Now in his thirties, Robert works in an office. At the end of each working day he takes the Mersey ferry to his home, a council flat he shares with his elderly mother.

One night he creeps out of the house, trying not to wake her, but she hears him on the stairs. He goes to a gay club, but is refused admission; he picks up a man in a public lavatory.

Another day, on the way home from work, Robert passes a tattoo parlour, and later phones and begs the proprietor to tattoo his private parts - or, perhaps, fantasises doing so.

In church with his mother, he enters the confessional but does not confess to his homosexuality. Sitting at home with his mother, he has a frightening fantasy that he is dying and being brought to God's judgement.