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 dont have the knack of it.Youre pure
useless.Why dont you go to America where theres room for all sorts
of uselessness? Ill 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 thats 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 hed
better open up for they were there on Gods business. Joey said,
Awright, awright, you Irish. Jeezoz! Trouble, trouble.
15