The Butcher Boy Page #8

- Are you for the dance?

Are you coming for a slither

on the boards?

You don't be looking at the mantelpiece

when poking the fire.

The f***ing mantelpiece, he says.

My dear, be cripes,

that man's his father's son.

Two, please. Me and Francie Brady.

- Okay.

- Thanks very much.

- Would you like a dance?

- No, thank you.

Why didn't you bring your knitting?

"Why didn't you bring your knitting?"

You're a good one.

We're up from the bogs in our boots

and our togs, and we'll fix our...

- What are you looking at?

- F*** off!

And they were all over me...

like the Apaches over John Wayne.

"Joe, help!" I shouts.

"Call up the posse. Get the cavalry."

Who's gonna get me out of here

if it's not Joe Purcell?

But he didn't come.

- Did he?

- Don't f***ing well come back!

The cost of freedom is always high...

but Americans have always paid it.

And one path we shall never choose...

and that is the path of surrender,

or submission.

Our goal is not the victory of might...

but the vindication of right.

Not peace at the expense of freedom,

but both peace and freedom.

Here, in this hemisphere...

Did I ever tell you

what she told me, Da?

I was only 5 pound weight

when I was born.

Cheers, missus.

So Joe didn't want the goldfish?

No, missus, goldfish are nothing to do

with me and Joe.

- How many did you get him, Francie?

- A million billion trillion.

Too many.

Missus...

my eyes are getting so heavy.

Don't worry, Francie.

Joe is coming.

When, missus?

Little Francie, when do you think?

He's at the window.

It's going to be all right, Francie.

Joe is here.

Joe.

It's okay, son. It's okay. It's okay.

I let Da down, sergeant.

- It's all right, Francie.

- I let him down.

Da! Da!

- Easy, now, easy.

- Da!

- Da!

- That's the boy.

Da!

That's the boy.

There you are. I was looking for you.

Joe, is that the lake behind you?

What do you think it is, the Rio Grande?

Jesus!

Oh, no. Not them Communists!

I got a funny feeling about this, Joe.

Yep, something's not right.

Your father was meant to come

and see me a week ago.

The thing is, Francie, you don't know

the type of people you're dealing with.

Your daddy has enough on his plate?

This thing is bigger

than the both of us, Joe.

Better call in the feds.

If they want to push the button,

then push it they will.

So who's a pig now, ladies?

It'll be a bitter day for this town

if the world comes to an end.

Father Dominick says the things

he's seen them Communists do...

- Time to ride out, I guess.

- Yeah.

This old town has had it.

Thank God I had Joe.

Me and Joe Purcell,

the last two in the universe...

on this bitter, bitter day

for the lovely town...

when the world had ended.

Oh, Francis, you've unlocked

something very precious.

And you say the alien looked like...?

Well, a little like yourself, doc,

to tell you the truth.

Then again, a little

like Father Sullivan.

Maybe he took over

an ordinary priest's body.

I don't know.

Maybe we should get out of here, doc,

before it's too late.

Well, well, we meet again.

You're a long way from the old field

in the school for pigs.

What was that, Francis?

Who do you think, doc?

Our Lady on the wall behind you.

Me and Our Lady go back a long way.

It's not every shite hawk

she'll appear to, you know.

What are you planning

on doing now, doc?

So this was the garage.

One blast and I was away

all through hyperspace.

Hello there, Egyptians, pyramids and all.

Pharaoh can't come today,

so it's me instead...

Francie from the terrace.

Where do they be taking you?

- Cripes, more bogmen.

- You needn't think you're not seen.

They take me to the

time-travel room, old bean.

Where I travel through the wastes of space

and time, courtesy of Algernon Carruthers.

I knew you were a cowering cur

the minute I set eyes on you.

Bogmen, bogmen!

Will somebody save me from bogmen!

I heard they're going to give you

the treatment.

They'll soon wipe that grin off your face

when they put them holes in your head.

- What holes?

- I seen the last fella.

He used to stand by the window all day,

eating bits of paper.

- Officer, get this bogman out of here!

- Do you like paper?

Well, you'd better start

getting to like it.

Go on, you Cavan cur.

I took better men than you.

The tree trunks had to haul me off him.

This is a disgrace, a person

can't get a bit of sleep around here...

without being attacked

by bony-arsed bogmen.

That bogman bastard

says you're gonna put holes in my head.

No, no, Francis, nothing like that.

Now, come here,

I want to show you these.

I want you look at them

and tell me what you think, yeah?

Looks like you'll be writing

no more messages on this, doc.

- And why is that, Francis?

- Look at it, it's destroyed.

Lift your specs and repeat after me:

Good man, yourself!

Now you have it! Run, kick her!

Into the back of the net with her. By

Christ, this year's team is the best yet.

And that's the garage for you.

Bogmen at Mass

thinking they're at a football match.

And that's when I says:

"Whatever it takes, Francie Brady's

getting out of the garage for pigs."

Hey, bogman, hold this.

And stop shaking, will you?

The thing about Cavan people...

is not one of them wouldn't give you

the last halfpenny out of their pocket.

The best men ever walked in here

were the Cavan men.

- Hey, bogman.

- You're not gonna bite me again, are you?

No. Not if you tell them

that I've gone to Dublin, right?

- Right.

- Yeah, okay.

See you, you bony arse.

Here I was back home,

and no more about holes in the head.

- I met Jimmy the Skite...

- Do you have a dollar?

and I thought I was back inside.

- We're closed.

You're what?

What are you talking about?

The Francie Brady bank is closed,

and that's all about.

Closed? Go on back to the garage,

Brady, you f***ing lug, you.

Back off, you f***ing round tub

of Guinness.

Hello, Mr. Purcell.

Are you all right there, Francie?

I was wondering if Joe was in.

Joe's away in boarding school

in Bundoran the last three months.

- He and Phillip went after the exams.

- Phillip?

Aye, you know the young Nugent fella

he hangs around with.

Son, you shouldn't be out on your own.

Aren't you supposed to be in the hospital?

Mr. Purcell, I wish you'd stop all this.

I just wanna talk to Joe.

I told you, Francie,

he's away in Bundoran.

I'm sorry, Mr. Purcell, but I'm fed

up with people telling me lies.

You used to never do that.

- Isn't it true, isn't it?

- Come here, I'm not telling you lies.

You never would've in the old days.

Only for her.

It was fine until she came,

interfering and causing trouble.

Francie, come on, now. Calm down.

I know you don't mean it to be like this.

Only for Mrs. Nugent, it'd be all okay.

All like the old days, way back long ago,

like the way it used to be.

It was all okay.

That old Mrs. Nugent...

she was taking over the whole town.

Bit by bit.

Everything I'd ever liked.

I just couldn't believe it.

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