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NORTH WEST WORDS<br />
SPRING / SUMMER <strong>2018</strong> ISSUE 9<br />
'Once the bishop <strong>and</strong> the priests hear that she's performing miracles, you can explain it to them!'<br />
Mammy spits a bit when she's talking <strong>and</strong> her beautiful face scrunch up the words. She opens the<br />
back door <strong>and</strong> flings the water into the back yard scaring the two scrawny hens, who live despite<br />
the stone flags <strong>and</strong> tiny amount of grass.<br />
'Don't tell me that you're envious of your own eight year old daughter? Jealous of a child that isn't<br />
the full shillin'?' He's goading her so she'll not miss him when he's out in the pub later. 'She'll need<br />
something, as no man will take her on despite the pale skin <strong>and</strong> angelic face. She'll need to be able<br />
to fend for herself because she's got nothing between her pretty little ears.'<br />
Mammy wipes her eye with the back of her h<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> sniffs a bit. I can tell then that in the silence,<br />
she's staring at me. They both are.<br />
'This next one better be all right?' Mammy mutters rubbing her big belly. 'Took long enough to get<br />
this far again. This next one better come out fine <strong>and</strong> talk to us properly. It better not be as odd as<br />
two left feet, like that yolk over there.' She's pointing at me.<br />
I know they've waited a long time on this baby to come into Mammy. She used to say, 'Tis his fault.<br />
That thing between his legs ain't good for nothing. He's not someone I should've married. My own<br />
were in a hurry to be rid of the eldest, with another five daughters to sort out. I married beneath<br />
myself <strong>and</strong> I'm paying the price now.'<br />
That's why, Daddy asked me to rub his bits for him. They both wanted a normal boy <strong>and</strong> he asked<br />
me to heal between his legs. It all seemed to work fine. He liked me to do it for him <strong>and</strong> sure I<br />
couldn't say no to Daddy. It's our secret though, as it would make Mammy even more cross than<br />
she is already. Even I know that if she heard I healed Daddy's private place, she'd be livid. Daddy<br />
said his bother Vincent needed 'the healing' on his mickey too. I know he's not married, so I would<br />
only do it the once for him <strong>and</strong> he got angry.<br />
'Thems for babies,' I told him as I heard the birthing woman talking to Mammy near the butcher's<br />
about making sure Daddy didn't wear his trousers too tight, or sit too long in the hot baths. 'You<br />
don't need the babies yet,' I whispered at Uncle Vincent, 'you don't need the healing.'<br />
He got wild angry when his mickey didn't work near me after that. I'm glad though he's off in America<br />
now, as I don't like the air about him at all. Healing Daddy is different. I'm of his blood <strong>and</strong> his<br />
'favourite girl'. I like it when he whispers how I helped him have another pretty Molly in Mammy's<br />
tummy. Even I know that the air about Daddy can be wrong sometimes.<br />
'It's a gift you have,' Daddy's blue eyes are proud. 'Make me better, Molly.'<br />
He is better since the baby is coming. Mammy's happier too, apart from when she is with me of<br />
course.<br />
'I can taste the hate,' I tell Daddy when Mammy's puts on her good scarf <strong>and</strong> scuttles off to the bus<br />
to go to her nearest sister's. 'It comes out of her. I can even taste the hate off her.'<br />
'She doesn't hate you,' Daddy tells me. I can always tell when people are telling me wrong things.<br />
Out of the corner of my eyes I can see the darkness around their heads.<br />
'Do you see angels?' Daddy asked me last year when I was doing the healing on his mickey.<br />
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