Indeed they are says Mrs Nugent. Well let them enjoy their freedom now, that's what I say, weren't we young once ourselves Mrs?
We were, we were indeed Mrs now you said it. Let them enjoy it now for they won't have the time next year. Next year is when the serious study starts. There'll be no gallivanting then!
Mrs Purcell folded her arms.
O that reminds me, says Mrs Nugent, do you remember I was telling you about St Vincent's College?
Then Joe and Philip left the room and went upstairs and the song starts again when you move in right up close to me, I think it was a real guitar. I think Philip was playing it. Then I seen Mrs Nugent coming in with a plate. She stood in the middle of the room and said: Would you like some scones Mrs Purcell?
It was only when I got home I realized I had forgot the bottles and when I went back they were gone. The Purcell's car was gone too and the street was black and deserted, all you could hear was the wind blowing a tin can across the Diamond.
The next day I asked Leddy about it but he said to fuck up and quit raving what did he know about snowdrops and orange skies. After that I thought maybe he was right fuck snowdrops and skies and the children and fucking everything. So that night I said to da I won't be home till late you'll be all right won't you then off I went to the Tower Bar and I says to the ten bob note we're not going home until every penny's gone then off up on the deck of the ocean liner we're off I says and I don't care where we're going. Whee-hoo! I shouted as I stumbled and fell up the street full to the gills with whiskey. The drunk lad let a few roars at me – Do you know me do you?
I swayed there for a bit with my shoulder up and shouts back at him Do you know me do you?
No he says do you know me? and we went on like that for a good while until the pair of us were falling across the Diamond singing I wonder who's kissing her now?
I stood on the steps of the bank and shouted Brady the Pig Man up she flew and the cock flattened her!
Fair dues said the drunk lad you're a good one Brady! We went into every pub in the town. The pig men are here I shouts and got down on all fours with the drunk riding on my back singing I wonder who's kissing her now. They gave us plenty of cheers when we did that. I didn't know pigs could sing says this lad laughing. Well you know now I says, and they can drink whiskey too so come on. Snort, says I, and down the hatch.
If the drunk lad wasn't around I'd lie in the doorway of the Tower singing into the neck of the beer bottle.
I went to the dances but I knew they wouldn't dance with me. I'm sorry but I don't dance with pigs they'd say. What did I care? Did they think I cared? There was this one in a pink cardigan holding her twenty fags and looking away when she seen me coming. The drunk lad kept saying go on go on ask her I says I will will you get out of my way for fuck's sake he kept pulling at me. Excuse me I says to her would you like to dance? She was wearing a black hairband and she made on to fix it then she says no I'm with my friends. I could see the drunk lad laughing away look at Brady would you look at Brady he says. I knew he was still looking at me so I says to her: Why didn't you bring your knitting? and she got as red as a beetroot. I went away laughing my arse off. The drunk lad thought this was the best yet. Jesus, he says, you're the best man in this town – did you bring your knitting! He told this to everyone he saw. After that there was no end to what I said to the women. They wouldn't say no thanks to me again for I wouldn't give them the chance. The drunk lad told me all about women. They're all the one when they're on the flat of their back! he says. H'ho would ye look at that he says, I'd give her the johnny and no mistake! I'm the man would slip the boy in there double quick! Sometimes we sat on the stage and shouted up at the musicians: Youse can play fuck all! The bands wore white suits and sang I Love My Mother and Take Me Back to Dixie. They didn't sell drink in the hall so me and the drunk lad brought our own. The bouncer says you can't drink here but I says why not. Because I say so that's why he says. I looked at him and laughed. He had a broken nose and a face like a scalded prawn. I don't like people laughing he says. Out! No, says I, then the drunk lad says Jesus don't say that to him he was in the army. He got a hold of me and threw me round the hall, he kicked me along like a ball of newspaper and the women going ee ee. He got me outside and lay into me with kicks. I'd fly this way and that all I could see was a blur of lights and the guitars twanging away at the national anthem. He got me against the boot of a car spits on his lip and his pudgy fist up against my chin. If you show your face round here again Brady this'll be nothing to what you'll get. Yes, I said, boo hoo. But I always went back the week after and there we'd be again slugging the Johnny Walker and the bouncer on his way over hey hey and what the fuck did I tell you last week Brady? Leddy used to say to me where did you get all them bruises for the love of Christ look at you. Oh I'd say, I tripped over a straw and a hen kicked me. Other times I'd go off to different dancehalls round the place and hang about at the back till I saw someone that thought he was a good man in a row. He'd be dancing away with his girlfriend shouting into her ear about liking Cliff Richard or saying the guitar player in the band was his cousin or some other pack of lies then I'd dunt against him and he'd say watch where you're going. I might say nothing at all or I might just look at him with a big stupid face on me you'd think I was going to burst out laughing. What are you looking at he'd say again then but I'd still say nothing just scratch my nose or pick it, anything at all. Then he'd lose the rag because he thought the girl was saying to him well are you going to let him say that to you or are you going to do something about it then he'd tear into me. But it wasn't like with the bouncer, I wouldn't let him kick me around. By the time the fight was over they were always on the floor crawling round help me and the women losing their minds. Come on you fucker I'd say again standing over them with my fist clenched but they'd just lie there. It'd be nearly bright by the time I got home and there was no sense in going to sleep so I'd just sit there with da thinking about things one thing I thought was dumb people must have black holes in their stomachs from not being able to cry out.
Every weekend now me and the drunk lad went off up the town da didn't mind I always made sure to put a blanket round him and make sure and tell him where I was going he said if you see any of the Tower Bar crowd tell them I was asking for them. I said I would then off I went. We went up to the Diamond Bar and he says I know you and you know me with his arm round me. Dink donk went the music take me back to Mayo the land where I was born. You're only a pack of baaastaaards! shouts the drunk lad. There was darts and this government is the worst yet and will you have another ah I won't ah you will and here is the news crisis in Cuba it all twisted in and out of itself till I got a pain in my head on top of everything else where are you going he shouts come back! I went out to the river and in the backroads. I went up to the cafe to see if there was anyone in there but it was all locked up with the lights out. I wanted to stand on the Diamond and cry out: Can you hear me? but I didn't know what it was I wanted them to hear. Then I went round the back of the chemist's shop and got in. It was good in there. I said to myself: What are all these cameras doing in here? Cameras – why aren't you in a camera shop not a chemists!