Sometimes, when his father has been particularly cruel, or when he has not eaten for several days, James allows his mind to wander. He knows that he has a good memory, better than people in books, or on the small television that his father watches.
So on these occasions, when the world seems pointless and James feels particularly useless, he will allow his memory to remember the strange woman from Dublin. He remembers what she said, about all children deserving to go to school. And he allows himself the luxury of thinking about how things could be, if he did go to school. He imagines being with other children, learning new things, getting out of the house, away from his father. He knows that this will never be, can never be; yet still he treasures these thoughts as something to hold onto, a glimmer of hope at the end of a long tunnel.
After a few months, James comes up with a plan, the first of many he will make in his lifetime. He thinks back to how the woman from Dublin sounded. In his head, he mimics her speech patterns, her vowel sounds, the way she started and ended her sentences, and so on. He also listens through the door to the dirty living room, to hear the news on the rare occasions that his father can be bothered to boot up the old television and watch.
James listens to these voices, and over time, he begins to adapt these to his own way of talking. Sure enough, after a while, James speaks like someone from the capital rather than a rough country boy. It is then that James decides to put the next stage of his plan into action.
-o0o-
Nobody is around to watch a small boy, thin and weak from malnutrition, climb out the window of a small cottage set deep into the Irish countryside. Nobody sees him stumble off on a long journey towards the city, wearing only a thin T-shirt and shorts that are too small for him, and holding nothing but a small rucksack.
Nobody thinks anything of it when the body of Andrew Moriarty is found, weeks later, having been killed by a cup of poisoned tea. It is assumed that he has killed himself in grief over the death of his wife and new-born son, nine years earlier; it is a common enough occurrence around these parts. After all, who else would have killed him? He had no children, he himself has said many times.
