It was time to call her parents. Her mother answered. Her voice was tired.
“Are you on nights?” asked Shannon.
“I was but we’ve all been laid off and put on agency work. Now you get a night and a day then no work and then maybe a night. It’s the same hospital, same work but just casual labor with no pattern, less money, and no pension,” said her mother.
This was the real life of her own people.
“You’re saving the economy, mum.”
“It’s a lot worse for some others. At least we’re getting by.”
Shannon felt a twitch of anger. Her mother always accepted that their lives on the bottom would be poor and hard. Her own news seemed almost obscene. She imagined her in their small council flat where she herself had grown up and learned to survive.
“Mum, I’m gonna get married.”
“What? Who to? Is
