XIV In the morning The Abbot gives me the money to go to Kathleen O’Connell’s for bread,margarine,tea,milk.He boils water on the gas ring and tells me I can have a mug of tea and, Go aisy with the sugar, I’m not a millionaire.You can have a cut o’ bread but don’t make it too thick. It’s July and school is over forever. In a few weeks I’ll be delivering telegrams at the post office, working like a man. In the weeks I’m idle I can do anything I like, get up in the morning, stay in bed, take long walks out the country like my father, wander around Limerick. If I had the money I’d go over to the Lyric Cinema, eat sweets, see Errol Flynn conquering everyone in sight. I can read the English and Irish papers The Abbot brings home or I can use the library cards of Laman Grif- fin and my mother till I’m found out. Mam sends Michael with a milk bottle of warm tea, a few cuts of bread smeared with dripping, a note to say Laman Griffin isn’t angry anymore and I can come back. Michael says, Are you coming home, Frankie? No. Ah, do, Frankie. Come on. I live here now. I’m never going back. But Malachy is gone to the army and you’re here and I have no big brother.All the boys have big brothers and I only have Alphie. He’s not even four and can’t talk right. 297