Salford Sunset
written by: Nick Adigu Burke
Billy giggled when Wench came into his mind. A word he didn’t know the meaning of, but something that always made him laugh. Just like girls who think they can punch: whoever invented such hilarity? He shrugged, then turned to the bathroom mirror. ‘Wench.’ He loved to practice funny phrases he didn’t understand. Although he did know it wasn’t very nice: he’d heard dad use it on mam in the heat of one of their famous street debates—’Wench.’
He rubbed his chin. No, perhaps it didn’t happen like that. Maybe it was mam who’d yelled it, but on a different day, or evening. One of those evenings, dad crashed through the door from the ‘Duck & Firkin’—speaking like he’s underwater. Ah, now, what the hell is a firkin? Firkin, another funny word. Or maybe it’s the eff word, but in mam’s Belfast accent: ‘Firkin hell, Billy! Will ya quit with ya back-chat,’ he said to his reflection and laughed.
‘Wench,’ he grinned—again. He loved how his lips felt, wrapped around the W. Tense: top and bottom hardened into a circle, like when blowing heads from wishflowers. That, he loved, but the power and growl of the E as it explodes from the W was something else, like when Doggo goes crazy with his zoom-zooms. That’s when the lips lose their hardness to set themselves free: parted, then lengthened into a silly smile. Just like the one dad saves for family photos—right after he’s warned not to ‘Firkin spoil it by mam.’
Then the E sound; so satisfying, same as the N-C-H: the way the letters make the tongue slap the top of the mouth. Magical. Weird too. Like when dad smacks mam on the bottom. Then, after that—the tongue slides to the front teeth for the best bit: the spit-spray! Beautiful, he smiled, and bounced from one foot to the other. Then jumped as Daisy snuck up behind him, ‘What you doing now?’ She sighed.
‘Wench,’ Billy grinned. Then cried when she punched him in the eye.
The bruise came up a real purler. With dad comparing it to a Salford sunset. Billy didn’t know about that, or even the meaning of Wench. All he knew is that it bloody hurt, and next time he should practice the word Firkin instead.
- Salford Sunset - May 15, 2026
- Richard, Do You Remember? - January 25, 2026
- In the Beauty of the Sky - September 2, 2025
