I’d redden their arses if they did. And Senan and Angela have four as well, and the Moynihans have their young lad, and the O’Connors have three, but they’re all grand young people, not a bother out of them—”
“And Sheila Reddy’s got six,” Lena says. “Most of them still at home. That enough for you?”
Noreen’s mouth pinches up. “If you did have any trouble,” she tells Cal, “it’d be from that lot.”
“Yeah?” Cal says. He scans the shelves and picks himself out a can of corn. “They bad news?”
“Sheila’s poor,” Lena says. “Is all.”
“It costs nothing to teach a child manners,” Noreen snaps, “or get it to school. And every time those childer do come in here, there’s something missing after. Sheila says I can’t prove it, but I know what’s in my own shop, and—” She remembers Cal, who is peacefully comparing chocolate bars, and stops. “Sheila’d want to get her head on straight,” she says.
“Sheila does what she can with what she’s got,” Lena says. “Like the rest of us.” To Cal she says, “I used to pal around with her, in school. We were wild then. Getting out our windows at night to go drinking in fields with the lads. Hitching lifts into town to the discos.”
“Sounds like you were the teenagers I worry about,” Cal says.
That gets another laugh from her. “Ah, no. We never did any damage to anyone except ourselves.”
“Sheila did herself damage, all right,” Noreen says. “Look what she got out of all that messing. Johnny Reddy and six just like him.”
“Johnny was a fine thing, back then,” Lena says, with a lift at the corner of her mouth. “I shifted him once or twice myself.”
Noreen tuts. “At least you’d more sense than to marry him.”
Cal decides on a Mint Crisp bar and puts it on the counter. “The Reddys live near enough to me that I oughta keep an eye out?” he asks.
“Depends,” Lena says. “How much of a worrier are you?”
“Depends. How close is the trouble?”
“You’re grand. They’re a few miles beyond you, up in the mountains.”
“Sounds good to me,” Cal says. “Johnny a farmer, or what?”
“Who knows what Johnny is,” Lena says. “He went off to London a year or two back.”
“Left Sheila high and dry,” Noreen says, with a mix of condemnation and satisfaction. “Some pal of his over there had a business idea that was going to make the pair of them millionaires, or so he said. I’m not holding my breath, and I hope Sheila’s not either.”
“Johnny was always a great man for the ideas,” Lena says. “Not so great for making them happen. You can relax. Any child of his, a crisp packet full of shaving foam would be more than they could organize.”
“Good to know,” Cal says. He has a feeling that one, at least, of Johnny Reddy’s kids may not take after his daddy.
“Now, Cal,” Noreen says, struck by a thought and pointing her dust cloth at him. “Weren’t you telling me only the other day, you were thinking of getting a dog? And wouldn’t that be the perfect way to put your mind at ease? Listen to me now: Lena’s dog’ll be whelping any day, and she’ll be wanting homes for the pups. Let you go with her now and have a look.”
“She hasn’t whelped yet,” Lena says. “It won’t do him much good staring at her belly.”
“He can see if he likes the cut of her. Go on.”
“Ah, no,” Lena says pleasantly. “I need my cup of tea.” Before Noreen can open her mouth again, she nods to Cal, says, “Nice to meet you,” and is gone into the back room.
“You’ll stay and have a cup of tea with us,” Noreen orders Cal.
“Appreciate it,” Cal says, “but I oughta be getting home. I didn’t take the car, and it looks like rain.”
Noreen gives an offended sniff, turns the radio louder and goes back to dusting, but Cal can tell from the occasional glance she shoots his way that she hasn’t given up that easy. He grabs groceries fast and more or less at random, before she can come up with a fresh scheme. At the last minute, when Noreen is already adding up his bill on the noisy old manual cash register, he throws in a carton of milk.
FIVE
Trey does come back the next day, and the ones after that. Sometimes he shows up around mid-morning; sometimes it’s mid-afternoon, which gives Cal the comforting impression that he does occasionally go to school,