Shifting...

Officially, this is chapter 6 in the story. Brendan is twelve, and this part happens just after he's had a vicious argument with his mother. For the first time he's yelled back at her in front of people, and she's bloodied him. They're in front of their home, and not one of the witnesses does anything to stop the beating, infuriating him. It takes Mairead coming from inside to draw his mother away, and he is left alone as everyone else goes back home. And this infuriates him.

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Danny and wee Eammon showed up, just then, to find me standing alone across the lane from my door. Doing nothing. Just standing. By this point, my lip was no longer bleeding. I'd wiped my face with my sleeve. My shirt was black so blood didn't show on it. I looked as if I'd just grown lost in one of my thoughts.

Which was truth. Having seen the same rage in my mother as I'd seen in Da, so many times, I finally understood they had been perfect for each other. A perfect match between growling animals and I had no idea what to make of it.

"Ready for us, me China?" Danny asked, his voice wary. 

I nodded and turned and we walked down through the waste land to Fahan and Waterloo, to find what sport we could in Guildhall Square. There wasn't much, with this demonstration. Just more loud voices and demands made, but they had begun to seem all the same and a bit tedious. We stayed for a long enough while, paying little attention to the crowd or speakers, just smoking Blues and saying naught.

Then we had our tea at a chippy. Danny and I let wee Eammon share in ours...more mine, really, for I wasn't so very hungry, and eating hurt my lip. After, we wandered along the Strand and the docks till half eight. That's when we dropped wee Eammon off to his Ma's, in the Flats. 

She was not happy he'd been out so long, and never mind he'd been with us. She smelled the fags on us was sure we were trying to kill him, if not from the asthma then letting him starve to death, and she would not hear of him actually having eaten. He just cast us a look of thanks before we were escorted out and the door slammed behind us. 

We heard her saying, "I don't want you around those two, anymore!" 

"Ma, they're me friends, and Brendan -- " 

"Enough! The trial that Brendan is to his mother is bad enough, and he's happy to make you one for me!"

 Their voices grew too muffled to hear more. 

Danny sighed. "I'm glad me Ma's not like that." He winked at me. "She's on tranqs. Maybe we should ask NHS to give some to wee Eammon's." 

I just nodded and turned, not even trying to smile. I was numb to her words. I leaned against the railing and pulled out my last Blue. As I lit it, I heard barking, from below. In the twilight, I saw a pack of dogs chase a yellow tom cat across the courtyard. It tried to escape them, but they managed to surround it in a corner and were howling and snarling and lunging as the cat hissed and spit and clawed at them. I held my breath. Five...no, six against one. I figured the cat was dead. For while I wanted something to throw down to stop them, I had nothing, and the elevator was slow. 

Danny noticed the beasts and sighed. "I've seen that one chased a few times," he said. "Not a pleasant creature. Looks like he's finally been caught." 

"It's not fair, is it?" I murmured. "A pack like that against one." 

"It's nature's way." 

"Yeah...I guess. Would that it were not so..." 

I watched the mongrels grow closer and closer to the tom, having their fun. Lunging. Snapping. Near grabbing his tail, once. He still spat and hissed and scratched, giving no hint of surrender. I wanted to turn away, but I couldn't. I felt it would be dishonorable. 

Closer they grew. 

Louder. 

Angrier. 

People walked wide to avoid it, doing nothing to help or hinder. Like with me.

I felt a despair grow within. And anger. At everything. At nothing. Finally, I flicked the last of my Blue down at the howling beasts. To my shock, it twisted and spun and landed on one dog's arse. The mongrel yelped and turned and the others hesitated and... 

Suddenly, the tom spun into a howling mass of fur and claws, startling the dogs. Yelps and howls and whines and cries of pain and soft whimpers...and poof -- the cat was gone. 

"Jesus, Bren, did you see that?" Danny whispered.

I nodded, grinning, really fucking proud of myself, though it was pure luck the Blue had traveled as it did. "Never count yourself down, eh?" 

"I guess not," he said, then fired up his own fag. 

I didn't want to move. I wanted to stand there, in homage. Watch the dogs wander around, hurt and confused. How could it have gotten away? They had beaten the little beast, they knew it, but it had outdone them. They'd get no second go at it...and nothing could have pleased me more than to have witnessed it. I actually started to laugh, even though it hurt my lip.

I looked up and across at the Guildhall, sitting solid and uncaring. A symbol of all that was wrong in Derry. A Catholic town controlled by Protestants without a care for those who'd been here a thousand years before them. Beyond it, the Foyle whispered past, giving no thought to our pettiness and obscene behaviors. Nature's way was to let the strong destroy the weak? That tom had proven it a lie. No matter how badly you seem to have lost, you could still beat your tormentors. 

Then wee Eammon's Ma burst out the door, howling, "Why are you standing there, smoking? He's got asthma, you know? Are you trying to kill him?" 

"Ma, I'm fine," came from within. 

I sighed, saluted her, then Danny and I headed for the elevator. I had a pound still on me, and I wanted a drink and another smoke. But my mood was lighter. 

The strong destroy the weak? Like bloody hell.