Summary

Chapter 24. On her twenty-sixth birthday, Queenie is given a card by her grandmother with some money. Her grandmother comments with disbelief on how old Queenie has become, and recalls how thick her hair was when she was born. Queenie reflects on how she has not had any kind of birthday celebration in a long time and recalling her twenty-third birthday, celebrated with Tom after a night of drunken partying. In the flashback, he brings her tea in the mug with the T, and teases her about the prospect of getting married (at 26) and having children (at 32).

Maggie and Diana arrive. Queenie and Diana go out to spend Queenie’s birthday money, Diana taking her cousin to a trendy ice cream bar and Queenie feeling extremely old. When they get back to their grandmother’s, they find that both Queenie’s mum and...