She turns and walks with me to the post office on Henry Street.
She doesnt say a word and I wonder if shes going to the post office to
denounce me for sleeping in my grandmothers bed and wearing her
black dress. She says, Go up and tell them your aunt is down here wait-
ing for you and youll be an hour late. If they want to argue Ill go up
and argue.
Why do I have to be an hour late?
Do what youre bloody well told.
There are telegram boys sitting on a bench along a wall.There are
two women at a desk, one fat, one thin.The thin one says,Yes?
My name is Frank McCourt, miss, and Im here to start work.
What kind of work would that be now?
Telegram boy, miss.
The thin one cackles, Oh, God, I thought you were here to clean
the lavatories.
No, miss. My mother brought a note from the priest, Dr. Cowpar,
and theres supposed to be a job.
Oh, there is, is there? And do you know what day this is?
I do, miss. Tis my birthday. Im fourteen.
Isnt that grand, says the fat woman.
Today is Thursday, says the thin woman.Your job starts on Monday.
Go away and wash yourself and come back then.
The telegram boys along the wall are laughing. I dont know why
but I feel my face turning hot. I tell the women,Thank you, and on the
way out I hear the thin one, Jesus above, Maureen, who dragged in that
specimen? and they laugh along with the telegram boys.
Aunt Aggie says,Well? and I tell her I dont start till Monday. She
says my clothes are a disgrace and what did I wash them in.
Carbolic soap.
They smell like dead pigeons and youre making a laughingstock of
the whole family.
She takes me to Roches Stores and buys me a shirt, a gansey, a
pair of short pants, two pairs of stockings and a pair of summer shoes
on sale. She gives me two shillings to have tea and a bun for my birth-
day. She gets on the bus to go back up OConnell Street too fat and
lazy to walk. Fat and lazy, no son of her own, and still she buys me the
clothes for my new job.
I turn toward Arthurs Quay with the package of new clothes under
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