Anyone can see why I wanted your kiss, It had to be and the reason is this . . . There isn’t much to clean in the house.She sweeps the kitchen floor and  the  floor  of  Italy  upstairs. She  washes  the  four  jam  jars  we  use for  mugs. She says if Dad’s job lasts we’ll get proper cups and maybe saucers and some day, with the help of God and His Blessed Mother, we’ll have sheets on the bed and if we save a long time a blanket or two instead of those old coats which people must have left behind during the  Great  Famine.  She  boils  water  and  washes  the  rags  that  keep Michael from shitting all over the pram and the house itself. Oh, she says, we’ll  have  a  lovely  tea  when  your  Pop  brings  home  the  wages tonight. Pop. She’s in a good mood. Sirens and whistles go off all over the city when the men finish work at half-past five. Malachy and I are excited because we know that when your father works and brings home the wages you get the Friday Penny.We know this from other boys whose fathers work and we know that after your tea you can go to Kathleen O’Connell’s shop and buy sweets. If your mother is in a good mood she might even give you tup- pence to go to the Lyric Cinema the next day to see a film with James Cagney. The men who work in factories and shops in the city are coming into the lanes to have their supper, wash themselves and go to the pub. The women go to the films at the Coliseum or the Lyric Cinema.They buy  sweets  and Wild Woodbine  cigarettes  and  if  their  husbands  are working  a  long  time  they  treat  themselves  to  boxes  of  Black  Magic chocolates.They love the romance films and they have a great time cry- ing their eyes out when there’s an unhappy ending or a handsome lover goes away to be shot by Hindus and other non-Catholics. We have to wait a long time for Dad to walk the miles from the cement factory.We can’t have our tea till he’s home and that’s very hard because you smell the cooking of other families in the lane. Mam says it’s a good thing payday is Friday when you can’t eat meat because the smell of bacon or sausages in other houses would drive her out of her mind.We can still have bread and cheese and a nice jam jar of tea with lashings of milk and sugar and what more do you want? The women are gone to the cinemas, the men are in the pubs, and 109