Read Online Flood by James Heneghan - Free Book Online Page B

lighter, its tail flapping behind him like a parachute. “Go back,” he said to Andy. “You’ll be drowned following about after me.”
    â€œNo. You’ve got to talk to me.”
    Vinny disappeared into another pub.
    Andy waited.
    Vinny popped his head back out the door. “Come in for a minute. Bob MacIntosh and Ian Holt are dying to meet you.”
    â€œNo thanks. I’ll wait here,” said Andy.
    Vinny went in and brought out a crowd to meet him. Andy had to shake hands with every one of them.
    When Vinny emerged, they set off again.
    â€œMacIntosh and Holt are Scots. But they’re all right.”
    They were passing a coffee shop. Andy grabbed Vinny’s arm and dragged him inside. “Let’s sit and have a bottle of pop, Father, please? I need to talk to you, and I can’t talk while I’m running to keep up.”
    Andy sat while Vinny shuffled reluctantly to the self-serve counter, returned with a tray laden with pop, glass, teapot, spoon, milk, and cup and saucer, and sat down opposite him and began stirring the pot with the spoon.
    â€œTell me things.”
    â€œWhat things?” Vinny lit a cigarette. His eyes smiled at Andy through curls of blue smoke.
    â€œI need you to tell me things like… what will we do if they send you to jail?”
    â€œThat will never happen, Andy, rest your mind on that. Your father is completely innocent.”
    â€œI know. I believe you. But —”
    â€œDon’t worry your young head, Andy. Everything will be all right. There. Now do you feel better?”
    Andy didn’t feel better. He stared into his father’s twinkling eyes. “I’ll feel better when you stop selling cigaretteswithout a license and get a normal job. And I’ll feel better when we find a nicer place to live.” There, he’d said it: the Mayo was a dump.
    His father looked hurt. “So you don’t like my place.”
    â€œIt’s — well…” Andy faltered. Then he remembered the cockroaches. “There’s cockroaches, thousands of them, swarming all over. You didn’t warn me. What happens if they bite me and give me some disease? They give me the creeps. And the place is small with the two of us living there — I know you weren’t expecting me, but you’ve had time by now to think about me, haven’t you?” He searched Vinny’s face. “Haven’t you, Father?”
    â€œAren’t you on my mind all the time? We’ll make plans, Andy, I promise, okay?”
    â€œAnd I get worried when you stay out late. I’m only eleven, you know. I’m a kid, not a grownup.”
    â€œYou’re more grownup than a lot of grownups I know. Anyway, leave it to me. I told you. We’ll make plans, all right?” Vinny got up. “I’ll be back in a jiff.”
    Andy looked around for him a few minutes later and saw him joking with customers up at the bar as he sold them cigarettes.
    When he came back, Andy said, “What about the cockroaches?”
    â€œCockroaches will do you no harm, Andy. They don’t bite. Take no notice of them. It’s people you need to watch out for, not God’s harmless creatures who were on this earth a million years before mankind and who’ll be here a million years after the last one of us is gone.”
    Andy stayed glued to him for the rest of his rounds, asking questions about his cigarette business and making suggestions, trying to clear the confusion in his mind about having a father who was funny and daring and brave, a father liked by everyone, but who made a living selling stale cigarettes without a license. “I’ve got an idea!” he said. “You could open a little shop to sell the cigarettes! Then you’d get a license from City Hall. Or if you find a job, then I can help at home, I really can. I can wash dishes and fix things. Simple stuff. We can get a cookbook and I’ll