Aw, God, please look. Our name is Meagher.Will you look? I know bloody well yeer name is Meagher and I looked. The children claw at him up on his bicycle and he kicks at them, Jesus, will ye get away from me. Once the Angelus rings at six in the evening the day is over.The ones with the telegrams are having their supper with the electric light blazing away and the ones that didn’t get the telegrams have to light candles and see if Kathleen O’Connell might let them have tea and bread till this time next week when surely with the help of God and His Blessed Mother the telegram will come. Mr. Meehan at the top of the lane went to England with Dad and when the telegram boy stops at Meehan’s we know we’ll be next. Mam has her coat ready to go to the post office but she won’t leave the chair by the fire in Italy till she has the telegram in her hand.The telegram boy rides down the lane and swings over to Downeses’. He hands them their telegram, takes the tip and turns his bicycle around to head back up the lane. Malachy calls, Telegram boy, do you have something for McCourt? Ours is coming today.The telegram boy shakes his head and rides away. Mam puffs on her Woodbine.Well, we have all day though I’d like to do a bit of shopping early before the best hams are gone at Barry the butcher. She can’t leave the fire and we can’t leave the lane for fear the telegram boy might come and find no one at home.Then we’d have to wait till Monday to cash the money order and that would destroy the weekend entirely.We’d have to watch the Meehans and everyone else parading around in their new clothes and staggering home with eggs and potatoes and sausages for Sunday and sailing off to the films on Sat- urday night. No, we can’t move an inch till that telegram boy comes. Mam  says  don’t  be  too  worried  between  noon  and  two  because  so many telegram boys go for their dinner and there will surely be a big rush between two and the Angelus. We don’t have a thing to worry about till six. We stop every telegram boy. We tell them our name is McCourt, that this is our first telegram, it should be three pounds or more, they might have forgotten to put our name on it or our address, is he sure? is he sure? One boy tells us he’ll inquire at the post office. He says he knows what ’tis like to wait for the telegram because his own father is a drunken oul’ shit over in England that never sent a penny. Mam hears him inside and tells us you should never talk about your father  like  that. The  same  telegram  boy  comes  back  just  before  the 223