"Right. That is enough of that."
Airport police. 2 of them at the barrier, a third coming across the concourse at a walk with his hands up and out.
"Ladies and gentlemen, you are going to give this gentleman some room. Back off the line. Back off the line, please. Now."
"We are entitled to."
"You are entitled to stand behind that barrier. You are not entitled to put a lens into a woman in her 60s." The one on my left had a hand out flat. "Mr Walsh. Come with me, and bring your mum."
They walked us out through a service door and along a corridor that smelled of floor polish, and one of them took my mother's bag off her without asking and she let him, which is how I knew.
He was about 50 and he carried it on the wrong shoulder the whole way.
"You all right there, madam?" he said to her.
"I am fine."
"You are sure, now."
"I am fine, thank you."
