her hand at being a charwoman, a skivvy, a maid with a little white hat opening doors, but she could not manage the little curtsy that is re- quired and her mother said,You don’t have the knack of it.You’re pure useless.Why don’t you go to America where there’s room for all sorts of uselessness? I’ll give you the fare. She  arrived  in  New York  just  in  time  for  the  first Thanksgiving Day of the Great Depression. She met Malachy at a party given by Dan MacAdorey  and  his  wife,  Minnie,  on  Classon Avenue  in  Brooklyn. Malachy liked Angela and she liked him. He had a hangdog look, which came from the three months he had just spent in jail for hijacking a truck. He and his friend John McErlaine believed what they were told in the speakeasy, that the truck was packed to the roof with  cases of canned  pork  and  beans.  Neither  knew  how  to  drive  and  when  the police saw the truck lurch and jerk along Myrtle Avenue they pulled it over.The police searched the truck and wondered why anyone would hijack a truck containing, not pork and beans, but cases of buttons. With Angela drawn to the hangdog look and Malachy lonely after three months in jail, there was bound to be a knee-trembler. A knee-trembler is the act itself done up against a wall, man and woman up on their toes, straining so hard their knees tremble with the excitement that’s in it. That knee-trembler put Angela in an interesting condition and, of course, there was talk.Angela had cousins, the MacNamara sisters, Delia and  Philomena,  married,  respectively,  to  Jimmy  Fortune  of  County Mayo, and Tommy Flynn, of Brooklyn itself. Delia and Philomena were large women, great-breasted and fierce. When  they  sailed  along  the  sidewalks  of  Brooklyn  lesser  creatures stepped aside, respect was shown.The sisters knew what was right and they knew what was wrong and any doubts could be resolved by the One, Holy, Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Church. They knew that Angela, unmarried, had no right to be in an interesting condition and they would take steps. Steps they took.With Jimmy and Tommy in tow they marched to the speakeasy on Atlantic Avenue where Malachy could be found on Friday, payday when he had a job.The man in the speak, Joey Caccia- mani, did not want to admit the sisters but Philomena told him that if he wanted to keep the nose on his face and that door on its hinges he’d better  open  up  for  they  were  there  on  God’s  business.  Joey  said, Awright, awright, you Irish. Jeezoz! Trouble, trouble. 15