school after lunch, that you went on the mooch with Paddy Clohessy.
Your mother is going to kill you. Your father is out looking for you and
hes going to kill you, too.
Oh,God,I feel cold and empty and I wish I could be in India where
its nice and warm and theres no school and my father could never find
me to kill me. Paddy tells the Question, He didnt go on the mooch and
I didnt either. Fintan Slattery starved us to death and we were too late
for the bun and the milk. Then Paddy says to me, Dont mind em,
Frankie, tis all a cod.Theyre always sendin notes to our house and we
wipe our arses with them.
My mother and father would never wipe their arses with a note
from the master and Im afraid now to go home.The Question rides off
on the bicycle, laughing, and I dont know why because he once ran
away from home and slept in a ditch with four goats and thats worse
than mooching from school half a day anytime.
I could turn up the Barrack Road now and go home and tell my
parents Im sorry I went on the mooch and I did it because of the
hunger but Paddy says, Come on, well go down the Dock Road and
throw rocks in the Shannon.
We throw rocks in the river and we swing on the iron chains along
the bank. Its getting dark and I dont know where Im going to sleep. I
might have to stay there by the Shannon or find a door or I might have
to go back out the country and find a ditch like Brendan Quigley with
four goats. Paddy says I can go home with him, I can sleep on the floor
and Ill dry out.
Paddy lives in one of the tall houses on Arthurs Quay looking at
the river. Everyone in Limerick knows these houses are old and might
fall down at any minute. Mam often says, I dont want any of ye going
down to Arthurs Quay and if I find ye there Ill break yeer faces.The
people down there are wild and ye could get robbed and killed.
Its raining again and small children are playing in the hallway and
up the stairs. Paddy says, Mind yourself, because some of the steps are
missing and there is shit on the ones that are still there. He says thats
because theres only one privy and its in the backyard and children
dont get down the stairs in time to put their little arses on the bowl,
God help us.
Theres a woman with a shawl sitting on the fourth flight smoking
a cigarette. She says, Is that you, Paddy?
Tis, Mammy.
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