Controlled Explosions Read Free

door’s wall, smoking.
    Catriona blocked her way. ‘Going home to tout on us too? Guess it runs in the family.’
    She tried to walk past them, head bowed, but they were everywhere. Her house was only three along. If she could run … They were just girls, three of them in the same maroon uniform as her, socks pushed down as far as they’d go, skirts rolled up, sports tops zipped over their blazers – none of it official school uniform. Paula was pretty sure Mary and Brid wouldn’t be passing their A-levels – they were both thick as the pigshit they shovelled on their farms – but Catriona was smart. Smart and mean.
    The boy was older, maybe nineteen, wearing jeans and Army boots. He had acne down the side of his face. She didn’t know who he was.
    ‘Your ma was a tout,’ Catriona repeated. ‘That’s why she snuffed it, isn’t it? Couldn’t keep her mouth shut.’
    ‘She’s not—’
    ‘Is she not? Then did she just go off and leave you? No surprise really. And where’s your da? Off harassing his own people? He’s a fucking traitor too. Him and your dead ma.’
    ‘Fuck off!’ The tears in Paula’s eyes were stinging. ‘She might be dead, I don’t know! I don’t know anything and neither do you, you stupid cow. At least I’m going to pass my A-levels. At least I’m getting out of this fucking stupid town. You’ll be stuck here forever, milking the cows and signing on the dole.’
    ‘
Bitch
.’
    She hadn’t thought they’d actually hurt her – though words could hurt enough, and she’d never believed that crap about them being gentler than sticks and stones – but suddenly there was a scuffle, and Catriona’s chipped nails were scratching at Paula’s face, and she could smell the girl’s BO and bubblegum, and she was fighting back with no plan, just instinct, slapping and pulling, grabbing at Catriona’s hair and making a noise like an angry cat.
    ‘Fuck off! Fuck off!’
    ‘Hey, hey, come on now!’ Someone was pulling her back. She couldn’t see for a moment from the hair in her eyes, just feel someone’s hands on her waist. Then – it was Aidan O’Hara. What was he doing here? She pulled away, breathing hard.
    ‘What the fuck’s going on?’
    ‘None of your effing business.’ Catriona was panting, straightening her clothes. ‘Guess all you touts stick together.’
    Aidan didn’t say anything about that, but he stood very still. ‘Her da’s a cop, you know. You better piss off or you’ll get a record. Silly wee bitch.’
    The other girls were juking off down the road, but Catriona was still shouting, standing her ground. Her dyed blond hair had fallen out of its tight bun and her eyes behind their seven coats of mascara were wild. The boy got down off the wall, held her by the arm. He hadn’t said a word during the whole thing. She was screeching, ‘Whole fucking family are traitors. And your da too, O’Hara. I know who you are. Your da got what was coming to him, and so will hers.’
    ‘Come on, feck’s sake.’ The boy bundled Catriona off down the street, with a last slitted-eye look at Paula that made her feel sick.
    ‘You know him?’ said Aidan, looking after them.
    ‘N-no.’ She was trying to blink back the angry tears in her eyes.
    ‘Peadar O’Keeffe is the name. Nasty wee fecker. Year above me in school.’
    Catriona’s brother, then. The whole family must be out to get her.
    ‘You OK?’
    ‘Fine.’ She couldn’t meet his eye. Though his mother and hers had been best friends, Aidan never talked to Paula if he could help it. ‘What’re you even here for?’ She saw he’d parked his Clio, a present from his adoring mammy for his eighteenth birthday, outside the door of her house.
    ‘Ma sent me – you know.’ He waved his hand in frustration at the plastic container under his arm. Pat O’Hara had been sending food ever since Paula’s mother disappeared five years ago. As if that was the main thing missing from their lives – Irish stew and