Big Girl, Small Town by Michelle Gallen

Big Girl, Small Town by Michelle Gallen

Author:Michelle Gallen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published: 2020-12-15T00:00:00+00:00


2:30 p.m.

Item 32.2: Boking: Retching

Majella woke to the sound of her ma boking up in the toilet. Her ma’d never been a quiet puker. She’d cough and choke and retch so hard you’d hear her from the street. The bathroom went silent for a few seconds. Majella knew her ma would have her head on the toilet seat, feeling sorry for herself, and that a fit of gurning was probable. She heard the toilet flush, and then the gurning started. Majella heaved herself out of bed, pulled on her fleece and trainers, then went out to the landing. The bathroom door was wide open. The toilet was still gushing and her ma was hugging the toilet bowl, sniveling. Majella reckoned she’d be there for another while yet, so she trudged down the stairs and into the kitchen. She filled the kettle and eyed her limp washing. It was still damp. Majella sighed, then grabbed a plastic bag from under the kitchen sink and jerked it through the air to check for holes. It seemed airtight, so she went through to the living room, where she pulled the curtains open to let the sunlight into the room. Then she got down on her knees and began to shovel the ashes from the fireplace into the bag. When she was done, she took the grate brush and gave the fireplace a rough brush-down, raising a cloud of dust that hovered briefly before being sucked up the chimney by the back draft. It was a thing Majella saw to, the sweeping of the chimney. Not doing it herself as her da once did, but paying Tommy the coalman to call in when a sweep was needed. Majella lifted the bag of ashes and the coal bucket and walked out through the kitchen to the wheelie bin in the yard. She dropped the ashes into the bin and watched as a small cloud of dust rose and blew around the yard.

She went to the bunker and shoveled coal into the black bucket until it was piled high. Then she carried it back through the house and into the living room. Upstairs she could hear the sound of running water and the whine of the electric shower. It was a good sign that her ma was having a shower, but no guarantee that she’d come round. Majella laid three firelighters in the center of the grate and put a match to them, then she shook three shovels of coal onto the flames before pulling the fireguard in front. They burned the cheapest coal, the kind that spat and stank when it was first lit. Majella looked at her hands. They were black with soot and coal dust. She went through to the kitchen to wash them off, loving how they went from dusty black to white pink and wet clean while her ma yelped in the shower as the hot water ran cold. The kettle had boiled and steamed up the window, turning the blue sky outside into a lovely mist.



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