'And he just needs a sheet. And he needs water, maybe with ice in it if you have ice, and he needs the basin and a towel.'

As Declan lay down on the bed, the light from Tuskar spilled across the wall of the room.

'Do you want us to draw the curtains, Declan?' Helen asked.

'No,' he whispered, 'but don't go away, stay around, "will you?'

'Of course,' she said. 'I'm just going to get you some water. Are you all right?'

'No,' he said and looked at her evenly. 'I wish it was over.'

'You'll be all right,' she said, and immediately felt sorry she had said anything. She gripped his hand, still wondering how she could have said such a stupid thing. He was watching her, and she tried to smile, but she could not think what to do. She waited with him, and held his hand until her mother came into the room.

In the hour after midnight, Declan's stomach cramps began again. He had been sweating heavily; Helen and her mother were sitting by his bed, her mother holding a towel to wipe his brow. He had been still for a while, with his eyes open, and light coming from a covered lamp in the corner. Suddenly, he started to heave; he sat up and held his stomach, pressing hard as though to prevent the cramp coming, and then moaning under his breath in small fits and starts until it died down.

Helen called Paul, who was in the kitchen, and moved so that Paul could take her place beside the bed. Declan had his eyes closed now. Paul told Helen to get an ice pack or a packet of frozen peas to cool him down. She found her grandmother in the kitchen, sitting alone at the table, studying the veins in the back of her hands.

'I think we're in for a night of it,' her grandmother said.

'He's very sick,' Helen said.

'I'm praying for him. Do you think we could tell him that?'

'I'll tell him,' Helen said.

Helen, Lily and Paul sat in the room with Declan and waited with him each time for the pain to come, and tried to comfort him as he held his stomach and let out deep cries. But after an hour or two the cramps subsided, and Declan lay back in the bed with his eyes closed. He was sweating profusely, but shivering at the same time, and they could not tell whether he was too hot or too cold.

When he quietened, Helen convinced her grandmother to go to bed. And after a while, she decided to go herself. Paul and her mother said they would wait until Declan fell asleep. Paul whispered to her in the kitchen that he did not think the cramps had ended, merely stopped for a while. He was almost sure, he said, that they would return during the night, or the following day. He said he had told Declan earlier that he should return to Dublin. Declan had said that he didn't want to go.

As soon as she fell asleep, Helen heard him crying out. She got up and dressed. It was almost three o'clock in the morning. Her mother and Paul were sitting by the bed in the darkened room. The pain this time did not seem to come in waves as it had done before. Declan now held his stomach all the time. When he opened his eyes, it was clear that he was frightened. He tried to talk, and murmured something, but they could not make out what he was saying. They asked him if he wanted water, but he shook his head. Helen realised that there was nothing they could do, except stay with him; whatever was happening in his stomach was getting worse. Several times over the next half-hour they brought him to the toilet. Paul went in with him, while Lily and Helen changed the sheets and opened the window of his room and encouraged Mrs Devereux to go back to bed when she appeared in her dressing-gown.