I dont know.
Minnie says,Theyre just wearing rags for diapers. Ill get some of
Maisies. Frankie, you take off those rags and throw them out.
Malachy removes Olivers rag and I struggle with Eugene. The
safety pin is stuck and when he wriggles it comes loose, sticks him
in the hip, and starts him screaming for Mam. But Minnie is back with
a towel and soap and hot water. I help her wash away the caked shit
and she lets me shake talcum powder on the twins raw sore skin. She
says theyre good little boys and she has a big surprise for them. She
goes down the hall and brings back a pot of mashed potatoes for all of
us. There is plenty of salt and butter in the potatoes and I wonder
if theres any chance Minnie could be my mother so that I could eat
like this all the time. If I could have Mrs. Leibowitz and Minnie
for mothers at the same time Id have no end of soup and mashed
potatoes.
Minnie and Mrs.Leibowitz sit at the table.Mrs.Leibowitz says some-
thing has to be done.These children are running wild and where is the
father? I hear Minnie whisper hes out for the drink.Mrs.Leibowitz says
terrible, terrible, the way the Irish drink. Minnie says her Dan doesnt
drink.Never touches the stuff and Dan told her that when the baby died
that poor man, Malachy McCourt, went mad all over Flatbush Avenue
and Atlantic Avenue, that he was thrown out of all the bars around the
Long Island Railroad Station, that the cops would have thrown him in
jail if it was anything else but the death of that lovely little baby.
Here he has four lovely little boys, says Minnie, but its no comfort
to him. That little girl brought out something in him.You know he
didnt even drink after she was born and that was a miracle.
Mrs. Leibowitz wants to know where Mams cousins are, the big
women with the quiet husbands. Minnie will find them and tell them
the children are neglected, running wild, sore arses and everything.
Two days later Dad returns from his cigarette hunt.Its the middle of the
night but he gets Malachy and me out of the bed. He has the smell of
the drink on him. He has us stand at attention in the kitchen.We are
soldiers. He tells us we must promise to die for Ireland.
We will, Dad, we will.
All together we sing Kevin Barry,
39