Gavin Corbett - This Is the Way

The evening in Judith’s house we were drunk. The wine went to our head. Arthur and me sat back from the group of them, we sat by the fire place. I seen the man in the picture’s green suit was moving when I looked at him, that was the effect of the wine. The chat went on the whole night.

Professor Michael said he drove his car in a street in a town and the town ended but the street went on and there were new shops for a half a mile on the street. He said all the shops were empty, there was no one in them, no one selling things and no one buying things. At the end of the shops was a shopping centre with a roof of glass.

Stephen said the shopping centre would be a good place to set off a bomb. No one would be killed but it would say something about the shops better than all the shops being taken over by the bank. He said the shops would be so badly built that the roof of glass would fall in and the shops would fall in as well.

Pam said you could not know if all the shops were empty and people might be killed.

Professor Michael says not this again we’re going we’re going, and he shook his head and he leaned over laughing and the rest of the group were laughing too but not Stephen who had white hair cut close on his head and his head was going pink under his hair.

Judith says shall I go down to the cellar and she went and came back with two bottles.

Nuala said if everybody in Ireland when they were dead gave their money and their house for tax to Ireland and every child in Ireland had to work hard to get money and get jobs would it make Ireland a place that was fair.

Professor Michael said there would be nothing different if this was done because the poor childer would not want to get educated anyhows.

Stephen said it was not true to be saying the poor childer did not want to get educated.

Pam said the poor childer would want to get educated if they knew it was a fair fight to get the top jobs.

Nuala said if the childer of the rich and the childer of the poor were starting from the same in life it would be a fair fight and the poor would change their mind about the education.

Stephen got more angry says you’re making grave assumptions Michael. He says Nuala it’s also not true to say that one hundred per cent inheritance tax would turn the heads of the working classes that’s a patronising position to take Nuala Nuala listen to me he says that’s a gross generalisation that’s an assumption Nuala that the working classes of this country are not interested as it is in bettering themselves through learning and that it would take some major upheaval to turn them on to the idea, you simply don’t have any understanding of working class communities how many working class people do you know Nuala very few is the answer and how can you therefore make your argument which is based on the assumption that the working classes have a dim view of education.

Stephen Stephen come on now says Nuala listen to me I’m taking the working classes’ side, you’re not listening to me.

Stephen was standing up from his seat.

Judith says I have to say Stephen I’m liking your bomb in the shopping centre idea.

Sheila said she didn’t want to be stepping into this even though it was healthy but she said that she wondered that if everybody in Ireland that died had to give their money and their house away in tax for Ireland would it have made any of the people in the room be different.

Melody says knowing that taking a career path would involve an even bloodier dog fight than has to be fought already would be enough to send me careering in the other direction thank you.

Izzy says yes a meritocratic society would be a rampantly capitalist one because the only idea that meritocracy promotes is that there’s a pie to be eaten.

Stephen was still standing he says listen to you. Guff guff all of it he says. And you’re saying the working classes are dogs he says to Melody.

Melody said she did not say that.

Stephen says you’re saying a level playing field would generate a dog fight. And who would be the dogs.

Everybody in the group hit their knee and was laughing and says Stephen.

Stephen says I tell you dogs was what the pigs in Kevin Street called my folks just because they thought they could just because my folks were market traders.

Stephen Stephen they says.

Stephen says Melody or was it Sheila you think art is going to solve the problems of this country. Art and art alone. I’m sick of this twinkly twinkly bull shit you think we can bring about change by throwing a bit of paint on canvas that won’t even be seen or writing a few lines on a page that won’t be read well I tell you I’m writing my thoughts I’m turning them into art all right but I’m out on the streets I’m pressing my words into people’s hands I’m bringing my theatre to the people I’m in people’s faces I’m on the television.

Judith said what does it be saying about Ireland when the people of Ireland congratulate and love two blond singing canary boy twins that England is laughing at and voted out of their country.

Don said what is worse the books about real criminals or the books about criminals that was made up in someone’s head.

Roy said if any of them watched a film about a boy and a girl and the girl likes the boy but the boy doesn’t like the girl and the boy works in the television business he said all of them would be skipping home happy.

Conchita would come in the house from the school she would say to my father how are you Mister Sonaghan how was your day. And even if my father done nothing in the day he would tell her what he done. If he been meeting with Mister FX he would say I been meeting with Mister FX, if he been thinking he would say I been thinking of Julian’s revelations of divine love or I been thinking of the Holy Ghost telling Blessed Angela that God loved her more than any other person in the valley.

For two weeks in the middle the summer it rained heavy non stop and no one could leave their house. The gutters were choking Conchita said. One of the days we watched a foreign man. We had not seen him before. He had moved into the house behind our house. The rain stopped an hour and he came out his house and that was the first we seen him. He went on his kitchen roof with a satellite and he was bolting it to the wall. The rain came heavier than before and he put a bag on his head. When we went looking next there were ambulance men on the roof. They took him away and we heard the man got electrocuted and it burnt through his nerves. He would not be the same man again. It upset my father and Conchita awful, it upset me. My father and Conchita prayed a whole evening for the man. Conchita said she would not ask for a satellite for her television.

One of the Saturdays my father says Conchita says she wants to go into Dublin on the bus Anthony will you go with her.

I says to myself she goes in Dublin every morning of the week but I did not say anything to my father because I wanted to go in Dublin with Conchita.

On the bus Conchita sat at the window, I sat in beside her. Nearly the whole way she looked out the window. Her eyes were squinting. She said the cloud was lifted she said the sun was out. In her part of Spain she said it was rain and sun the whole time and two rainbows. Two boys were spilling marbles and old washers down the floor of the bus. I was stopping the marbles and washers with my foot. I says yes to Conchita the whole way, I was not listening. The boys were looking over the seat, one had a small white face and was smiling the other was looking straight in my eye and bending down with the marbles and washers. I says sometimes you cannot be sure about certain boys this is why I don’t get the bus. Conchita was looking at the window she was frightened of the boys. When we were coming into Dublin Conchita turned to me she said her father was an angry man. She said her father found her with a book about what happens in people’s thoughts and head. She said to me she knew from this book if a man pissed in a bottle what that meant and if a child held a dog by the chin what that meant. She said it was something that was interesting but her father did not like it. She made the move in the air with her hand the way her father hit her and she said pp pp pp with her mouth.