Fintan Slattery raises his hand. I know who stood at the foot of the
cross, sir.
Of course Fintan knows who stood at the foot of the cross.Why
wouldnt he? Hes always running off to Mass with his mother, who is
known for her holiness. Shes so holy her husband ran off to Canada to
cut down trees, glad to be gone and never to be heard from again. She
and Fintan say the rosary every night on their knees in the kitchen and
read all kinds of religious magazines: The Little Messenger of the Sacred
Heart,The Lantern,The Far East, as well as every little book printed by
the Catholic Truth Society.They go to Mass and Communion rain or
shine and every Saturday they confess to the Jesuits who are known for
their interest in intelligent sins not the usual sins you hear from people
in lanes who are known for getting drunk and sometimes eating meat
on Fridays before it goes bad and cursing on top of it. Fintan and his
mother live on Catherine Street and Mrs. Slatterys neighbors call her
Mrs. Offer-It-Up because no matter what happens, a broken leg, a
spilled cup of tea, a disappeared husband, she says,Well, now, Ill offer
that up and Ill have no end of Indulgences to get me into heaven. Fin-
tan is just as bad. If you push him in the schoolyard or call him names
hell smile and tell you hell pray for you and hell offer it up for his soul
and yours.The boys in Leamys dont want Fintan praying for them and
they threaten to give him a good fong in the arse if they catch him pray-
ing for them. He says he wants to be a saint when he grows up, which
is ridiculous because you cant be a saint till youre dead. He says our
grandchildren will be praying to his picture. One big boy says, My
grandchildren will piss on your picture, and Fintan just smiles. His sis-
ter ran away to England when she was seventeen and everyone knows
he wears her blouse at home and curls his hair with hot iron tongs every
Saturday night so that hell look gorgeous at Mass on Sunday. If he
meets you going to Mass hell say, Isnt my hair gorgeous, Frankie? He
loves that word, gorgeous, and no other boy will ever use it.
Of course he knows who stood at the foot of the cross. He proba-
bly knows what they were wearing and what they had for breakfast and
now hes telling Dotty ONeill it was the three Marys.
Dotty says, Come up here, Fintan, and take your reward.
He takes his time going to the platform and we cant believe our
eyes when he takes out a pocketknife to cut the apple peel into little bits
so that he can eat them one by one and not be stuffing the whole thing
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