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Show 33 below them, Kathleen asked, "Is that Jame over there?" "Looks like it," Karl answered. "He must be feeling better." On their way home -- their mother insisted that Karl walk Kathleen home from the nickelodeon every night after it closed at nine -- he'd told her everything that had happened that day, about Jame getting bashed over the head, although he'd left out the part where Jame had mentioned her name. With his new awareness that Jame was probably stuck on Kathleen, Karl had searched for a reaction from his sister, but if there was one, she'd kept it hidden. "Jame's lighting fireworks for the three little Marys," Kathleen told them. Her words were followed by stacatto bursts from a string of penny firecrackers. "Hasn't get sense enough to stay in bed and let his numb skull mend," Maggie Rose snorted. "He hasn't got any more sense than the rest of the Culleys." Hugo said, "Now, Maggie Rose," but she only sniffed. Kathleen and Karl exchanged glances, both of them hoping that Maggie Rose would let it go, would not spoil the grace of the summer evening with her opinion about the worthlessness of all Culleys. Hugo evidently hoped the same, because he raised his harmonica to begin 'I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen,' Maggie Rose's favorite song. The second line was interrupted by the whoosh of a sky rocket. In the yard below, Mary Eileen, Mary Agnes and Mary Francis Cully squealed with delight. Hunnie got off his mother's lap and walked to the side of the porch to watch the rocket flower in gold overhead, but the song went on without him -- Hunnie didn't know all the words, anyway. |