You ran as fast as you could, faster than you normally could, but the others were always there at the end waiting.
Kevin didn’t come out.
We laughed.
– Keva – Keva – Keva – Keva -
Liam did the gang whistle; he was the best at it. I wasn’t able to do it. When I put the four fingers in my mouth there was no room for my tongue. The back of my throat went dry and I nearly got sick.
Kevin was still in there. We began to drop the muck we’d been going to belt at him; Kevin was in there with the blood pumping out of him. I jumped into the trench. The muck was hard and dry at this end.
– Come on! I yelled up at the rest.
I knew they wouldn’t follow me; that was why I’d said it. I was going to rescue Kevin alone; it was great. I went into the pipe. I looked back, like an astronaut getting into his spaceship. I didn’t wave. The others were beginning to climb into the trench. They’d never follow me in, not until it was too late.
I saw Kevin immediately. I couldn’t see him from the entrance, but now I could. He wasn’t far in. He was sitting down. He stood up. I didn’t shout back that I’d found him, or anything. This was me and Kevin together. The two of us went deeper into the pipe so the others wouldn’t see us. I wasn’t disappointed that Kevin wasn’t injured. This was better.
I didn’t like the idea of sitting down in the absolute dark but I did it, the two of us. We made sure we were touching, right beside each other. I could see Kevin’s shape, his head moving. I could see him stretching his legs. I was happy. I could have gone asleep. I was afraid to whisper, to ruin it. We could hear the others shouting, miles away. I knew what we’d do. We’d wait here till the shouting stopped, then we’d come out of the pipe before they told our parents or grownups. They knew we weren’t hurt or anything; they’d do it to get us into trouble, pretending they were saving us.
I wanted to talk now. It was cold. It was darker even though my eyes were comfortable.
Kevin let off a fart. We beat the air with our hands. He tried to get my mouth, to cover it, to stop me from laughing. He was laughing. We were fighting now, just shoving, trying to stop one another from shoving back. We’d be caught soon; the others would hear us and come in. These were the last moments. Me and Kevin.
Next thing, he pruned me.
Pruning was banned in our school. The headmaster, Mister Finnucane, had seen James O’Keefe doing it to Albert Genocci when he was looking out his window at the weather, deciding whether to call us in or let us stay out. He’d been shocked, he said, when he went round to all the classes about it; he’d been shocked to see a boy doing that to another boy. He was sure that the boy who had done it hadn’t meant to seriously hurt the other boy; he certainly hoped that the boy hadn’t meant to hurt the other boy. But -
He let it hang there for a while.
This was great. James O’Keefe was in bigger trouble than he’d ever been in before, than any of us had ever been in. He had James O’Keefe standing up. He kept his head down even though Mister Finnucane kept telling him to hold his head up.
– Always hold your heads high, boys. You’re men.
I didn’t know for certain if I’d heard it when he said it the first time; Pruning.
– what I believe is being called pruning.
That was how he said it. It was like a big hole fell open in front of me – in front of all of us, I could tell from the faces – when Mister Finnucane said that. What else was he going to say? The last time he’d talked to us it was about someone robbing his big ink bottle from where he kept it outside his door. Now he was going to talk about pruning. The shock made me forget to breathe.
– Come on, James, now, he said. -Hold your head up, like I said.
Albert Genocci wasn’t in our class. He was in the thicks’ class. His brother, Patrick Genocci, was in our class.
– I know you’re only playing when you do it, said Mister Finnucane.
Henno was standing behind him. He was blushing as well. He’d been out in the yard looking after us; he should have seen what was happening. There was no escape; James O’Keefe was dead.
– only having a bit of fun. But it’s not funny. Not funny at all. Doing what I saw being done this morning could cause serious injury.
Ah; was that all?
– That part of the body is very delicate.
We knew that.
– You could ruin a boy’s life for the rest of his – life. All for a joke.
The big hole in front of us was filling up. He wasn’t going to say anything wrong or funny. He wasn’t going to say Balls or Mickey or Testicles. It was disappointing, only it had stopped another history test – the life of the Fianna – and now he was going to kill James O’Keefe.
– Sit down, James.
I couldn’t believe it. Neither could James O’Keefe or anybody.
– Sit down.
James O’Keefe got half-way between sitting down and standing up. It was a trick; it had to be.
– I don’t want to see it happening again, said Mister Finnucane.
That was all.
Henno’d get him when Mister Finnucane was gone. But he didn’t. We went straight back to the test.
There was no proper road outside our house for months, up as far as the summer holidays. Da had to park the car down at the shops. Missis Kilmartin, the woman from the shop who spied on the shoplifters, knocked at our door: there was no room for the H.B. man in his lorry to make his delivery because of Da’s car and Kevin’s da’s car and three others. Missis Kilmartin was angry. It was the first time I’d ever really seen an angry woman. It wasn’t a bloody car-park, she said; she paid her rates. She was squinting. That was because she was never out in the daylight; she was always behind the one-way glass door. Ma was stuck; Da was at work – he went in the train – and she couldn’t drive. Missis Kilmartin put her hand out.
– The keys.
– I don’t have them. I -
– For Christ’s sake!
She slammed the gate. She grabbed it so she could slam it.
When I’d opened the door she’d said, -Your mother.
I’d thought I was in for it. I’d been framed. She’d seen me buying something and she thought I was robbing it. The way I’d picked it up, it had looked like I was going to rob it.
I never robbed from that shop.
You only went to jail if you robbed more than ten shillings worth of stuff, at one time. People my age and Kevin’s didn’t go to jail when they were caught. They were sent to a home. You went to Artane if you were caught twice. They shaved your head there.
We had to stop running through the pipe; it was too far. It had gone up past my house, out of Barrytown. We took over the manholes. They stuck out of the ground, like small buildings. They’d become level with the ground when they were surrounded by cement; they’d become just parts of the path. We got Aidan and shoved him down the hole. He had to stay down there on the platform and we lobbed muck in. He could hide because the platform down there was much wider than the hole. If we lobbed the muck low it went through the hole at an angle and hit the platform walls and maybe Aidan. We surrounded him. If it had been me I’d have got down to the pipe and charged down to the next hole and climbed out before the others found out what I was doing. And I’d have pelted them and have used stones as well. Aidan was crying. We looked at Liam because he was his brother. Liam kept throwing the muck into the hole so, so did we.