Chapter 2
We rarely see Aidan and Pa anymore, they leave the house before most of us are awake and come home late at night, worn out by the days labor. Most of the children, including me, are getting restless sitting inside the apartment all day. Sometimes Mother takes the younger children to the market with her, otherwise we're confined to the sidewalk outside the building, which is nothing like the large backyard we once had. I miss Ireland a lot these days, and have taken to wandering the busy streets of Brooklyn. There are so many people here from all different countries. A few buildings down is another large Irish family, the Moriarty's, who came six months ago. They have a boy my age and sometimes I go down to the market with him to look for a job. Mother doesn't think I should be working yet, but I'm 13 and I've seen much younger boys and girls going to the factories, selling fruits or fish on the street and selling newspapers down on the corner of every street. It's a different world out here and I want to be part of it.
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It's a Saturday which means Mother goes to market in the morning with Siobhan and Jack. I have to stay and watch over Francis and Jude, who are both being fussy about taking their naps.
"No nap." Francis shakes his head defiantly from his small bed on the floor. It's been impossible to get the children to actually do anything I ask them as of lately, they've been making friends with the other children in the building and always want to play with their toys since toys are lacking in our family. "Me play." Francis smiles his toothy grin and attempts to get up out of his bed.
"Oh no you don't!" I push him down and cover him in the blanket, even though the temperature in the room is well above 90 It is only early summer, but already Brooklyn is boiling. After a few struggles, with me winning, I finally get the two babies into their beds snug and sound. It's quiet now, well as quiet as New York is going to get I found. There's always someone shouting, a baby crying and someone fighting in a neighboring room. All that was background noise now. Inside our own little space it was quiet. Its been 3 weeks since we arrived at Ellis Island, walked through immigrations and onto the streets of our new life.
We have a fire escape out the kitchen window and I often climb out there to look at the stars, or watch people walking by, but mainly to escape the chaos of my family. Mother is worried constantly that one of us is going to get sick. The loss of some of her children has driven her into a corner and she can't seem to get out of it. She took to compulsively cleaning the apartment though, so its all she does besides food shop. She robotically sweeps, scrubs and moves furniture around to get it how she wants it. It's a constant battle to make her stop, the place shines, but without Pa around, she goes into her own world which includes feeing her children, worrying over them and cleaning the house. I suppose it's all she has left.
An old man lives above us. His cigarette ashes fall down onto our landing where he has a small folding chair. You can hear him out there at night, scraping his chair and mumbling to himself about some long lost son or something. He doesn't come out much during the day, he can't take the heat I'm guessing, so I'm out here on the fire escape by myself. The neighbors have hung all their laundry out the window and it blocks my few of the alley beyond. The alley is filled with trash and waste, and stray cats and barking dogs frequent it. They're not down there now, but the stench is. Jack is always trying to convince Mother that we should take in some of those stray cats, but she is strongly against it. Thinks they'll bring in flees and cause the rest of us to get sick. I wish she would stop worrying, she washes the pans over and over again and makes sure the fruit is from the best market in town so it isn't spoiled, even if it does cost her more.
Mother says the cost of our lives is to great to risk on spoiled fruit. I suppose she could be right.