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Did you try to get the thumb back I says.
No he says. He gathered his crutches then he put them down again. Then he shifted over to the sink, put water in the kettle. He says it’s definitely getting better me foot. I can put the weight back on it and I’ll be walking again no time.
Why didn’t you try to get it I says.
What he says.
The thumb I says. It could have saved you and the hospital the bother cutting off your toe I says.
It was gone he says. Went in a ditch. Went in under the water he says.
And that was the leeches that had it then I says.
That was the leeches had it then that was it he says. Where is it you keep the tea he says. He opened the cupboard under the sink and the bag I had leaning against the door fell over and sweet potatoes I got off Judith spilt out. She grew them in her garden and I took them when she gave them. Arthur pushed down on one with his crutch.
What’s this he says.
You cook them I says. But I don’t know how to cook them. And they’re five month old, they’re rotted I says.
He got one up off the floor. But sure we’ll try it he says. There’s good eating in that.
I waited for the kettle to boil, I got up to make the tea. I waited for him to settle in the couch, me on my seat. I watched him. There wasn’t nowhere for him to go out of here. It’d be easy if I just let things.
It’s a grand enough room he says. A good bit of space indeed. Would you call this an apartment he says.
I took a sip of my tea. I will get this out of you and you will tell me you stupid fucker I says to myself.
So what’s the plan I says. Are you just going to, and though I could not think what to say I sat back on the seat and fixed straight ahead on him.
He threw one leg over the other and hit the cup down on his knee. The bottom of the cup made a pop sound and some of the tea spilt on his trouser. Have you got any biscuits he says.
I have I says, I have, and I went to get them. I have Polos I says. Listen I says to him again. I want to know what plans you have. I says you have to have plans.
Oh I have many plans Anthony. Many many plans. I’m full of plans always he says.
You are to fuck I says, and I left him to it, I left him to it, forever at the tricks he was, all about the teasing. I felt like shouting there’s no need to be protecting me Arthur, look it who is protecting who in these days, I took you in I fixed your foot I am feeding you.
I had a trick of my own. The trick was to get him when he was in himself. I seen these days and weeks sometimes he would get in a mood. I seen it usually when he had a cup of tea and a cigarette and he was sitting on the single wooden seat. He would have his legs crossed, he would have his arms crossed, he would be bent over himself. There would be steam rising one side, smoke rising the other, his head would be lowered, low as his shoulders. He would be looking at nothing. In this mood you would not get him telling you things straight but you might get him telling you stories.
One of these times I was looking at his hand with the cigarette in it, his buckled left hand. His thumb that was his toe was pointed the wrong direction, it brought out my pity, I expected it he would start whining and whimpering. This moment I did not want this beaten dog, not this thing his hand and foot buckled and broken. I says to him I’m sure you have things on your mind, you cannot be a travelling man you don’t have things on your mind the next place you’re going I says, and I said it to lift him make him feel like a man with things on his mind.
I says you must have known some stories your time on the road.
Yes he says.
How long were you away I says.
I don’t know he says.
I’ll tell you what it was I says. You were five year away. Two year before Aaron’s burial, three year after.
Was it that long he says.
It was I says. I think I says.
I says would you like a drink, I have some in the room.
What have you got he says.
I went over to the cupboard on the wall. It was screwed on the wall in the middle on its own and the latch had turned green. The only thing in it was a bottle of xeres it said on the front. I never touched it before this time. I twisted the cap and it ground on the glass with the crust the inside of it.
Have that I says, the man lived here before left it behind him, it is drink for the road.
It was the evening, it was one of them evenings after a clear day that the mist had come down catching and spreading the light wide through it. Arthur sipped at his drink and then I seen him sniffing his shirt.
I says something wrong.
He says my shirt is smelling of smoke since I came into Dublin.
I says I am used to it. Is it cars I says.
That’s what it is he says.
Cars and damp and electrical heating I says.
Reminds me he says.
Of what I says.
He says reminds me seeing Dublin years gone by standing the top of the hill of Kitty Gallagher and seeing the smoke bedding in in the evening. It was the damp of the air kept it down. The smoke every chimney would collect and the whole of the town be smothered in its smoke but you don’t get that no more because they banned the coal that smokes they did.
Have you any more stories I says to him.
He lit up another cigarette and smoked it quiet to himself, sipping slow the xeres and his eyes squinting.
He told me the story of the alms badge. This was the story.
They used give out the badges made of tin to the beggars of the city of Dublin and our people heard of it he says. But only a certain amount of badges was given out, only a small number of the beggars was allowed get a spot in the city to beg for the alms. Anyone else wasn’t allowed. So our people heard of this and in them days they were out beyond the last ditch, what they called the franchises, where the men who ruled the city every year would run out with their horses and set the limits of the land under the city and our people was on the edge of this. But one of our fellas Brackets Sonaghan took it up with one of their fellas he says why don’t you be giving out the badges to us out here. But the rest of our people says to Brackets why you saying that, we are earning a decent living working for the yeomen garrison, and it was true, we was it was said doing the work for the yeomen helping out with their tack with their utensils and their weapons. This lord who rode out he says to Brackets you have to be living in the city and you have to show yourself to be a beggar and he had a friend with him and they says sure we’ll show young Brackets here what it’s like to be poor and no shoes in the city. And they took him aside, they took him to some trees, and they
