The Ginger Man - J. P. Donleavy [76]
O'Keefe stopped. Threw his hands in the air. Eye wide. Screaming.
"You God damn drunkard. Damn this damn country. Drink is the curse of this country. God damn it."
The crowds stepped back to make room for this shouter. Dangerfield abandoning his spider walk set off swiftly across the street towards O'Donogue's Public House. He missed the door. A great slap of body into the wall. He stood there stunned. Scratching at the bricks.
O'Keefe watching him, broke into wild laughter. The crowd stepped back further. When shouters laugh, there's violence.
O'Keefe speaking to the crowd.
"Can't you see I'm mad? Drink is die curse of this damn country"
He followed Dangerfield who was standing, a bit twitchy inside the pub door.
"For God's sake, Kenneth, what's the matter with you? Do you want to have me spotted?"
"You bastard, you got me into a pub anyway. Boy did you look silly running into the wall."
"Well I think you're cracking up."
"I've come back to this place after putting in a half year of loneliness, not enough to eat, no sex life, nothing and this is what I have to face. No money waiting and I'm not going to buy you drink. I just can't stand it I don't want this life anymore."
"Kenneth, you're upset. Now don't be upset. I know you've had a hard time of it and I want to see you enjoy your return."
"Shut up. Get your drink. Here. Take this. Get it but shut up. Drink, drink—go ahead."
Sorrowfully, Dangerfield took the half crown. He whispered to the man behind the bar. He came to O'Keefe with a pint of cider and a pint of stout for himself. In O'Keefe's eye, a bit of mist Dangerfield put the pennies change down. O'Keefe swept them aside. Sebastian put them in his pocket
"Look, Dangerfield. When someone farted in my house you could smell it in every room. At every meal there were seven pairs of hands reaching for a pile of spaghetti. Fights and yapping. Yap, yap, yap. I'm here because I want to get out of that forever and there's one thing that will get me out and that's money. I don't give a damn what you do, drink yourself to death, murder Marion, but me, I've had all I want What have I got to show for two years over here? This sack has everything I own in the world."
"I'm only trying to be of help, Kenneth."
"Well you're not You're sucking me down. I don't want you on my back"
"You don't mean that, Kenneth"
"I mean it I don't care if I never see you again as long as I live. You could be dying in the gutter, I don't care. All I want is my money and you can go and drink yourself to death"
"O hard words, Kenneth"
"What the hell have I got to show for all the time I've been over here? Nothing. And it's because of people like you. The Irish are all the same wherever they go. Faces compressed into masks of suffering. Complaining and excuses. And the Irish rasping, squabbling and bickering. Hear me? I'm sick of it I hate it I thought you got places when you learned to be an electrician. Good steady job. Good money. Have kids. I don't want kids. I don't want to be sucked down. And listen to some priested mick saying this is the second Sunday after Pentecost, there will be a communion breakfast next Sunday, and I want to see you all put a dollar in the basket. And every time I get a chance to get out of it, something screws me."
"O you're distraught, Kenneth. Now calm. And remember poverty is sacred. But don't strain to get away. All these other things will come. Let me sing you a little song."
All the way
From the land
Of Kerry
Is a man
From the dead
Gone merry.
This man
Stood in the street
And stamped his feet
And no one heard him.
20
They arrived in the Geary. The sea is right down those streets lashing and lapping. And have to bend down to get under these clouds. O madam bend over, I want to tell you something. Out here it's like soft bread and fish things burrow and hide. I used to climb around here. Get the tiny creatures caught in these crystal cradles of rock. Like me. Until they take the fearful sun away and give me a bosom of deep.
In the post office. Of the Geary. Dangerfield approached the counter abruptly. Clicked his heels.