登陆注册
19639600000013

第13章 ONE 1915-1917 MEGGIE 1(13)

Frank was staring at his father, amazed. Not until this moment had Paddy ever communicated man-to man with his oldest son. Shocked out of perpetual resentment, Frank realized that for all his proud boasting,Paddy loved Meggie more than he did his sons. He 38 found himself almost liking his father, so he smiled without the mistrust. "She's a bonzer little thing, isn't she?" he asked. Paddy nodded absently, engrossed in watching her. The horse blew its lips in and out, flapping; Meggie stirred, rolled over and opened her eyes. When she saw her father standing beside Frank she sat bolt upright, fright paling her skin.

"Well, Meggie girl, you've had quite a day, haven't you?" Paddy went over and lifted her out of the hay, gasping as he caught a whiff of her. Then he shrugged his shoulders and held her against him hard. "I got caned, Daddy," she confessed.

"Well, knowing Sister Agatha, it won't be the last time," he laughed, perching her on his shoulder. "We'd better see if Mum's got any hot water in the copper to give you a bath. You smell worse than Jarman's dairy." Frank went to the doorway and watched the two fiery heads bobbing up the path, then turned to find the bay mare's gentle eyes fixed on him. "Come on, you big old bitch. I'll ride you home," he told it, scooping up a halter.

Meggie's vomiting turned out to be a blessing is disguise. Sister Agatha still caned her regularly, but always from far enough away to escape the consequences, which lessened the strength of her arm and quite spoiled her aim.

The dark child who sat next to her was the youngest daughter of the Italian man who owned and operated Wahine's bright blue cafe. Her name was Teresa Annunzio, and she was just dull enough to escape Sister Agatha's attention without being so dull that it turned her into Sister Agatha's butt. When her teeth grew in she was quite strikingly beautiful, and Meggie adored her. During lesson breaks in the playground they walked with arms looped around each other's waists, which was the sign that you were "best friends" and not available for courting by anyone else. And they talked, talked, talked. One lunchtime Teresa took her into the cafe to meet her mother and father and grown-up brothers and sisters. They were as charmed with her golden fire as Meggie was with their darkness, likening her to an angel when she turned her wide, beautifully flecked grey eyes upon them. From her mother she had inherited an indefinable air of breeding which everyone felt immediately; so did the Annunzio family. As eager as Teresa to woo her, they gave her big fat potato chips fried in sizzling cauldrons of lamb dripping, and a piece of boned fish which tasted delicious, dipped as it was in floury batter and fried in the smoking well of liquid fat along with the chips, only in a separate wire basket. Meggie had never eaten food so delicious, and wished she could lunch at the cafe more often. But this had been a treat, requiring special permission from her mother and the nuns. Her conversation at home was all "Teresa says" and "Do you know what Teresa did?" until Paddy roared that he had heard more than enough about Teresa. "I don't know that it's such a good idea to be too thick with Dagos," he muttered, sharing the British community's instinctive mistrust of any dark or Mediterranean people. "Dagos are dirty, Meggie girl, they don't wash too often," he explained lamely, wilting under the look of hurt reproach Meggie gave him.

Fiercely jealous, Frank agreed with him. So Meggie spoke less often of her friend when she was at home. But home disapproval couldn't interfere with the relationship, confined as it was by distance to school days and hours; Bob and the boys were only too pleased to see her utterly engrossed in Teresa. It left them to career madly around the playground just as if their sister did not exist.

The unintelligible things Sister Agatha was always writing on the blackboard gradually began to make sense, and Meggie learned that a "plus was meant you counted all the numbers up to a total, where a "com" meant you took the numbers on the bottom away from the numbers on the top and wound up with less than you had in the first place. She was a bright child, and would have been an excellent if not brilliant student had she only been able to overcome her fear of Sister Agatha. But the minute those gimlet eyes turned her way and that dry old voice rapped a curt question at her, she stammered and stuttered and could not think. Arithmetic she found easy, but when called upon to demonstrate toper skill verbally she could not remember how many two and two made. Reading was the entrance into a world so fascinating she couldn't get enough of it; but when Sister Agatha made her stand to read a passage out loud, she could hardly pronounce "cat," let alone "miaow." It seemed to her that she was forever quivering under Sister Agatha's sarcastic comments or flushing bright red because the rest of the class was laughing at her. For it was always her slate Sister Agatha held up to sneer at, always her laboriously written sheets of paper Sister Agatha used to demonstrate the ugliness of untidy work. Some of the richer children were lucky enough to possess erasers, but Meggie's only eraser was the tip of her finger, which she licked and rubbed over her nervous mistakes until the writing smudged and the paper came away in miniature sausages. It made holes and was strictly forbidden, but she was desperate enough to do anything to avoid Sister Agatha's strictures.

