His Father's Son: To save the son he loves, a desparate father must confront the ghosts of his past by Tony Black Page A

were cold then there were some good thick coats just hanging there doing no good to no one. There was a heater that ran off the gas but wouldn’t you pay through the nose for it because wasn’t the price of gas a crime. Mam said the coats would be fine and it was good enough of Aunt Catrin to give up the caravan.
    “Quite,” said Aunt Catrin. “I’ll get them coats … and will yees take a hot bottle?”
    “That would be grand,” said Mam.
    Marti had never had a hot bottle before and he wondered what to do with it when Aunt Catrin gave him the old lemonade bottle in a brown sock. There was boiling water in the bottle and the sock was tied at the bottom. At the top of the bottle the cap poked out through a hole. Mam got a bottle too but her sock was grey and there was no hole. The bottle was lovely and warm, thought Marti, but he didn’t like the sock and wondered whose it had been.
    “Marti, what are you doing?” said Mam.
    “I’m smelling the sock.”
    “Marti, will you stop making a show of me. Now say thank you to Aunt Catrin.”
    “Thank you for the sock, Aunt Catrin,” said Marti. “It doesn’t smell.”
    Aunt Catrin shook her head and said she knew the sock didn’t smell, for sure hadn’t she washed it herself, and then she said, “Don’t be messing with the bottle because there’s hot water in there and it could do you an injury to get it on your skin.” She walked away very fast, and Marti thought Mam would say it was a hot arse he had earned, but there was only a sigh from her.
    In the caravan Mam said it was only proper knackers that lived the like, there was no respect in it at all, she said, and then the bubbling with the tears was started and Marti was called for a hug.
    When they settled down to sleep there was no noise beyond the caravan and Marti wondered why there was no noise when in Australia there was always the mozzies and the crickets and sometimes even the maggies to be heard, moving about on the roof, looking for spiders. Marti found it easy to fall asleep when there was no noise but he wasn’t sleeping a very long time when Mam woke him.
    “Did you hear that?” she said. Marti had heard nothing, but Mam said there was definitely a noise. “There, did you hear it?” she said. There was a little noise like footsteps and Marti thought he heard a laugh or maybe a whisper and Mam said, “Oh God, it’ll be the knackers. They come for the washing off the lines.”
    Marti knew the knackers were the tinkers or gypsies or sometimes the itinerants. Mam said you were never to go near the knackers because they carry all manner of diseases, and fleas especially. He wondered, if the knackers were nearby, would he get diseases and fleas and should he maybe hide under the coats. Mam said she could hear them coming and Marti was very frightened and could hear his heart beating when he hid under the coats. He wanted to run out of the caravan and into the house, but Mam said to be quiet and don’t move a muscle. He was too scared to even breathe and he heard the footsteps that might be the knackers right outside. Somebody was leaning on the caravan and making it move, and Marti wondered if they were maybe going to take the caravan away with them inside it. His heart started to beat even faster and then the door swung open and Mam sat up in the bed and screamed out, all in a loud panic, “What do ye want?”
    A strange woman came in the caravan and she started the screaming too when she saw Mam in the bed. When the screaming noise was made, a light went on in the house and Marti saw the strange woman was wearing a long coat with no clothes on underneath, only big white panties. He thought she must be very cold standing there with the coat all flapping open and her hands up on her head with the shock and then a man came in behind her.
    “Janey Mackers, it’s yourself, Shauna,” he said.
    “Jaysus, Ardal,” said Mam, and then the strange woman stopped the screaming and became mad