Free Carn by Patrick McCabe Page A

sky over London.
    Dave clicked his fingers and mouthed the words of the songs. They danced until the band stood upright with chins out and announced the national anthem. The jealous countrymen at the back hoped
that Dave would give them an excuse to put an end to his cockiness but he didn’t, he stood like the rest and then they walked home, past the padlocked amusements and Sadie Rooney went rigid
when she felt an arm slowly circle about her waist and heard his soft voice say, “Can I walk home with you?”
    Sadie looked at the stars above the town and kissed his lips as he said, “See you tomorrow then Sadie, okay?”
    She wanted to say tell me more about the band about the tubes about Trafalgar Square about Soho please tell me but she couldn’t. She just looked at him and played with a shirt button, then
watched him walk down the lane and went inside to face her mother.
    But when she started into her tirade, for the first time Sadie heard none of it, it was as if she were floating in the vastness of a black sky, adrift like a spaceman from his craft and away
from all that was grey in the town of Carn. Somehow a gap had opened and as her mother ranted, Sadie clutched at the new warmth she was feeling for all she was worth, the words
“insolent” and “discipline” tiny irrelevant lights that winked somewhere miles below her on the earth.

    They spent all their time together after that. Carol and Jane fluttered their eyelashes when they appeared, cooing, “’Ere’s the two lovebirds. Where ’ave
you been then?”
    Una Lacey took Sadie aside and whispered, “You know what Sadie? They’re all mad jealous in the factory. They say you’ve turned into a snob, that you won’t talk to them.
What do you care about them Sadie?”
    Sadie shrugged her shoulders and smiled for she knew that she wouldn’t have to put up with the small, envious minds of Carn for much longer. As she lay on the fairgreen watching Dave
Robinson from Islington fashion daisy chains, she silently embroidered their phrases into her own speech. “Clever clogs,” she said to herself, and “Innit?”
    In her mind she was a long way from the fair-green.
    And soon she would be further. The strobelights of the The River Club melting on her face. They lay by the lake and boys Sadie knew sidled up to Carol and Jane insisting, “I can swim out
to the island. I can. Would you like me to show you?” They almost cried with frustration when they saw Dave lock his thumbs into the buckle of his hipsters. Such effortlessness was far beyond
them.
    “This is ace,” said Dave, “really ace.”
    When the first stories reached her ears in the factory canteen, Sadie knew their jealously had got the better of them. They leaned over clandestinely to each other and threw mysterious
expressions in her direction. They raised their voices slightly when they mentioned his name. At first Sadie paid no attention, well aware that any reaction on her part would only whet their
appetites. They folded their arms on their chests and nodded knowingly. They talked behind cupped hands. When Sadie appeared they broke into excited laughter and then went back to their tasks
suddenly.
    Resentment began to grow in Sadie. It gnawed at her all day long much as she tried to submerge it. She knew why they were jealous of her. They were jealous because she would not let herself be
stuck in Carn for the rest of her life. They did not want to be shown up so they were turning on her.
    “They’re bitches,” she said to Una when the canteen had closed one Friday afternoon. “Imagine making up all those stories. How could they stoop so low?”
    Una said nothing, picked at her nail and looked away emptily.
    “Do you know what I heard one of them saying in the freezer when she knew I was coming? Why would he bother with the likes of her when he has Surgeon McDonagh’s daughter from Trinity
College chasing him around the town? They’re jealous bitches so they are. Aren’t