XIII Boys  from  my  class  at  Leamy’s  School  are  going  on  a  weekend cycling trip to Killaloe. They tell me I should borrow a bicycle and come. All I need is a blanket, a few spoons of tea and sugar and a few cuts of bread to keep me going. I’ll learn to cycle on Laman Griffin’s bicycle every night after he goes to bed and he’ll surely let me borrow it for the two days in Killaloe. The best time to ask him for anything is Friday night when he’s in a  good  mood  after  his  night  of  drinking  and  his  dinner. He  brings home the same dinner in his overcoat pockets, a big steak dripping blood, four potatoes, an onion, a bottle of stout. Mam boils the pota- toes and fries the steak with sliced onion. He keeps his overcoat on, sits at the table and eats the steak out of his hands.The grease and blood roll down his chin and on to the overcoat where he wipes his hands. He drinks his stout and laughs that there’s nothing like a great bloody steak of a Friday night and if that’s the worst sin he ever commits he’ll float to heaven body and soul, ha ha ha. Of course you can have my bike, he says. Boy should be able to get out and see the countryside. Of course. But you have to earn it.You can’t be getting something for nothing, isn’t that right? ’Tis. And I have a job for you.You don’t mind doing a bit of a job, do you? 284