ens to drag me to the priest, the bishop, the Pope himself if he lived around the corner. She cuts bread and waves the knife at me and makes sandwiches of brawn and cold potatoes. Take these sandwiches to Bill Galvin and if you even look cross- eyed at them I’ll skin your hide. Of course she runs to Mam and they agree the only way I can make up for my terrible sin is to deliver Bill Galvin’s dinner for a fortnight without pay. I’m to bring back the can every day and that means I have to sit watching him stuff the food into his gob and he’s not one that would ever ask you if you had a mouth in your head. Every day I take the can back Grandma makes me kneel to the statue of the Sacred Heart and tell Him I’m sorry and all this over Bill Galvin, a Protestant. Mam says, I’m a martyr for the fags and so is your father. There may be a lack of tea or bread in the house but Mam and Dad always manage to get the fags, the Wild Woodbines.They have to have the Woodbines in the morning and anytime they drink tea.They tell us every day we should never smoke, it’s bad for your lungs, it’s bad for your chest, it stunts your growth, and they sit by the fire puffing away. Mam says, If ’tis a thing I ever see you with a fag in your gob I’ll break your face. They tell us the cigarettes rot your teeth and you can see they’re not lying.The teeth turn brown and black in their heads and fall out one by one. Dad says he has holes in his teeth big enough for a spar- row to raise a family. He has a few left but he gets them pulled at the clinic and applies for a false set.When he comes home with the new teeth he shows his big new white smile that makes him look like an American and whenever he tells us a ghost story by the fire he pushes the lower teeth up beyond his lip to his nose and frightens the life out of us. Mam’s teeth are so bad she has to go to Barrington’s Hospital to have them all pulled at the same time and when she comes home she’s holding at her mouth a rag bright with blood. She has to sit up all night by the fire because you can’t lie down when your gums are pumping blood or you’ll choke in your sleep. She says she’ll give up smoking entirely when this bleeding stops but she needs one puff of a fag this minute for the comfort that’s in it. She tells Malachy go to Kathleen O’Connell’s shop and ask her would she ever let her have five Wood- bines till Dad collects the dole on Thursday. If anyone can get the fags 138