Бетти Смит - Maggie-Now

It was then he realized two months had gone by and he hadn't written. No, he said, he hadn't heard because he hadn't written. Yes, he could read and write but had never written a letter because at home everyone he knew was close by and letters weren't necessary. It was addressing tile envelope that bothered him and the proper stamp.

That night she made him a present of a box of stationery and a penholder and a half-doztn penpoints and a bottle of ink. She had a stamped envelope addressed for him. He wrote that night.

He wrote his mother that it might be two years before he could send for her. He suggested she get in touch with the Liverpool sport and get passage and a job. He wrote:

. . I have a fine [43]

apartment here. . He looked around his barren room.

God forgive me fur Iying, he prayed. (He often took a short cut like that to get rid of minor venial sins. It saved time at confession.)

He wrote that he was sending her an American dollar in the letter and. . The young lady of the house is stuck on me. . She gave me a grand present. .

It was a fine present, the stationery. He didn't believe, really, that Mary was stuck on him. He wrote it knowing his mother's tongue was tied in the middle and wagged at both ends and she'd be sure to tell Maggie Rose and the girl would be jealous and would write to him. A half page more of boasting, and the letter was finished.

He waited every day for a letter. Two months passed and he had given up hope of hearing from home, when one night Mary came down to the kitchen where he was eating supper with Biddy, and smilingly put a letter next his plate. He finished his supper in a hurry and went up to his room to read the letter. It was written by Bertie, the Broommaker.

Esteemed Son: Yours at hand and contents noted. Your one dollar received. I trust more to follow. I informed Miss Shawn of your new attachment. Miss Shawn requests that I tender you her congratulations. Miss Shawn requests me to inform you that she, also, has formed a new attachment.

I must decline with thanks your kind invitation to join you in America under the conditions you set forth. I have no wish to become a domestic for no gentlewoman of our family has ever gone into service. It is my desire to remain here in order to die where I was born and to sleep the eternal sleep at the side of my dear, departed husband, your father.

Pray extend my cordial greetings to your guide and mentor, M. Moriarity, Esquire. T remain your devoted mother, Elizabeth A. Moore. (Mrs.)

So she took it serious, thought Patsy, and she thinks I

have a girl and after I gave me promise. . and now she won't come to me a-tall. He put his head down on his arms and cried a little. He knew that the last link between him and Ireland had been broken. Ale mother don't want me now, he wept, but she wouldn't let.llaggie Rose have me. And now me girl went and got another f eller….

[44~1 After a while, he wiped }liS eyes, busted open his bank and took out a half dollar. He went down to the saloon, had ten five-cent beers, two fights and ate most of the free lunch left over from noon. He felt much better afterward.

Mary, returning from the druggist's where she'd gone to buy a cake of castile soap with which to wash her hair, saw him go into the saloon. She surmised that the letter from home had not been a happy one. ';he decided to have a talk with him in the morning.

"Patrick," she said the next morning after the exchange of greetings, "you must be lonesome a strange country, no relatives and you don't go out enough to make friends."

Then, a little breathlessly, she made her suggestion. "Did you know there are places in Rockawav where Irish people go to dance? And many of the counties have their own dance hall. I know there's one for Galway and Donega] and I(:erry. Perhaps there's one for Kilkenny.

Why don't you go this Saturdav, Patrick? You might meet somebody from home."

"I would, Miss Mary, but. ."

"And get yourself some nice clothes."

"I would. Only. ."

"Go to Batterman's or Gorman's. You can get clothes on time. Most working people do. So much down, so much a week. Give our name as reference."

"I will do so, Miss Marv, and I do be thanking you…."

"Not at all, Patrick. You're too young to spend your evenings sitting in that little room."

He did as she suggested He bought a straw hat for a dollar and bulldog-tip shoes that cost a cool two dollars, a candy-striped shirt and two celluloid collars and a made-up, snap-on polka-dot bow tie. His suit was dear:

eight dollars. He got it just in time. The pants he'd worn steadily since leaving Ireland were almost transparent from wear.

"Them pants don't owe you nothing, Mister," said the salesman feelingly.

He dressed up the following Saturday evening and made a little sensation in the household. The Boss said: "When me stable boy dresses better than meself, one of us is got to go." I\loriarity's idea of a joke.

Mary thought: How very yoYIng he is! How good looking!

1 4~] The Missus said: "I wish 1 had a son.' 1 hen threw her hands over her head and ran upstairs.

Biddy said: "The likes of hhn putting on airs and him looking like a monkey on a stick!"

He found his way to Rocka\vay. Fhere were dance halls with doors wide as barndoors standing open and banners above them with names of the counties: Kerry, Sligo, Donegal, Cork, Tipperary and others. Inside, the pipes snarled and hefty, flushed servant girls danced with barrel-cheated truck drivers and theN danced pounding their feet as though they would make holes in the floor.

The noise drowned out the gentle swish of the ocean nearby.

Patsy could find no lLilkelloy banner 50 he went into COuntN Sligo. A girl with a wild-rose flush in her cheeks that reminded him a little bit of Maggie Rose was sitting alone with a schooner of beer before her. He went to her intending to ask for a dance, hut before he could form the words a burly bruiser appeared out of nowhere and sat dot\ n next the girl.

"Yes?" asked the bruiser. The word was a challenge.

"Nothing," answered Patsv. The \vord was a withdrawal.

He went into County Derry and sa\v two girls dancing together. Ele walked out on the floor, touched the shoulder of one of them and said: "Breaks" The girls w ere delighted one of them, anyway. When that dance was done, he danced with the other girl. Between dances, they sat down and Patsy treated them to beer. He alternated dancing with the two all evening. From time to tingle they sat down and had another schooner. As the evening w ore on, the girls quarreled with each other as to which one he'd e scort home. Pats settled it by promisirla to take both home. Then he excuse,! hilllsclf to go to the men's room. He sneaked out the side door and took the train for horlle, letting the girls sit there.

Going over the trestle, he counted the money in his pocket. Only sixty cents left! And he had Connie out with two dollars! Sweat broke out on his sorehead. I can't do this again, he thought, spending me money like a dr~`iZkc7` sailor. I'll never save me prst n~illio7z spending it before I save it.

That was the end of]'atsv's social life.

14ri 1

~ CHIN PTER SIX ~ WHEN September came, Moriarity told Patsy he'd have to go to night school.

"But I know me reading Jnd writing," protested Patsv.

"And do I not speak English?"

"You have to take lessons," said The Boss, "so's you can learn to be a citizen and vote the Democratic ticket."

"'Tis of no interest to me."