Mary and New Job 1965

The job at the hospital didn’t last you long, your slowness and lack of zeal and utter boredom meant you left and went in search of a new job. Your uncle Mick got you a job with his friend in a shop serving groceries. It paid your way, kept your father off your back, and at least you were busy and not having to empty piss pans and clean up vomit as you had at the hospital. You had a letter from Magdalene that morning before work, full of her London exploits and her room and job at the restaurant. You wondered what London was like, more livelier than where you lived in Eire. She wrote neatly, unlike you scribble. She had said to come to London and get a job and live with her. You mused on it, but it was a big step, and so didn’t. You wrote back a few days later. She knew both her parents had some form of cancer, but she said she wasn’t coming back just yet. Your new boyfriend, some jerk who delivered stuff to the shop, was not going to last, too much of a drip, however, you liked his sister, and would have preferred going to bed with her rather than him, but you went to bed with neither in the end. Martha was home from the convent after row with the abbess. You saw her at Sunday mass, smoking with the priest and talking about going to a mission in Africa run by missionary nuns. She came to the cinema with you, but it wasn’t the same without Magdalene, and Martha would never go to bed with you or anyone. She had no sense of joy or fun.