Foreign Affairs (16 page)

‘That’s because there’s nothing to tell,’ Brenda retorted smugly.

‘There is so! There’s loads to tell!’ Jennifer yelled petulantly. Brenda paled slightly. ‘Beth caught you and Kathy taking a sip out of her granny’s sherry bottle,
Miss Brenda Myles, so there, and I never told on you,’ she shot back furiously. Their mother nearly had a seizure.

‘Brenda Myles, is this the truth?’ She was horrified.

‘Don’t mind her, she’s telling lies,’ Brenda exclaimed.

‘I am not,’ Jennifer said sourly. She knew she’d really done it now. There’d be ructions.

‘Have you broken your Confirmation pledge, Miss?’

Brenda stayed mute, casting daggers looks at her sister. Jennifer began to feel very sorry that she’d opened her mouth. That was a serious tale that she had tattled but it just burst out
of her, she’d been so annoyed by her elder sister’s ratting on her about laughing in the procession. It wasn’t as if she had laughed deliberately. Everyone else was laughing too,
she thought miserably. But breaking the Confirmation pledge not to drink until you were twenty-one, that was serious. Her sister was in deep trouble.

‘Brenda, I’m speaking to you,’ her mother said angrily.

‘We were just having a sniff of it,’ she argued.

‘Yes, they were just having a sniff, I think,’ Jennifer echoed quickly, anxious to undo the damage.

‘Don’t tell me fibs, the pair of you. I’m going straight down to Mrs Cleary immediately to get to the bottom of this.’ Kit was hopping mad. ‘Stay here both of you
until I get back and don’t budge.’

‘Now see what you’ve done, you little wagon. Kathy will never speak to me again for getting her into trouble. And Da will murder me if he finds out,’ Brenda shrieked.

‘Well I didn’t mean to. It was all your fault anyway. You had to open your big mouth about me laughing at the procession. Didn’t you?’ Jennifer yelled back.
‘You’re always the same. Always trying to get me into trouble. I wish I didn’t have you for an older sister. Kathy Cleary is much nicer to Beth than you are to me. She always
shares her clothes and her comics with her. You never do.’ Jennifer was distraught.

‘If I get into serious trouble over this I’ll never speak to you again.’ Brenda burst into tears, marched upstairs and slammed the door of the bedroom. Jennifer burst into
tears herself. She hadn’t meant to get Brenda and Kathy into trouble. But it looked as if they were for it.

Kit came back ten minutes later looking grim. ‘Tell your sister I want her,’ she instructed Jennifer.

Jennifer raced up the stairs. Her heart was pounding. If Kit decided to tell their father there would be a dreadful row. Why, oh why, had she opened her big mouth? She’d just have to learn
to control that temper of hers. ‘You’re wanted,’ she said breathlessly. Brenda cast her a filthy look and followed her out of the room.

‘I’ll say nothing to your father this time, Brenda, but if I ever hear of anything like this again you are in serious trouble, madam. You are not to touch alcohol. Do you hear me?
You make sure you tell this in Confession and go and take the pledge again. Now get to bed, the pair of you.’ Their mother was highly annoyed.

‘Sorry,’ murmured Jennifer as she undressed for bed. Her apology was ignored. Jennifer, in all honesty, could not blame Brenda. It had been a terrible thing to rat about.
There’d be a mega-huff for the next few days, but it would all blow over, she hoped. Her father hadn’t been told and that was good.

Jennifer lay in bed casting her mind back over the events of the day. One thing though, she smiled to herself under the covers remembering Cora, it had certainly been the best procession
ever.

Chapter Thirteen

It was great going back to secondary school, Brenda reflected as she stood at the No. 13 bus terminus with Kathy. There were loads of students at the bus stop gabbing nineteen
to the dozen. There were girls from the Holy Faith in their navy uniforms, girls from Eccles Street in their maroon and cream, and girls from St Theresa’s, her own school, in their green and
white. There were fellas from Vincent’s and Belvedere and there was a lot of good-natured jeering and slagging between them all. Brenda loved being in the thick of it.

She had been so bored at home that summer. All she seemed to do was housework, or read, or watch TV. At night she and Kathy went over to the big green to meet up with the rest of the gang and
sneak the odd fag and have a laugh with the fellas. But she always had to be in by nine-thirty. Her father was very strict like that. It was embarrassing having to slip away from the crowd. Even
Kathy was allowed to stay out until ten. Which seemed much more grown-up.

