I think it means this is your last chance.
I write five more letters and she gives me money for stamps. On my
way to the post office I think,Why should I squander money on stamps
when I have two legs to deliver the letters myself in the dead of night?
When youre poor a threatening letter is a threatening letter no matter
how it comes in the door.
I run through the lanes of Limerick shoving letters under doors,
praying no one will see me.
The next week Mrs. Finucane is squealing with joy. Four of em
paid. Oh, sit down now and write more, by. Put the fear of God in em.
Week after week my threatening letters grow sharper and sharper.
I begin to throw in words I hardly understand myself.
Dear Mrs. OBrien,
Inasmuch as you have not succumbed to the imminence
of litigation in our previous epistle be advised that we are in
consultation with our barrister above in Dublin.
Next week Mrs. OBrien pays. She came in tremblin with tears in
her eyes, by, and she promised shed never miss another payment.
On Friday nights Mrs. Finucane sends me to a pub for a bottle of
sherry.Youre too young for sherry, by.You can make yourself a nice cup
of tea but you have to use the tea leaves left over from this morning.No,
you cant have a piece of bread with the prices theyre charging. Bread
is it? Next thing youll be asking for an egg.
She rocks by the fire, sipping her sherry, counting the money in the
purse on her lap, entering payments in her ledger before she locks
everything in the trunk under her bed upstairs.After a few sherries she
tells me what a lovely thing it is to have a little money so you can leave
it to the Church for Masses to be said for the repose of your soul. It
makes her so happy to think of priests saying Masses for her years and
years after shes dead and buried.
Sometimes she falls asleep and if the purse drops to the floor I help
myself to an extra few shillings for the overtime and the use of all the
big new words.There will be less money for the priests and their Masses
but how many Masses does a soul need and surely Im entitled to a few
pounds after the way the Church slammed doors in my face? They
wouldnt let me be an altar boy, a secondary school pupil, a missionary
with the White Fathers. I dont care. I have a post office savings account
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