Gavin Corbett - This Is the Way

My father was in the control of Mister FX, I seen it. Mister FX went with him to the bishop of Dublin’s house to get communicated from the church of Rome, they handed in a sheet of paper. The church my father joined that Mister FX was in was a new church would look after him, they did not need the church of Rome. There were certain things about this new church. The wine was a big part of it along with the Latin. They had the Latin bible. The bible used by the church of Rome was bad, was the same one was written by the king of England in sixteen hundred year ago. They believed the moving statues was a sign should have been seen by all Christians. Padre Pio was the Devil’s field general.

My father was messing with dangerous things. What if you want to be buried the normal way I says to him one time. The whole thing was getting mad, it was hard living with, I said it to him.

This will drive me out, it is a warning I says.

My father says a strong faith is a sign of civility.

I says it’s what drove mother out.

My father says your mother could not bear civility.

I thinks my mother could not bear you turning on her.

Sometimes my father himself would find it too much. Sometimes I would wake in the dust and the prizes, I would find my father not a bit of clothes on him kissing the photographs and candlesticks in the middle the night crying. And here is some words I learnt, I would say pull yourself together I says to him.

Lucky I had a job to go to. This was my prayers, this was the thing saved me. Every morning I got in my car and I went to Tunny Way industrial estate on the edge of Dublin. It was west, going west.

I worked in a plant. It was the meat business I was in. Meat was a good word for it they said. Two fellas came from Brazil to work in the plant then they left because they were disgusted. The girl who looked after the mincing said the things in the vat you wouldn’t believe. I seen it a few times and I did not see bones or hoofs but I seen brains and jelly. But it did not matter once the mincer went on, was all cut down to one. The next part of it it went to the girls looked after the Meeley Burger and Spice Burger mixes. My part of it was looking after the roller that flattened the Meeley Burger meat and bringing down the press that made the meat into Meeley Burgers. The Spice Burger meat went for another pressing and a baking, the Quality Irish Mince went to other boys and girls, but the Meeley Burger was the job I done. Any shop I was in I would look for the Meeley Burger when I was getting milk and I says that was made by me.

We had a girl in the plant she was touched. She wanted to get on the bus in her whites she liked the look of them so much. Her name was Happy. It was not, it is a joke, her name was Celestina, Happy was the name one of the boys called her because he said she should have been called that. The girl called Lorna used bring her computer in the plant. It was a lap top computer. She said she stole the internet because the building next door had the internet and she could take it in through the wall. She said to me to put my head down in between the signal. I would not.

Mylo Meeley was the name of the man owned the plant. Some day he said he was going to go big, he was going to make the meat for the new religions in Ireland, the Muslims was one. Mylo Meeley looked after me, he gave me the job, he got me the money. One time he said to me to come up to the office and he had a box of dough nuts. Some other plant in the industrial estate was making the dough nuts and he got them off them. Choose your weapon he says to me. I took a chocolate one and he took a coffee one. I did not know about saying something to him because his wife said to me before to watch out that he didn’t be eating sugar and cakes because he had the diabetes, she gave out black. But he was a fierce man for things that were sweet and he was a fierce man for the messing. He wore a hat indoors and he wore the wellingtons. He put his feet on the table. He says see those. He called himself a country person. He said he knew what that meant to me. I did not say anything and country person did not mean anything to me.

One summer day Mylo said to me that my father and myself were to come to his house for dinner. Mylo had a way of saying things made you feel guilty if you did not do things in the right way. I told my father and he says let’s go. I says to my father are you sure you want to go. My father says why not as if it was natural. It was not natural but my father tried to act natural about it because he wanted it to be natural.

Two days before the dinner Mylo waved down from his window to come up to his office. He said to me to say to my father what he wanted to eat for the dinner. I rang my father and my father says beef and potatoes.

We went to Mylo’s house and the dinner was cooked when we got in the door. When we went in the room for the dinner it was dark. Mylo had a projector machine up and he showed us pictures of buildings had been knocked down. He said his father had collected these photographs because he was in a group called the Dangerous Buildings Committee. He did not touch his food, only the potatoes. My father and me watched him, we didn’t go near our food neither. Then Mylo’s wife put her hand on my father’s arm and says your food will go cold. My father and me and Mylo’s wife ate our food in the dark and Mylo spent an hour sliding photographs in his projector machine.

After the dinner my father says to Mylo what work are you in though he knew what work Mylo was in because I was in the same work.

The meat business says Mylo.

I sold vegetables and made fountains before my psoriasis of the skin got bad says my father.

Mylo did not say anything about it, just moved to the door with us. When we were at the door the door bell rang and in came a black fat girl. Mylo said to her to take off her shoes. My father and me looked down at our shoes, we were shamed because we never took off our shoes. The black fat girl says I have lost my contact lenses. Mylo says one of them is stuck to your cheek and he moved his hand on her face. The black fat girl went up the stair and Mylo said she was their Spanish student.

She’s come to Ireland to learn English and perhaps a bit our culture says Mylo.

Funny because a week later my father came out the house and he found two Spanish students hiding behind our wall. They were lying down flat on the weeds on broken glass and they were girls.

My father says what are you doing.

The two of them turned over and they were crying.

My father says stand up and he wiped their tears off their face. He says are you okay.

They said they been chased and hit by boys in the street.

I was standing beside my father and there was something not right with the Spanish students. The eyes were wide in them and one of them only had one shoe.

My father says where do you live and the place they said was a good way out. My father took them in the car back to the place they came.

The week after that my father did something I thought he was crazy. I seen him changing around Margarita and Beggy’s room, I seen Margarita’s bed stripped.

I went in I says to him what are you doing. I seen there was a picture of the Blessed Mother on the wall.

He says I been talking to FX and he’s helped me out.

I says what has he done.

My father says FX says I am a good man and I’ll make a good host.

I did not know what my father was saying. I thought a minute he was talking about the holy bread.

He says there’s a girl coming from Spain in three days.

This woman was in a dream. I seen her in blue and green. The blue was the water, the green was the weed around. She came to me with the light behind her. She came to me when I was drowning. I could not see her face because of the light. I was not lifted up to the air. Maybe I am drowned then. There was no ending to this, she was in a dream as I says. I woke up and I forgot about it. Then she came again.