Eamon comes back from the lavatory and Peter goes in with an
American magazine, Colliers, that has pictures of girls in a beauty con-
test.Eamon says,Do you know what hes doing in there? At himself.Five
times a day he goes in. Every time a new American magazine comes in
with the womens underwear he goes in. Never done going at himself.
Borrows magazines to take home unbeknownst to Mr. McCaffrey and
God knows what he does with himself and the magazines all night.If he
fell dead in there the jaws of hell would open wide.
Id like to get into the lavatory myself when Peter comes out but I
dont want them saying,There he goes, new boy, first day on the job,
already at himself.Wont light up a fag oh no but wanks away like an
oul billygoat.
Mr. McCaffrey returns from van delivery and wants to know why
all the magazines arent counted out,bundled and ready to go.Peter tells
him,We were busy teaching the new boy, McCourt. God help us, he
was a bit slow with the bad eyes you know but we kept at him and now
hes getting faster.
Gerry Halvey, the messenger boy, wont be in for a week because
hes entitled to his holidays and he wants to spend the time with his
girlfriend, Rose, whos coming back from England. Im the new boy
and I have to be messenger boy while hes gone, cycling around Lim-
erick on the bicycle with the big metal basket in front. He shows me
how to balance papers and magazines so that the bicycle wont tip
over with me in the saddle and a lorry passing by that will run over me
and leave me like a piece of salmon in the road. He saw a soldier once
that was run over by an army lorry and thats what he looked like,
salmon.
Gerry is making a last delivery at Easons kiosk at the railway station
at noon on Saturday and thats handy because I can meet him there to
get the bicycle and he can meet Rose off the train.We stand at the gate
waiting and he tells me he hasnt seen Rose in a year. Shes over there
working in a pub in Bristol and he doesnt like that one bit because the
English are forever pawing the Irish girls, hands up under the skirts and
worse,and the Irish girls are afraid to say anything for fear of losing their
jobs. Everyone knows Irish girls keep themselves pure especially Lim-
erick girls known the world over for their purity who have a man to
come back to like Gerry Halvey himself. Hell be able to tell if she was
true to him by her walk. If a girl comes back after a year with a certain
class of a walk thats different from the one she went away with then you
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