Brenda and her da were constantly fighting about it. Sometimes she just hated him. Even her mother thought he was being too strict and once there’d been a huge row when Kit accused her
husband of being as bad as his father. Her da hadn’t spoken to Brenda for weeks after it. Blaming it all on her. Having a strict father was the worst thing in the world. How was she ever
going to be allowed to go to dances when she was older? Brenda could see stormy times ahead, that was for sure.

She saw Eddie Fagan smiling at her. Brenda smiled back. She liked Eddie and she knew he liked her too. He often gave her a cigarette when they were all together on The Green. He was talking to
his mates but he kept looking over at her and smiling at her every so often. She could feel herself going scarlet.

‘He fancies you, Bren, I’m telling you,’ Kathy giggled. She was conducting a flirtation with Kenny Lyons, who was Eddie’s mate.

‘I’d love to get off with him, I really fancy him too,’ Brenda sighed as the object of her affections said hello to one of the girls from Eccles Street and started chatting her
up. Brenda’s heart sank to her boots. She knew the girl by sight and she was very pretty. There was no way Eddie would give her a second glance now.

She saw Marty Hayes arrive on the scene and caught his eye and waved. Marty arrived over, and Brenda immediately engaged him in vivacious conversation, keeping half an eye on Eddie all the
while. The bus arrived and there was a mad scramble upstairs to get the front seats.

To her great dismay Eddie and the pretty girl went down to the back and so she and Kathy sat up in the front. They wouldn’t turn around because that would be far too obvious. Fortunately
Marty came and plonked himself in the seat behind them so Brenda had an excuse to turn and talk to him and was able to observe the pair at the back. It looked as if they were getting on like a
house on fire. Completely disheartened, she left Kathy to chat with Marty and stared out the window with mounting gloom.

It was a lovely warm sunny September day. The Green, empty of people, looked like a huge emerald carpet right in the middle of the square of houses. At the opposite end of The Green, with the
Dublin mountains behind them in the distance, were the maisonettes. On two sides of the big wide grassy rectangle ran streets of terraced houses. They were nice houses, Brenda mused, catching sight
of her own yellow front door as the bus curved around the terminus end of The Green and on to St Pappin’s Road. The painters had just painted their front door two days previously and they
were working on some of the others. She could see one of them, in his bright white overalls, kneeling down at Kathy’s door, which was two doors away from hers.

She saw her own brother Sean out on the footpath playing hopscotch with Gerard. They didn’t have to go to school for another three-quarters of an hour and their school, the Sacred Heart,
was only five minutes across The Green. No doubt her mother would be washing up after the breakfast before going upstairs to make the beds. She wouldn’t have Brenda to help her today. Making
the beds was a chore she hated. There were five beds to be made in the Myles household. Her parents’ double bed, her and Jennifer’s divans and the boys’ bunks. Still, that
wasn’t bad compared to Kathy’s. There were six children, two parents and a granny living in her best friend’s house. They had had to turn their dining-room into a bedroom for
their granny. Before she’d come to live with them, Kathy and Brenda usually went into the dining-room when they wanted a bit of privacy. But now there was nowhere private in her
friend’s house. Kathy came down to Brenda’s house now. Mind, there wasn’t always privacy there either. Jennifer was usually playing one of her ridiculous games such as
‘Office’ or ‘Emergency Ward 10.’ She’d have a face on her then and there’d often be a row. Kit would get narky and start yelling and it could be a bit mortifying
in front of Kathy. Honestly, it was extremely irritating having a nuisance of a younger sister who was only ten. You’d think Jenny would have a bit of respect for her older sister. After all,
Brenda was a teenager, fourteen, and a third year student at that!

It was great to be a third year, she mused as the bus swung right onto the Ballymun Road. She wasn’t a junior any more. All the new intake would be feeling nervous and apprehensive, just
as she’d been on her first day in St Theresa’s this time last year. She’d even worn her beret. Imagine! She’d felt a right prat. When she saw that no-one else was wearing
theirs, she’d whipped it off her head and rolled it up in her bag, where it had stayed for the rest of term.

