Tell Them I'll Be There Read Free

your age,’ Teague told him. ‘Wonderful country. Big an’ empty just waiting for young fellas like you to open her up.’
    â€˜Oh yes?’ Dan said politely, though he suspected Teague had scarcely been out of the village. ‘So why did you come home?’
    â€˜Ah, well.’ Teague pushed his cap to the back of his head and pulled at the red choker at his scrawny neck. ‘’Tis a long story.’
    Michael emerged, swaying slightly as he tied the string that held up his rough work trousers, and some of the younger men and some of the not so young laughed and cheered.
    Dan gripped his arm and hurried him away until they were well out of earshot before remonstrating with him. ‘You’ll go with anyone you, won’t you?’
    â€˜She’s all right,’ Michael insisted.
    â€˜All right?’ Dan echoed. ‘She’s been with half the men in the county. Half the men in country , I wouldn’t wonder.’
    â€˜So what does it matter? We’re leaving tomorrow.’ 
    â€˜It’s what you might be leaving behind.’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜What if she gets pregnant? Would you want a child of yours to be dragged up by the Hegartys?’
    â€˜If she gets pregnant? Why, it could be anybody’s.’
    Dan shook his head in despair. Sow your wild oats if you must, his mother’s brother used to say, but don’t go spilling your seed all over the place. It has a nasty way of taking root where you wouldn’t want it. ‘Do you not remember what Uncle Pat said?’
    â€˜Ha!’ Michael laughed dismissively. ‘That old reprobate.’ He staggered to a halt on the moonlit road and gripped Dan by the arm. ‘God help me,’ he said. ‘I’ve a brother nearly a priest and another a blessed saint, so I have. Well, come on “keeper”, tomorrow we’re off to see the world.’
    Keeper. It was a legacy of childhood. Once, when Michael was in trouble in the village, Ma had given Dan a good clout around the ear and scolded him for not keeping an eye on Michael.
    â€˜Me?’ Dan had replied facetiously. ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’
    And Ma had rounded on him. ‘Yes! You are, Daniel, and don’t you forget it.’
    â€˜Where’s Tim?’ Michael asked.
    â€˜He went home,’ Dan said. ‘He’s got a bit of sense.’
    â€˜Sense, is it? If he had any sense he’d be with Kathy O’Donnell. He’ll never find another girl like her.’
    â€˜He won’t need to, will he? He’ll be a priest.’
    â€˜Ach, he’s never a priest. The Dolans are not priest material.’
    They were at the front door now and again Michael pulled Dan to a halt. ‘We can’t let him do it, Dan,’ he said and he suddenly sounded sober. ‘It’s not right.’
    â€˜It’s what he wants.’
    â€˜It’s what Ma wants and you know it.’
    Dan nodded in agreement.
    â€˜Well, it’s not going to happen,’ Michael said. ‘We’ll not allow it, do you hear? He’s coming to America with us. Even if we have to knock him cold and smuggle him aboard the bloody ship.’ 

TWO
    T HEY WERE UP with the dawn. Ma shook Dan first and he saw that her eyes were already blurred by tears. It would be like that until they left, tears and more tears and tears no doubt at regular intervals long after they had gone. She was happy that Tim was going off to the seminary in England. He would not be too far away. But she worried about Dan and Michael sailing across a great ocean to begin their lives again. Dan would probably be all right. He was the one with the brains and the common sense. He would have to take good care of Michael.
    She didn’t want them to go but recently she had been worried that Michael was getting a bit too involved with the Maguires and the McGees and the rest of those no good Fenians. Those boys are right, Ma