The Ginger Man - J. P. Donleavy [56]
"That's a funny question to be asking me right off."
"What would you like me to ask you?"
"I don't know. It's just funny asking my name right away"
"My name is Sebastian."
"My name is Mary."
"You look Italian, Mary."
"Are you being fresh ?"
"Boooobebo. Danggigigeegi. That's African for, certainly not beautiful maiden."
"You're making fun of me. I don't like it. You're queer."
"Have a bottle of stout, Mary. I want to tell you a few things. First a little bit about sin."
"What do you know about sin ? "
"I can forgive sin."
"That's a sin you're saying. I won't talk to you if you say things like that"
Assuming the role of gentleman, Sebastian gave Mary a glass of stout. He brought her to where they could sit on a bench and talk. She said she minded the house. Her father had not been able to move his bowels for three weeks and they had to call the doctor and the doctor couldn't do anything for him and they thought he would die of the poison. She said he would just lie in bed and wouldn't go out to look for a day's work. Been there for months and the smell was too much and she had to take care of the house and her two small brothers.
Clocklan across the room, paying court to a smooth skinned blonde. The party distilling overtones of boredom and discontent. Suddenly a stout bottle whistled across the room, smashing an effeminate man's head. There was a quavering word of admonition and a chorus of encouragement. A chair broke, a girl twisting and yelling that she would not be handled Sebastian retreating down his bench with Mary, giving her an account of what was going on. Something brewing across the room. Clocklan had turned from his blonde woman and was talking to a tiny man who someone said was a jeweler by trade and disposition. Suddenly, Clock-Ian raised his fist and drove it into the little man's face. He fell on the floor, crawling desperately towards safety under a bench and away from the bellow of Clocklan, to receive a kick in the face from a girl who thought he was trying to look up her dress.
A cellar of the damned for sure. I cannot tolerate economic cripples and I do not like those who were once rich. In it all to get away from it all. Perhaps I cannot bear to ever finish waiting. Those few left in the center of the room. The others beaten in battle had retreated to the corners of the room and did not have any opinions, standing glassy eyed and drunk.
Mary looking up out of her green eyes.
"O the things that are happening here."
"An awful bunch, Mary."
"Where are you from in England?"
"I'm not lime, Mary."
"What are you then."
"I'm American."
"Are you. Really?"
"And you're Irish."
"Yes."
"And do you like Ireland?"
"I like it. I wouldn't live anywhere else."
"Have you lived anywhere else?"
"No."
"And do you like your father?"
"That's a funny question. Why do you ask me these funny questions?"
"I like you. I want to know if you like your father."
"No. I don't like him."
"Why?"
"Because he doesn't like me."
"Why doesn't he like you?"
"I don't know but he's never liked me"
"How do you know he doesn't like you?"
"Because he punches and beats me"
"Good God, Mary. I say, he beats you?"
"Yes, he beats me"
"What for?"
"For nothing"
"Must be for something"
"No. If I come home late he asks me why I'm late and no matter what I say he finds some excuse to start punching me and he gets me in the hall so I can't get away and just punches me. He hates me"
"He does?"
"Yes. And there's no reason for it. As soon as I come in the house, he's sitting listening to the wireless and I go to put my coat away and he calls me into the sitting room and then asks me where I've been and accuses me of seeing men in parks and going off with them. And I haven't seen any men. Then he calls me a liar and awful names and then if I say I'm telling the truth, he comes after me"
"What about your mother?"
"She's dead"
"And you take care of your father and brothers?"
"Yes"
"Why don't you leave? Go to England and get a job."
"I don't want to leave my little brothers. They are only small"
"He can't beat you up now."