同类推荐
  • 东林本末

    东林本末

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 慧命经

    慧命经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 佛说寂志果经

    佛说寂志果经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 摩利支菩萨略念诵法

    摩利支菩萨略念诵法

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 通天澹崖原禅师语录

    通天澹崖原禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 医学破译百科(科学探索百科)

    医学破译百科(科学探索百科)

    人类社会和自然世界是那么丰富多彩,使我们对于那许许多多的难解之谜,不得不密切关注和发出疑问。人们总是不断地去认识它,勇敢地去探索它。虽然今天科学技术日新月异,达到了很高程度,但对于许多谜团还是难以圆满解答。人们都希望发现天机,破解无限的谜团。古今中外许许多多的科学先驱不断奋斗,一个个谜团不断解开,推进了科学技术的大发展,但又发现了许多新的奇怪事物和难解之谜,又不得不向新的问题发起挑战。科学技术不断发展,人类探索永无止境,解决旧问题,探索新领域,这就是人类一步一步发展的足迹。
  • 上古世纪外传:不朽庭院

    上古世纪外传:不朽庭院

    这是一个被称作光芒和玫瑰的时代这是一段关于神与英雄的记载这是一个爱恨交织,毁灭和拯救的故事
  • 回到宋朝当贤王

    回到宋朝当贤王

    赵德芳在一次野外旅行中穿越到了另外一个时空,和历史有所区别的宋朝,当他刚清醒时就被加封为八贤王。八贤王看起来风光无限,可谁又知道这其中暗含多少杀机?宋太宗、西夏、辽国都欲除之而后快,但最后究竟如何呢?
  • 星球主宰

    星球主宰

    2012,并非地球的末日,而的地球的新生!从天而降的诡异绿光,将彻底改变这个星球的命运…..疯狂扩张的草原丛林,巨大凶猛的变异生物,超级科技的生化武器,神秘高等的域外文明,同时出现在这个脆弱的星球上......这时人类才发现,自身竟然成了多余的存在!韩骐,一名普通的年轻人,如何在颠覆的世界中生存?如何一步步地从食物链的末端成长为这个星球上最强大的男人?一切答案尽在《星球主宰》!本书已经正式签约,小龙保证稳定更新和完本,绝不太监和烂尾!请大家放心收藏,踊跃投票!本书QQ群273728387,喜欢的朋友可以加进来,多提意见哦~
  • 天生绝配

    天生绝配

    顾茗静是个陌生人面前女神,熟人面前女神经病的死宅,最大爱好是玩游戏日月OL。在一周年版本更新后,她与往日固定大神队友十步一杀因缘巧合下成亲,成为一对腹黑任性高冷夫妻档,并渐渐擦出了火花。正在这时,顾茗静四年前暗恋的邻家哥哥叶钧学成归国,来到游戏对她展开攻势……事情的发展越来越脱离状况之外,顾茗静能否认清自己的心?
  • 宋词三百首全解

    宋词三百首全解

    本书收录了宋代有代表性的词作品三百首,每一首都包括注释、语译、赏析三部分内容。
  • 孕产妇优生一点通

    孕产妇优生一点通

    越来越多年轻人意识到,充足的备孕对孕妇以及胎儿具有良好的效果。本选题旨在对女性备孕过程中夫妻双方需要注意的问题、掌握的方法、活动的宜忌等进行系统介绍,并力求简单完整,一点就通,给每一对夫妇以贴心、细心的指导。本书内容全面,通俗易懂,科学性强,实用性强,是众多年轻夫妻向专家学习孕产经验的绝佳选择。
  • 血玉江湖之佾心阁主

    血玉江湖之佾心阁主

    一个目睹了一场政治阴谋的公主,流落江湖,一块可以代表其身份的凤凰血玉,掀起了一场江湖里的爱恨情仇,血雨腥风…………
  • 吕小布与貂小婵

    吕小布与貂小婵

    貂小婵的人生:“扛过枪、打过战”最后败在感情上!从此冤家来抬杠,好在冤有头,债有主,前面直走是幸福!百转千回斗男神,不料男神是债主。
  • 辰星不如随风去

    辰星不如随风去

    本以为只是荷尔蒙所驱使,未曾想却是纠缠一生的命运。沐辰星,一个为生活所迫的美丽女子和曾经为情所伤的富家子弟顾慕风之间的爱恨纠葛,以及同那个如春风般和煦美好的董飞扬之间的别样情愫。