Conor McPherson Plays by McPherson Conor;

Author:McPherson, Conor;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nick Hern Books

RAY

During the weekend, I drove around with Carmel. The weather picked up and we played tapes. That sort of thing.

I sometimes felt a bit guilty.

Carmel beside me in a light print dress and my mind wandering into different beds.

We stopped for lunch in Longford.

I watched Carmel talking.

She was intelligent.

Probably even more intelligent than me.

But I was together and worldly and she was innocent and trusting.

She had that nobility some people have about them. This showed me what I was and I thought it was a good thing our souls don’t have smells.

Because mine would stink.

But at the same time I was proud.

I was getting away with it.

We decided to keep going for Galway and spend the night.

I liked it when a Galway station came on the radio. It was like coming to a new place where you knew nothing about the community. Where they were all used to this radio station I’d never heard.

Do you know what I mean?

No? Fine.

We went to the Great Southern.

I checked in while Carmel rang home.

That hotel smell.

Dinner was from seven.

We went to our room. Thick carpet and a big bed. We swam in the deserted pool.

The chlorine in the air when we got dressed.

We had a few pints in the plush bar and made our way leisurely for a late meal.

If Carmel was unaccustomed to luxury, she didn’t show it. She had assurance.

Which annoyed the fuck out of me.

We had a few more drinks. And we were too tired or too full to fuck.

And if you stay in a hotel, you’ve got to fuck.

So I made a point of waking up early.

We drove home Sunday.

I was refreshed and content.

After dropping Carmel off I went for a few beers with Tony Reagan, our professor.

The famous philosopher, Wolfgang Konigsberg, was visiting our department that week.

He was only giving three lectures.

The department had agreed to this but I wanted the chance of a question-and-answer session where we could discuss his ideas. I knew I could have this guy on the ropes if I had the opportunity to press him, not that I was particularly interested in his area.

Tony said we could talk about it, next day, at the Monday morning staff meeting.

That night I slept the sleep of the just and righteous and all that kind of shit.

The next morning I sat in my office looking at all my beautiful books.

Sometimes I’d go to the library late at night and just sit in between the shelves. Breathing in all those years of useless discussion.

I was working on a book I knew no one was going to read.

What would be the point?

My office was on a corner of the highest part of the college.

This tickled Tony Reagan no end.

He said that the philosophy department was near heaven so that when the questions became too unbearable we could lean out the window and ask God.

Poor Tony was a terrible gobshite.

I sorted out two lectures I wasn’t looking forward to giving that afternoon and I went to the staff meeting.

Tony Reagan always wanted to please everyone.

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