Free The Visitors by Patrick O'Keeffe Page B

behind one of the hay pikes we had made the week before. Michael and Kevin Lyons had helped. At the bottom of the hill sat Kevin and my sister. Their backs were against a hay pike.
    I had seen one porn magazine. They were illegal, but the Mahers had one. One of their Liverpool cousins had sneaked it over on the boat. And one Sunday in May, after second Mass, when I was walking the road home with the Mahers and Anthony, the oldest of the Mahers pulled his jumper up, reached his hand down the back of his pants, pulled the magazine out, opened it up, and shoved it into my face. They laughed. And so did I. It was a glossy photograph of a naked and bony young woman on all fours. A naked man knelt at either end of her. The men were hairy, fat, and older. One had a thick mustache, the kind you imagined a bandit wearing. And it all looked so brutal. The hungry look on the woman’s face, the tip of her swollen pink tongue clamped against her bottom lip, the men blissfully stroking themselves, warming up for the real action. But sure enough, I was terribly excited by it. I didn’t yet have pubic hair, but I believed that when I did, I’d fit right in, be accepted by Anthony and the Mahers, and go forth with them on their adventures.
    Long and thin goes too far in and does not suit the lady
    Short and thick does the trick and out pops the baby
    I read the story below the photograph. I don’t know if the Mahers or Anthony did. They might have got what they wanted by looking. Boys read the
Beano
,
Hotspur
,
Batman
,
Superman
, and
Spider-Man
, when we could get our hands on them. I read those and Andrew Lang’s version of the
Odyssey
and the
Iliad
, the Greek myths, the Norse and Irish myths, tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Old and New Testament stories,
The Arabian Nights
,
Treasure Island
,
Don Quixote
,
The Last of the Mohicans
,
The Adventures of Robin Hood
,
Lorna Doone
,
The Swiss Family Robinson
, and
Robinson Crusoe
. Those books were in the National school library, which was a two-door glass cabinet that the teacher unlocked on Friday afternoons—but the story in the porn magazine has also stayed. The man with the bandit mustache told it. He said the woman chewed on the end of his penis like it was a cigar. How could you forget
cigar
? How could you forget
chew
?
    Bricks and mortar will not stay,
    Will not stay, will not stay,
    Bricks and mortar will not stay,
    My fair lady.
    Kevin and Tess were pure electricity when they skipped along the top then down the side of that small hill. Tess’s pink skirt blowing out in a breeze. I was back in the river. I said nothing to Stephen and Hannah about what I had seen. I was learning to be secretive. Then Kevin and Tess were behind me, but I didn’t turn. I didn’t want to give them any hint that I was in the know. I reached down and flung handfuls of water at Stephen and Hannah. They kept shouting at me that I’d frighten all the brickeens away, but I didn’t stop. I laughed. I played thefool. The fool being the next-door neighbor of the secretive. Late evening sunshine on the water and on the two large rocks on the opposite bank. The sweet smell of ripening hay, the laughter and the shouts from my younger brother and sister, and behind me my elder sister and Kevin Lyons giggling.
    I’m not sure how it came about. I did think Tess and he were still in the mud behind me, though next their laughter came from up the riverbank, then harsh words from him, clothes being ripped, a scream from Tess, a splash, Tess crying, and the bluebottles before me turning furious.
    None of us could swim, and the water between Tess and us was crowded with the stiff rushes and the slimy water lilies and the sharp reeds that would slice your skin open. Columns of wasps skimmed in and out of a mossy hole in the riverbank—but I dashed out of that river, ran along the bank, past the unripened blackberry bush, slapping at the midges, calling my sister’s name, who was crying and