Mr. Dimino asks me about Mam and Dad and who cooks for us. I tell him we get food from Mrs. Leibowitz and Minnie MacAdorey. I tell him all about the diapers and the nappies and how they get shitty any- way and he laughs.Angela, you listenin’ to this? Thank God you’re Ital- ian, Angela. He says, Kid, I gotta talk to Mrs. Leibowitz.Ya gotta have relations can take care of you.Ya see Minnie MacAdorey, tell her come in see me.You kids runnin’ wild. Two big women are at the door.They say,Who are you? I’m Frank. Frank! How old are you? I’m four going on five. You’re not very big for your age, are you? I don’t know. Is your mother here? She’s in the bed. What is she doing in the bed on a fine day in the middle of the day? She’s sleeping. Well, we’ll come in.We have to talk to your mother. They brush past me into the room.Jesus,Mary and Joseph,the smell of this place.And who are these children? Malachy runs smiling to the big women.When he smiles you can see how white and straight and pretty his teeth are and you can see the shiny blue of his eyes, the pink of his cheeks. All that makes the big women smile and I wonder why they didn’t smile when they talked to me. Malachy says, I’m Malachy and this is Oliver and this is Eugene, they’re twins, and that’s Frankie over there. The big woman with the brown hair says,Well, you’re not a bit shy, are you? I’m your mother’s cousin, Philomena, and this is your mother’s cousin,Delia.I’m Mrs.Flynn and she’s Mrs.Fortune and that’s what you call us. Good God, says Philomena.Those twins are naked. Don’t you have clothes for them? Malachy says,They’re all shitty. Delia barks. See.That’s what happens.A mouth like a sewer, and no wonder with a father from the North. Don’t use that word.That’s a bad word, a curse word.You could go to hell using a word like that. 43