Gavin Corbett - This Is the Way

Arthur was raring, I had my arm around his shoulders I says settle. His breathing was quick I says calm now Arthur.

He pointed to the blond hair man he says to him you got the wrong fella.

Come on Arthur let’s go I says.

He touched his mouth he says to me there blood there.

No I says.

Is me throat burst open he says the fucker had his fingers in me mouth.

Your throat’s not burst I says come on.

He felt his mouth the whole walk back to the house. He was distracted by it, he walked into bins. When we were seated in the room he kept saying the question what was that man’s problem. He fell down on his camp bed he says that man didn’t like the look or sound of us and he doesn’t even speak our language. He doesn’t even understand about us says Arthur.

The two of us wondered what could we do and we said to ourself what was there we could do. I said one thing we could do was that he should not abandon me now. He might have brought trouble along with him but he should stick with me now if there was trouble. We’re in this now I says to him, come with me where I go, you help me I help you I says. The next Sunday we were back at Madame Neill’s salons. We said we would keep going to Madame Neill’s salons. Push on, push on with what we had. We would keep going and something might come of it we said.

Every morning every day that summer Conchita was in the house the weather was bad. When I woke up and looked out my window I seen clear sky but when I looked out the window in the kitchen the other side of the house I seen thick clouds. When I left the house to go to work I seen the line in the sky there was clear sky and thick clouds. When I got to work it rained heavy in sheets. The water jumped from the ground, it turned to white spray off car roofs. I did not know what clothes to be wearing these days. There was sun one minute heavy rain in the next minute. But it was always hot in the air so I wore my shirt, I got wet, I did not care in the end.

In work in Meeley Meats a girl found a way to the roof. This was a great discovery they said. On lunch some people in Meeley Meats used go in their cars to coffee restaurants or some people sat on a step in the side with their sandwiches on their lap and looked at the field of flat concrete and followed the yellow lines on the concrete with their eyes and played a game. After the girl found the way to the roof the people who sat on the step went to the roof. People were not allowed smoke on the roof but people went smoking on the roof anyhows and people brought their tea on the roof. People liked the roof because they said it was the beach. The surface of it was grit on a sheet nailed down. In the sun it heated up and it twinkled when you moved your head. Always in this summer there was one end of the roof in a puddle of water and it was the sea. The people in work lay down on the sheet their cheek on the grit sometimes their feet near the sea. When you stood the mountains was over the side of the roof.

One day in the summer I went on the roof with a boy name of Joe and a girl her name was Babs. These people had troubles, all people in the work had their troubles. Babs had sun glasses on her face. We did not know how a dog got on the roof. The dog was playing in the water then he ran around the back of some chimneys and structures. Joe said he was not surprised there was a dog on the roof and Babs said she thought it was normal. They said the place was a dirty place. I looked over at the chimneys but Joe said he thought the dog fell over the side of the roof because he was excited. Babs says don’t say that Joe but Joe said that was what he thought and the dog did not come back around but we did not look over on the ground to see was he dead.

Joe and Babs says let’s enjoy the sun while we can. They lay on the grit and put their tea on it. I did not like to lie on the grit, I liked to sit on the wall on the side of the roof. I liked to look out in the country. Sometimes I drove out that way. One time in the snow I went out beyond the motor way and I looked in the sky I seen the sky was yellow above Dublin. Many days this way the puddles were ice, it was where the wind came in. In a field were trailers. Even with no wind the trailers shook gentle side to side. They were windy wagons was what was said, it was a television programme for childer.

Joe and Babs talked and said we would be out of jobs the way things were going. I did not hear this thing before. I looked at them I says is this true. They said things were bad in Meeley Meats. The two of them did not look worried about it. Babs had her sun glasses and the two of them were laid down. They smoked cigarettes, the sun was shining on their face, there was the smell of perfume had come up.

The door in the roof opened and out walked Mylo Meeley. Joe and Babs got a fright they tried to hide their cigarettes but Mylo says it’s all right it’s all right. Mylo took out a cigarette himself and had sun glasses himself. He stood looking over at the mountains tapping his cigarette on his cigarette box. Joe says Mylo there’s a dog in your factory. Mylo did not say anything, he turned his head to the side for a minute then he looked back at the mountains then he walked around the roof sucking his cigarette with concentration.

I says to people in work do you think we will lose our jobs and some of them said they didn’t know and some of them said yes. I did not want to be losing my job, I did not want the factory to be shutting down on Mylo because Mylo looked after me he looked after a lot of the people. I said about Mylo and a boy name of Conor looked about him and he looked at his work and he laughed. I says to the girl Lorna what he smiling about and Lorna said Conor seen something in the week before made him shocked and made him laugh. I says what he see and Lorna said Conor went in the store room and he seen Mylo with his trousers down pulling at his mickey and some girl the other side of the window. She said the girl the other side of the window was standing there because the glass that side was like a mirror and she was putting on her make up for the morning. Mylo was looking at this and the girl had her mouth open putting on her make up. Lorna made the shape with her mouth of the mouth on a girl putting on her make up. Lorna said she bet the girl stopped at the window every morning the same time going to work in the industrial estate and every morning Mylo pulled at his mickey looking at the girl.

After I heard this about Mylo I looked at him and the work different. It was getting in on me, I don’t know. I went on the roof with tea or sometimes to walk and sometimes Mylo seen me going up more than I should have been going on the roof. He did not stop me, he looked away. He even went on the roof himself more and more. Sometimes it rained heavy and he still be up there when I be running in escaping out of it and he would walk around the edges and the rain coming down and the drips off his nose.

I will remember that summer, it is only not long ago. I will remember it for the work gone bad, for what happened Meeley Meats, and I will remember it for Conchita in the house. I will remember and I am remembering it now. I remember this summer for the rain and the heat, the rain pelting, coming down in strings of oil down the side of the house and the blue weak light what it was. Them blue hot rainy days stuck in of doors and the strings of rain that were white with the houses behind them. The light by the kitchen window, a weak light.

I remember Conchita sitting at the table her shoes off, her orange brown and pink and grey socks her feet under her on the chair, her eyes in the light that was weak. Her eyes were black but in the light in the window they were brown and gold and she was looking out the window in at the air and the sky. And that is the picture of it I remember, I will remember. I seen it, I am seeing it now, I will bang my head thinking.