The Granny by Brendan O'Carroll Page B

understand that, love? Can you, Connie?” She turned, defeated. And they kissed. When the kiss ended she held on to her man, tightly, and he to her. She whispered, “Kiss the girls good night before you go; they’re awake, and upset.” And they parted.
     

CHAPTER FIFTEEN
     
    Bosco stood outside the girls’ bedroom for a few moments. He could hear his daughters talking softly. He waited a moment to compose himself. In the girls’ bedroom the conversation was very serious. Agnes, still with her back to Dolly, had tried to ignore her, but there was no escaping her sister’s chat.
     
    “When you go to Canada, the wolves will eat you,” Dolly announced.
     
    “No, they won’t.” Agnes was tired and sleepy.
     
    Dolly, however, was in the wide-awake club. “They will. Wolves can smell if you’re afeared, and they eat you then,” Dolly insisted. Agnes didn’t reply. Dolly went on. “They start with your tummy, because that’s the softest part.” Dolly now began to mimic wolves eating. “ Chomp, chomp, and your belly’s gone.” Dolly licked her lips. “Mmmmm, they’ll say, that was nice; now we’ll eat her diddies.”
     
    Agnes turned. “Will you shut up?” With the onset of early puberty, Agnes was the only child in sixth class with breasts—or “diddies,” as Dolly, and most young girls, referred to them—and she was not at all happy about it. Especially after Marion’s story about her Auntie Tessie’s drooping mammaries. The bedroom door squeaked open slowly. A crack of light shone across the room onto their bed. Framed in the light stood the silhouette of the girls’ father. Dolly sat up. Agnes, still smarting from her father’s slap, turned back to the wall. Bosco walked in and sat on the edge of the bed.
     
    “I just came in to say good night to my girls,” Bosco said softly.
     
    Dolly stood in the bed and wrapped her arms around her father’s neck. “Good night, Daddy,” she squealed. Bosco hugged his youngest girl, and as he did so, he had his eyes on Agnes’ back.
     
    “Good night, Aggie,” he said to her back.
     
    “Good night,” he received in reply without her moving. Bosco held Dolly away from him and frowned at her.
     
    “Are you getting skinny, Dolly Reddin?” he asked, pretending concern.
     
    “Am I, Daddy?” Dolly asked, quite serious.
     
    Bosco looked her over and put a finger to his lips in thought. “I don’t know.” He snapped his fingers. “Just in case, you best go out to your mammy and get a piece of bread and butter, with sugar on it.”
     
    “Yes, please,” Dolly squealed, and was gone through the open door like a ferret, calling to her mother, “Mammy! Bread! Daddy said so.”
     
    When she was gone, Bosco stretched out his arm and touched Agnes on the shoulder. She winced.
     
    “I’m sorry, chicken,” he said.
     
    “Okay,” she answered, but still did not move.
     
    “I really am sorry, Agnes.” Bosco was close to tears.
     
    “Doesn’t matter,” Agnes answered, again without turning.
     
    “Yes, it does. I know I hurt you, and I know you’re in a place right now where it’s hard to forgive me. I slapped you because I didn’t know what else to do. I was scared.” Bosco was crumbling a little bit now. Even with her back turned to him, Agnes was becoming embarrassed.
     
    “Shut up, Da, it doesn’t matter.” She wanted him to stop.
     
    “Okay, love.” He rubbed her back gently and got up from the bed. At the door he turned and spoke. When he did, his voice was earnest.
     
    “Agnes, I will never slap you again.”
     
    Hearing this, Agnes turned and looked across the room into her father’s face. “Or Mammy,” she insisted. “You’ll never slap Mammy.” She was her father’s daughter.
     
    Bosco bowed his head. “Never.”
     
    “Promise?”
     
    “I promise you, chicken.”
     
    “Okay.” Agnes smiled. “Good night, Daddy.”
     
    “Good night, my little darling.” Bosco smiled and left the