He sees small children with fair hair like Oliver.He doesn’t say Ollie anymore. He only points. Dad says Eugene is lucky to have brothers like Malachy and me because we help him forget and soon, with God’s help, he’ll have no memory of Oliver at all. He died anyway. Six  months  after  Oliver  went,  we  woke  on  a  mean  November morning and there was Eugene,cold in the bed beside us.Dr.Troy came and said that child died of pneumonia and why wasn’t he in the hospi- tal long ago? Dad said he didn’t know and Mam said she didn’t know and Dr.Troy said that’s why children die. People don’t know. He said if Malachy or I showed the slightest sign of a cough or the faintest rattle in the throat we were to be brought to him no matter what time of day or night.We were to be kept dry at all times because there seemed to be a bit of a weakness in the chest in this family. He told Mam he was very sorry for her troubles and he’d give her a prescription for some- thing to ease the pain of the days to come. He said God was asking too much, too damn much. Grandma  came  over  to  our  room  with Aunt Aggie. She  washed Eugene, and Aunt Aggie went to a shop for a little white gown and a set of rosary beads.They dressed him in a white gown and laid him on the bed by the window where he used to look out for Oliver. They placed his hands on his chest, one hand on top of the other, bound in the little white rosary beads. Grandma brushed the hair back from his eyes and forehead and she said, Doesn’t he have lovely soft silky hair? Mam went to the bed and pulled a blanket over his legs to keep him warm. Grandma and Aunt Aggie looked at each other and said nothing. Dad stood at the end of the bed beating his fists against his thighs, talk- ing to Eugene, telling him, Och, it was the River Shannon that harmed you, the dampness from that river that came and took you and Oliver. Grandma  said, Will  you  stop  that? You’re  making  the  whole  house nervous.  She  took  Dr. Troy’s  prescription  and  told  me  run  over  to O’Connor the chemist for the pills, that there would be no charge due to the kindness of Dr.Troy. Dad said he’d come with me, that we’d go to  the  Jesuit  church  and  say  a  prayer  for  Margaret  and  Oliver  and Eugene, all happy in heaven.The chemist gave us the pills, we stopped 82