Quasimodo. Let me up the spout. Mikey is fourteen now, bigger than any of us and strong from his job delivering coal. He’s black from the coal like Uncle Pa Keating and all you can see are the whites of his eyes and the white froth on his lower lip, which means he could have the fit anytime. Quasimodo says,Wait,Mikey.They’re first.Wait,my arse,says Mikey, and he’s away up the spout. Billy complains but Quasimodo shakes his head, I can’t help it. He comes every week with the shilling. I have to let him up the spout or he’ll beat me up and tell my mother and the next thing she locks me in the coal hole all day with the rats.The Fit is up hanging on to the spout with one hand.The other hand is in his pocket moving,moving and when the spout itself starts to move and creak Qua- simodo hisses, Molloy, there’s to be no whankin’ up the spout. He hops around the yard cackling. His BBC accent is gone and he’s pure Limer- ick. Jaysus, Molloy, come down off that spout or I’ll tell me mother. Mikey’s hand goes faster in his pocket, so fast the spout gives a lurch and collapses and Mikey is rolling on the ground yelping, I’m dead. I’m destroyed. Oh, God.You can see the froth on his lips and the blood that comes from biting his tongue. Quasimodo’s mother comes screaming through the door,What in the name of Jesus! and the kitchen light fills the yard. The sisters are squawking from the window above. Billy tries to escape and she drags him off the wall.She tells him run to O’Connor the chemist around the corner to ring up an ambulance or a doctor or something for Mikey. She screams at us to get into the kitchen. She kicks Quasimodo into the hall. He’s on his hands and knees and she drags him to the coal hole under  the  stairs  and  locks  him  in. Stay  there  till  you  come  to  your senses. He’s  crying  and  calling  to  her  in  a  pure  Limerick  accent. Ah, Mamma, Mamma, let me out.The rats is here. I only want to go to the BBC, Mamma. Aw, Jasus, Mamma, Jasus. I’ll never let anyone up the spout again. I’ll send money from London, Mamma. Mamma! Mikey is still on his back, jerking and twisting around the yard.The ambulance takes him off to the hospital with a broken shoulder and his tongue in ribbons. Our mothers are there in no time. Mrs. Dooley says, I’m disgraced, so I am, disgraced. My daughters can’t wash theirselves of a Friday night without the whole world gawking in the window and them boys there 189