Gavin Corbett - This Is the Way

My father came in he had two books in his hand, his work books he called them, he had them for when he sold the vegetables. He put them flat on the table and he opened them.

This is how I ran my business in the old days he says to Conchita.

Down one length on every page of his work books my father had different things written meaning different vegetables, an x for cabbages, a circle for potatoes, a v for radishes, I could not remember all of them. Down the length beside the vegetables he had numbers, the only things he could read was numbers. Some of the vegetables had numbers over them.

Sometimes my customers would pay on credit and this is the sign for credit he says to Conchita, and he pointed to a v that was long on one side. He says and different customers is different numbers of dots see here he says. Jim Fulton is four dots, Missus Jeane Quinn is nine dots, Matt Hanlon is four dots with a circle around them, Eblana guesthouse is two dots he says.

Why do you use the dots says Conchita.

It is the way with business says my father.

When did you sell vegetables says Conchita.

It is something I done says my father.

I says to Conchita he started before I was born and we lived in a place called the Cliffs. The soil there was good for growing vegetables. And our people in the houses built glass houses and people used come from miles about to stand on the top of the cliff and look at the glass houses wasn’t that it father.

My father was red in the face, he says it was my work Conchita, every man has a job, that is how things is in Ireland.

Conchita went to her bed and I heard noise coming from behind the door. I says to my father what is that noise. He said it was a television. My father had got another line put in that morning in Margarita and Beggy’s room for Conchita. He’d skipped mass for the first time a long time waiting for the man to come put in the line. It was not good skipping mass but it was something couldn’t be got around he said.

He says here help me with this now. He opened a press and he took out a music cassette. The music cassette was a mess, the tape inside of it was spilt out.

Can you fix this he says.

I says what is that.

He says that’s the music cassette was stuck in the car that time.

I says what would you want with that.

He says I want to fix it.

I says give it here. I took a pencil and I put the pencil in the teeth in the music cassette and I turned the pencil around. The tape went back in the music cassette.

My father put the music cassette in the radio in the kitchen.

I says you don’t listen to music.

He pressed the button on the radio and the radio played a terrible broken noise, we had to turn it off, it was a symbol.

On the Sunday myself and Arthur got the bus out to the part of Dublin Judith was living. It was over the river and over the canal. We got the directions. The houses out that way were a dark red and a light brown, some of them were orange. Judith’s house was a height of three floors, had a deep roof. The door was covered in a sheet of stripes. The sheet was to guard the paint of the door.

Judith opened the door with a glass of wine in her hand. She had her hair tied up in a ball with two long needles cut crossway through it.

She says welcome fellows, welcome welcome. She says I am sorry about my pampas grass it’s so over grown.

Me and Arthur seen where she was pointing was a tall clump of yellow plants with feathers on the top.

Arthur says there are a lot of bushes and trees in the area maam.

Judith says yes. On a damp summer’s evening it’s magnificent. After the sun’s come out you just breathe Arthur see, and your lungs fill up like this.

In the hall in the house she had more plants, tall green plants growing up out their pot nearly touching the ceiling. There was a tall green plant on the landing too. On the wall going up the stair were pictures of Chinese women whose clothes were gold and face was paint.

She brought us down steps and in a room. The room went the length of the house from front to back. It was a big room but it was dark. She would not put on lamps because it was still the day. She went out the room to get us wine. Arthur walked around in the room. Judith came back and stood in the door, a smile on her face.

Arthur was looking in a glass case. Inside it were ornaments.

White Chinese porcelain says Judith. She went over to him. She says it’s all from the same part of China indeed it’s all from the same kilns including this figure of Mao which is centuries newer than the oldest piece in here. Roy is the person to ask about all this. He’ll be here later he’s very interested in oriental art.

I says to Judith Arthur was interested in the antiques himself. He used sell them.

Arthur would not look at Judith. He stared in the case, his hands in his pockets, a hump in his back.

Were you in the antiques trade Arthur says Judith.

No says Arthur.

I says don’t be telling lies.

Arthur says I sold a bit of shit.

