I talk to St. Francis and tell him about Margaret, Oliver, Eugene, my father  singing  Roddy  McCorley  and  bringing  home  no  money,  my father sending no money from England, Theresa and the green sofa, my terrible sins on Carrigogunnell, why couldn’t they hang Hermann Goering  for  what  he  did  to  the  little  children  with  shoes  scattered around  concentration  camps,  the  Christian  Brother  who  closed  the door in my face, the time they wouldn’t let me be an altar boy, my small brother Michael walking up the lane with the broken shoe clacking, my bad eyes that I’m ashamed of, the Jesuit brother who closed the door in my face, the tears in Mam’s eyes when I slapped her. Father Gregory says, Would you like to sit and be silent, perhaps pray a few minutes? His brown robe is rough against my cheek and there’s a smell of soap. He looks at St. Francis and the tabernacle and nods and I suppose he’s talking to God.Then he tells me kneel, gives me absolution, tells me say three Hail Marys, three Our Fathers, three Glory Bes. He tells me God forgives me and I must forgive myself, that God loves me and I must love myself for only when you love God in yourself can you love all God’s creatures. But I want to know about Theresa Carmody in hell, Father. No, my child. She is surely in heaven. She suffered like the martyrs in olden times and God knows that’s penance enough.You can be sure the sisters in the hospital didn’t let her die without a priest. Are you sure, Father? I am, my child. He blesses me again, asks me to pray for him, and I’m happy trot- ting through the rainy streets of Limerick knowing Theresa is in heaven with the cough gone. Monday morning and it’s dawn in the railway station. Newspapers and magazines are piled in bundles along the platform wall. Mr. McCaffrey is there with another boy,Willie Harold, cutting the twine on the bun- dles, counting, entering the count in a ledger. English newspapers and The Irish Times have to be delivered early, magazines later in the morn- ing. We  count  out  the  papers  and  label  them  for  delivery  to  shops around the city. Mr. McCaffrey drives the van and stays at the wheel while Willie and I run into shops with bundles and take orders for the next day,add or drop 343