Peter, dont forget to be takin the medicine for your weak chest,
God help us.
Larry, mind them bloody bombs.
Christy, dont be talkin to them Englishwomen.Theyre full of
diseases.
Jackie, come back. Sure well manage somehow. Dont go, Jack-e-e,
Jack-e-e, oh, Jesus, dont go.
Dad pats our heads. He tells us remember our religious duties but,
above all, obey our mother. He stands before her. She has the baby
Alphie in her arms. She says, Mind yourself. He drops the bag and puts
his arms around her.They stay that way a moment till the baby yelps
between them.He nods,picks up his bag,climbs the steps to the station,
turns to wave and hes gone.
Back at home Mam says, I dont care. I know it sounds extravagant
but Im going to light the fire and make more tea for it isnt every day
your father goes to England.
We sit around the fire and drink our tea and cry because we have
no father, till Mam says, Dont cry, dont cry. Now that your father is
gone to England surely our troubles will be over.
Surely.
Mam and Bridey Hannon sit by the fire upstairs in Italy smoking
Woodbines, drinking tea, and I sit on the stairs listening. We have a
father in England so that we can get all we want from Kathleen OCon-
nells shop and pay when he starts sending the money in a fortnight.
Mam tells Bridey she cant wait to get out of this bloody lane to a place
with a decent lavatory that we dont have to share with half the world.
Well all have new boots and coats to keep off the rain so we wont be
coming home from school famished. Well have eggs and rashers on
Sunday for breakfast and ham and cabbage and potatoes for dinner.
Well have electric light and why shouldnt we? Werent Frank and
Malachy born to it in America where everyone has it?
All we have to do now is wait for two weeks till the telegram boy
knocks at the door. Dad will have to settle into his job in England, buy
work clothes and get a place to stay, so the first money order wont be
big, three pounds or three pounds ten, but soon well be like other fam-
ilies in the lane, five pounds a week, paying off debts, buying new
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