from the tap with the moon beaming away and Kathleen Purcell from
next door perched up on the wall looking for her cat. God, Frankie
McCourt, what are you doin in your grandmothers dress? and you
have to stand there in the dress with the kettle in your hand and explain
how you washed your clothes which are hanging there on the line for
all to see and you were so cold in the bed you put on your grand-
mothers dress and your uncle Pat, The Abbot, fell down and was
brought home by Aunt Aggie and her husband, Pa Keating, and she
drove you into the backyard to fill this kettle and youll take off this dress
as soon as ever your clothes are dry because you never had any desire to
go through life in your dead grandmothers dress.
Now Kathleen Purcell lets out a scream,falls off the wall,forgets the
cat, and you can hear her giggling into her blind mother, Mammy,
Mammy, wait till I tell you about Frankie McCourt abroad in the back-
yard in his dead grandmothers dress.You know that once Kathleen Pur-
cell gets a bit of scandal the whole lane will know it before morning
and you might as well stick your head out the window and make a gen-
eral announcement about yourself and the dress problem.
By the time the kettle boils The Abbot is asleep from the drink and
Aunt Aggie says she and Uncle Pa will have a drop of tea themselves
and she doesnt mind if I have a drop myself. Uncle Pa says on second
thought the black dress could be the cassock of a Dominican priest
and he goes down on his knees and says, Bless me, Father, for I have
sinned.Aunt Aggie says, Get up, you oul eejit, and stop makin a feck of
religion.Then she says,And you what are you doin in this house?
I cant tell her about Mam and Laman Griffin and the excitement
in the loft. I tell her I was thinking of staying here a while because of
the great distance from Laman Griffins house to the post office and as
soon as I get on my feet well surely find a decent place and well all
move on, my mother and brothers and all.
Well, she says, thats more than your father would do.
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