All the Walls of Belfast: A Novel by Sarah J. Carlson

Author:Sarah J. Carlson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Published: 2019-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

chapter fourteen

Danny

When I peeled my eyes open, Billy was standing over me with a bag of frozen peas and a Tennent’s.

“Jaysus, what did you do this time?” he asked. My head pounded like Da was taking his Lambeg mallets to it, and my insides felt like a squished tomato. I squinted at Billy, but my eyes refused to focus. Something crusty crinkled the skin around my eyes.

My passport and baby book were by the cupboard. My shredded enlistment papers lay scattered across the floor. I scrambled to gather the pieces of my future. Bolts shot through my throbbing brain with each movement.

“Back off, you wee skitter. I’ll see to that. Go clean yourself up,” Billy said.

I limp-crawled across my blood-speckled floor to the bathroom. In the mirror, half of my face was lumpy and bright red. Not even Gusty would take me on a job looking like that. Billy’s ripped polo hung off my shoulder. I started my systems check. My face and ribs pulsed heat and my eye was swollen shut, but my nose looked okay and my teeth were all intact; two small things to be grateful for, because I wasn’t keen on having a smile like Marty’s or a crooked nose like Billy’s.

My brain squeezed against the inside of my skull.

Billy’s voice slowly came back into focus over the ringing in my ears. “Danny. Danny! I’m talking to you.”

Da took all my money. My stomach rolled and lurched. I leant over and puked bile in the toilet.

“What?” I gripped the sink to stay up.

Billy studied my reflection from the door, jaw clenched so tight the tendons popped out of his thick neck, distorting his cross tattoo. “Christ.” He handed me the Tennent’s.

I took a long drink. The cool bitterness slowed my heart. I wet a flannel and dabbed at the dried blood around the split in my eyebrow. The pain made me flinch.

The mirror caught sunlight leaking from my bedroom window. “What time is it?”

“Half eight. In the morning.” Billy shoved his hands in the pockets of his trackie bottoms. “What did you do now, you wee hellion?”

“Da found out about my officer test on the Twelfth. He stole all my money.”

“Oh, for Christ sake, is your head cut?” Billy ran a hand over his number one crop, still holding his cigarette. “You’re still on about that? I thought you were supposed to have some brains, staying on in school with all those snobby wankers.”

I glared at him with my good eye. “It’s my life, and I want more than working at Hardy’s and being owned by the UVF.”

“The UVF has been fighting for us since before World War I. Show some respect.”

“And I’m trying to join the British army, fighting for God and Ulster.”

“Feck sake, would you just apply to uni already?” Billy’s voice softened. “Go learn to be a wee nurse there.”

He wasn’t having me on; he actually wanted me to go to uni. “Why do you care if I join the army?”

“You’ve no respect for any kind of authority.

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