I will, Uncle Pa.
Mr. Hannon buys me a lemonade, gives me the shilling for my
mornings work and tells me I can go home now, Im a great worker
and I can help him again next week after school.
On the way home I see myself in the glass of a shop window all
black from the coal, and I feel like a man, a man with a shilling in his
pocket, a man who had a lemonade in a pub with two coal men and a
lime man. Im not a child anymore and I could easily leave Leamys
School forever. I could work with Mr. Hannon every day and when his
legs got too bad I could take over the float and deliver coal to the rich
people the rest of my life and my mother wouldnt have to be a beggar
at the Redemptorist priests house.
People on the streets and lanes give me curious looks.Boys and girls
laugh and call out, Heres the chimney sweep. How much do you want
for cleaning our chimney? Did you fall into a coal hole? Were you
burned by the darkness?
Theyre ignorant.They dont know I spent the day delivering hun-
dredweights of coal and turf.They dont know Im a man.
Mam is sleeping up in Italy with Alphie and theres a coat over the
window to keep the room dark. I tell her I earned a shilling and she says
I can go to the Lyric, I deserve it.Take tuppence and leave the rest of
the shilling on the mantelpiece downstairs so that she can send out for
a loaf of bread for the tea.The coat suddenly drops from the window
and the room is bright. Mam looks at me, God above, look at your eyes.
Go downstairs and Ill be down in a minute to wash them.
She heats water in the kettle and dabs at my eyes with boric acid
powder and tells me I cant go to the Lyric Cinema today or any day till
my eyes clear up though God knows when that will be. She says,You
cant be delivering coal with the state of your eyes.The dust will surely
destroy them.
I want the job. I want to bring home the shilling. I want to be a
man.
You can be a man without bringing home a shilling. Go upstairs
and lie down and rest your two eyes or its a blind man youll be.
I want that job. I wash my eyes three times a day with the boric acid
powder. I remember Seamus in the hospital and how his uncles eyes
were cured with the blink exercise and I make sure to sit and blink for
an hour every day.You cant beat the blink for the strong eye, he said.
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