XV
Its hard to sleep when you know the next day youre fourteen and
starting your first job as a man. The Abbot wakes at dawn moaning.
Would I ever make him some tay and if I do I can have a big cut of
bread from the half loaf in his pocket which he was keeping there out
of the way of the odd rat and if I look in Grandmas gramophone where
she used to keep the records Ill find a jar of jam.
He cant read, he cant write, but he knows where to hide the jam.
I bring The Abbot his tea and bread and make some for myself. I
put on my damp clothes and get into the bed hoping that if I stay there
the clothes will dry from my own heat before I go to work. Mam
always says its the damp clothes that give you the consumption and an
early grave.The Abbot is sitting up telling me he has a terrible pain in
his head from a dream where I was wearing his poor mothers black
dress and she flying around screaming, Sin, sin, tis a sin. He finishes his
tea and falls into a snore sleep and I wait for his clock to say half-past
eight, time to get up and be at the post office at nine even if the clothes
are still damp on my skin.
On my way out I wonder why Aunt Aggie is coming down the
lane. She must be coming to see if The Abbot is dead or needing a
doctor. She says,What time do you have to be at that job?
Nine.
All right.
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