“Jeremiah!”
Mammy. Say nothing. If I don’t answer she won’t know I’m here.
“Jeremiah, are you all right?”
Don’t weaken.
“Jeremiah, it’s you in there, isn’t it?”
On the other hand if I don’t answer she might think I’m lying unconscious and then she’ll get someone to force the door and then what? What will those women in the scullery think when they see the bottom half of me?
“I’ll be out in a minute,” I called as matter of factly as I could. “Tell me, is Father Hourigan still there? In the wake room?” I tried to make these last two questions sound airy as if I wouldn’t have minded a chat with him though it didn’t really matter that much but I don’t think Mammy bought it.
“What do you want to know that for?” she shouted. “What does he want to know that for?” She could only have been directing the second question to the other women in the scullery. Two responses came, the first of which was: “What does he want to know what for?” and the other: “Here, I’ll go and see if I can get him.” Stupid woman whoever she was. Did she think I wanted the last rites or what?
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The Wake - Table of contents
HumorTHE YEAR is 1968 and the Swinging Sixties are still swinging - though not in Ireland. But wait! An old woman dies in a northern Irish town and her wake becomes a rendezvous for lesbians, bisexuals and political revolutionaries. And in there among t...
