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Date Posted: 06:30:56 08/17/09 Mon
Author: Mahri ()
Subject: Mermaid In a Bowl of Tears, Chapters 42 and 43

Chapter 42, In the Watches of the Night

'The Beechmount Youth Center had become a strangely calm center to Pamela's universe.'

Photobucket

In Casey's absence, Pamela and Lawrence have kept the Youth Center open. She has also taken odd photography jobs as the opportunity arises.
'Despite unceasing violence and disruption, people still married and had babies, attended weddings and christenings.....'

They sleep at the Center on some nights when the work hours are long and on one such night Pamela is startled awake by a shadowy figure at the end of her bed.
Robin comes to her rescue and the intruder gets away.
Any thoughts on who it might've been?

Pamela learns that Robin and a couple of his lads have been keeping watch over the center - and it's not an IRA job.

In an attempt to calm nerves, they sit down over tea (with a side of brandy). They discuss Joe Doherty and his beef with Casey. The situation with Melissa comes up and Pamela decides she can forgive the transgressions of youth, especially if Casey has, but she is unsure if Robin has honor as a man.
She likes him but she doesn't trust him.


Chapter 43, History Lessons

'By mid-September David Kendall knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he'd taken complete leave of his senses.'

Photobucket

David has continued his visits with Pat. The seemingly random acts of kindness and trust have increased from food/sustenance and sight to freedom of movement and showers.

They have a rather heated discussion regarding their differences - Englishman/Irishman - with David implying that Patrick didn't even know what the fighting was all about.

'Eight hundred years of occupation an' subjection when all we wanted was to be left in peace. We never asked ye for anything, never exploited nor oppressed ye as others did. never invaded ye, never stole your land an' parcelled it out to our own people as war booty, never let yer people starve while food rotted in the harbors. We've never put yer women an' children to the sword, nor massacred or transported yer men to foreign land where they'd no more notion of how to survive than a wee child, where everything was foreign, an' all ye were was another goddamn paddy, a mick, a fockin' bogtrottin' Fenian bastard.'
'Ye took our language, our schools, our priests had to flee or die, ye took our culture, an' even after ye'd stripped us of everything we'd ever been or known, ye mocked us- stupid Paddy, with his backward ways.'
'An' then when we've the temerity to stand up against ye, when we rise from the fire and' say enough, ye call us terrorists. The goddamn Irish, they say, all they know is hate. Well I ask ye, Corporal, who taught it to us, who made sure it was bred deep into the bone an' blood of us?'

I'd like to hear what the counter point would be from the other side. Do they have one? Or is an apology about the only thing you can do in answer to the past? I know there are no easy answers and millions of opinions, we've our own history of stealing land, forcing native peoples out and oppression and prejudice.

Feeling Pat's pain, David crosses a line and touches him.
We have just a few moments earlier had a glimpse (a very steamy glimpse) at Patrick's manly body, and now we witness the savage, brutal way in which he knows how to use it.
Surprised?

They make their peace with talk of dreams and the losses that changed them.

Last edited by author: Mon August 17, 2009 06:46:23   Edited 2 times.

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