The mountains were really clear, she noted as the bus stopped to take on more passengers. You could see all the different colours. The greens and golds and purples and browns. From her eyrie on
the top deck of the No. 13 she could see the rooftops of the city below her in the distance. It was a view that always gave Brenda a buzz. She loved the city. The nearer the bus got to the city
centre the more she liked it. She and Kathy often went into town at lunch-time. Brenda loved window-shopping and browsing. She’d spend all day in town if she could. She loved the crowds, and
the air of hustle and bustle and the sense of excitement that was part and parcel of city life.

‘Hi Cora,’ she heard someone call out and Brenda turned to see Cora Delahunty swarming down the aisle. She gave a mental snort at the sight of her. Cora Delahunty was still the
consequence she’d been in primary school.
She
was going to a private secondary school and didn’t have to wear a school uniform. She still wore her skirts as short as ever,
Brenda noted sourly. And she was made up to the nines. She wore a gorgeous suede fringed jacket over a matching suede mini, and suede boots. She’d a load of hippie beads around her neck and
big jangly earrings and she looked really hip. Brenda admired them enviously. She was deeply impressed when Cora took out a cigarette and lit up, inhaling slowly before exhaling the smoke in a long
thin stream. She looked the height of sophistication, and seeing her, Brenda felt a right frump in her green sack tied at the middle with a sash. Not to mention her white blouse and yukky red tie.
Cora had her nerve, Brenda thought grudgingly. Smoking like that in public. She and Kathy wouldn’t dare. Half the neighbours were on the bus and if her da ever heard she was smoking
there’d be war. Cora was doing a strong line too, with a barman. The rest of them were dead jealous. Cora acted as if she was grown-up even though she was the same age as the rest of them.
There were strong rumours going around too, that she had gone all the way with her boyfriend. Brenda saw them kissing once. Really passionate like in the pictures and the barman had his hands on
Cora’s breasts. She and Kathy were gobsmacked . . . and not a little shocked. Well to be honest, very shocked.

‘I’d never let a fella touch me there. Not unless I was married,’ Kathy whispered as they hurried on past the lane where the steamy encounter was taking place.

‘Me neither,’ Brenda agreed whole-heartedly.

‘I bet he doesn’t respect her,’ Kathy sniffed. ‘Ted Conway touched me there once and I walloped him one in the chops.’

‘Did he?’ Brenda was agog. ‘You never told me.’

‘I was a bit embarrassed actually,’ Kathy confessed, blushing.

‘What did it feel like? Did your nipples go hard like Angelique’s?’ Brenda asked with great interest, referring to the heroine of the best-selling novel.

‘Nooooo,’ Kathy scoffed. ‘Not with that geek. Are you mad! It would probably take Paul Newman to do that.’ Paul Newman was their idol.

Thinking of
Angelique
reminded Brenda of something and she turned back from observing the decadent Cora and gave Kathy a nudge. ‘Mrs Allen wants me to baby-sit tonight. Can you
come down?’

‘Oh great!’ Kathy’s eyes brightened. ‘She always does lovely cream sponges.’

‘Mmmm, and her currant bread is scrumptious.’ Brenda felt a mite more cheerful. She enjoyed babysitting. It was a good way of earning a few bob and Mrs Allen was always very
generous. She also had brilliant books. Kathy and she nearly went blind going through the pages of the
Angelique
and
Forever Amber
books, looking for the juicy bits. They were
learning all about love-making from them.

Brenda often pretended that she was Angelique or Amber and that she’d been kidnapped by Paul Newman, who was a pirate. She would rebuff his advances and be magnificently haughty with him
until he could control his lust no longer. Then he would imprison her in his strong arms after a fierce struggle, and finally he would kiss her passionately and rip her bodice off her. Then he
would have his wicked way with her, despite her pleading.

What his wicked way was, exactly, Brenda was not too sure. Kathy was none the wiser either. They knew it was something to do with a fella’s mickey and going the whole way. But the details
of what precisely it was eluded them. Some of the girls in their class seemed to know the ins and outs of the matter. But Brenda and Kathy never let on they were still in the dark. They
didn’t want to appear unsophisticated. That was why they were avid readers of Mrs Allen’s paperbacks. Surely one of them would have all the details and they’d find the answer to
the great mystery.

‘See ya, Kathy. See ya, Brenda.’ With a start, Brenda realized that they were at the stop for St Vincent’s. The lads were getting off. She turned to see Eddie and Kenny
grinning at them. ‘See ya on the way home.’ They waved.