I says to Judith he sold antiques in all around France and England and Germany.

I picked up oul shit and sold it the next oul place says Arthur.

He walked about the room again, he touched a gramophone record player. He says I seen these before.

Judith says that was my father’s. I still have some of his records though they’re very scratched.

Arthur touched a piano, he says I seen one like this before too.

Another heirloom she says.

Belonging to your father he says.

Yes she says. She sat down at the piano and put her wine on the piano. She leaned her arm on it.

Arthur says is that him. He was pointing to a picture on the wall of a man in a green suit. The man was leaning back in a chair. It was like he was falling asleep in the chair, he was not bothered. He had brown hair but he looked old. His face was very pink and it was rough.

No that’s not him says Judith laughing. We call him Mister Toad she says.

Do you have a husband says Arthur.

No says Judith.

Is there anything else in the house was your father’s says Arthur.

Quite a bit of it she says. The house itself was his. It’s changed in some ways and in other ways not at all. This long room you’re sitting in used to be two rooms, a drawing room and a dining room, before I knocked down the wall between them. My father late in his life got rid of a lot of the house’s contents or at least shoved them up to the attic before I brought them down again. Other things I managed to retrieve one way or another.

Arthur says was your father a rich man.

Judith says yes if you counted all that he owned but most of his life he did struggle. She says he was a very interesting man, he was born in eighteen ninety six.

She said to us the story of her father. She said it as the people in her group started to come to the house. She didn’t want to bore them she said but she said the story anyways. The people that came were Professor Michael Gregory, this man Roy, a German woman name of Izzy, a lesbian woman name of Pam, an angry man who wrote plays name of Stephen, two women who painted paintings name of Sheila and Melody, a poet name of Nuala and a man who practised dancing, married in May he said, name of Don.

The story of Judith’s father was he was called Gordon Neill. He lived in Judith’s house nearly the whole of his life. His mother was an invalid since Gordon was born. She had two more boys sitting up in her basket wheel chair but after that she could not have any more childer. When Gordon was sixteen his mother died. She died in her basket wheel chair that was turned over on a stone floor. It happened in the house and one of Gordon’s brothers said years after that Gordon and Gordon’s father killed the mother but the brother did not mind it because the mother was very sick. When Gordon was eighteen the first war started. The young men on the road left their homes with cakes made by their mammies and walked down the road and turned off to fight in the war. In their gardens they shook the puppet called punch at their mammies and laughed at their mammies and there were flags in the trees. They were saying don’t worry mammies we will be home for Christmas and we are fighting for Ireland. Gordon’s father was seeing all this through his window, he says to Gordon come and look at this. Gordon’s father says if this war is still going on in two year you will be the same age as these young men and you will be wanting to go to fight as well. And in another two year and another two year your brothers will be going to fight he says. I do not want you going to fight in this war you will be killed he says. Gordon says to his father do not worry yourself father I won’t be going to the war. He says nobody has to fight in this war if they do not want it. These fellas on the road think it is the thing to be doing, they are mad he says. I am not mad he says. These fellas are not thinking for themself, I am thinking for my self. I am thinking of the terrible thing has been done to our country and I am staying here he says. The father was happy Gordon was saying this, he knew he would not go to fight. The next few year the war was going on and hundreds of people were dying. All this time Gordon was going to the university and half the people in the university were going to fight in the war and half of them were saying it was madness. They talked about it in rooms. On Saturdays and Sundays and other nights Gordon brought his friends from the university to his house. Gordon and his friends told poems and talked about what was happening in the world. They wrote their own poems as well. They wrote about boats’ masts, fairies and Ireland. Sometimes they brought in women to the house. They got the women from hospitals and schools and they had sex with the women. Gordon’s father did not like this but he put up with it because it meant Gordon was not fighting in the war. When the war was over Gordon finished in the university. The year after this the fight for Ireland started. Gordon and two of his friends said they would fight for Ireland in Paris. They went to Paris but they did not have a good time. They said they were ignored. They went to Italy and they were three year in Italy. When Gordon came back to Ireland Ireland was its own country, it was not ruled by England.