Page 74 of The Black Flamingo

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Daisy says, “That’s cool that Kieran came

to see this film. Do you think that was his

girlfriend? It definitely looked like a date.”

It’s my seventeenth birthday

and, even though it’s a school night,

Mum is taking me, Anna, and Daisy

on the Bakerloo line to Piccadilly Circus

to a theater in the West End

to see a musical calledKinky Boots.

Mum tells me it was a film first. I’ve not seen it.

I’ve never seen anything like it.

Coming out of the theater,

I ask Mum, “Were there songs in the movie?”

“Yes, there were songs,” she says.

“And was the drag queen black in the movie?”

“Yes, the film was mostly the same.”

“Mummy!” I exclaim. “Why did you never

show me this movie?”

“I don’t know why, Michael, but did you

enjoy the show?”

“I loved it, Mummy!” I hug her and I never

want to let her go.

Anna interrupts: “Mummy, why do you say ‘film’

but Michael says ‘movie’?”

Daisy laughs, putting her arm around Anna,

and says, “You notice a lot for a nine-year-old,

don’t you?”

Anna replies, “I guess.”

I reach out my left arm in their direction

and pull them both into the hug.

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