Mam, say our prayers. He tells Mam hell write and she says, Oh, yes,
the way you always did. He stands before her with his suitcase. She gets
up, takes down the box of chocolates and hands them around. She puts
a chocolate in her mouth and takes it out again because its too hard and
she cant chew it. I have a soft one and I offer it for the hard one, which
will last longer. Its creamy and rich and theres a nut in the middle.
Malachy and Michael complain they didnt get a nut and why is it Frank
always gets the nut? Mam says,What do you mean, always? This is the
first time we ever had a box of chocolates.
Malachy says, He got the raisin in the bun at school and all the boys
said he gave it to Paddy Clohessy, so why couldnt he give us the nut?
Mam says, Because tis Christmas and he has sore eyes and the nut
is good for the sore eyes.
Michael says,Will the nut make his eyes better?
Twill.
Will it make one eye better or will it make two eyes better?
The two eyes, I think.
Malachy says, If I had another nut Id give it to him for his eyes.
Mam says, I know you would.
Dad watches us a moment eating our chocolates. He lifts the latch,
goes out the door and pulls it shut.
Mam tells Bridey Hannon, Days are bad but nights are worse and will
this rain ever stop? She tries to ease the bad days by staying in bed and
letting Malachy and me light the fire in the morning while she sits up
in the bed passing Alphie bits of bread and holding the mug to his
mouth for the tea thats in it. We have to go downstairs to Ireland to
wash our faces in the basin under the tap and try to dry ourselves in the
old damp shirt that hangs over the back of a chair. She makes us stand
by the bed to see if we left rings of dirt around our necks and if we did
its back down to the tap and the damp shirt.When theres a hole in a
pair of pants she sits up and patches it with any rag she can find.We wear
short pants till were thirteen or fourteen and our long stockings always
have holes to be darned. If she has no wool for the darning and the
stockings are dark we can blacken our ankles with shoe polish for the
respectability thats in it. Its a terrible thing to walk the world with skin
showing through the holes of our stockings.When we wear them week
after week the holes grow so big we have to pull the stocking forward
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