Divorcing Jack Read Online Free PDF Page B

him. Pat Coogan?'
    'Cow Pat Coogan?'
    'Cow Pat Coogan. Yeah. The Paper Cowboy.'
    'I haven't heard that one. Paper Cowboy.'
    'You know the old joke. He was done for rustlin'.' She turned her head up towards me, held me with her eyes.
    'Jesus,' I said. 'I kissed the mouth that kissed the mouth of Cow Pat Coogan. Mother would have me shot, were she still alive.'
    Coogan wasn't quite a legend - most all of them were dead - but he was a name, a character, in a largely characterless war. Reckless or stupid, he'd added a bit of life to the papers a couple of years back with a series of daring armed robberies round the country, north and south of the border. He'd briefly been the most wanted man in the Province, not so much for the viciousness of his crimes as for the extent of them. He was branded a Republican, but he always seemed more interested in money than freeing Ireland. When he was finally arrested he faced thirty-nine charges - thirty-eight for armed robbery on the word of a supergrass and one of stealing cattle. He was only convicted for the cattle.
    'So how long were you going with him?'
    'Not long. Six months maybe. Long enough to get pregnant anyway.'
    'Still hear from him?'
    'No. And don't worry. He doesn't keep tabs on me.'
    'Who's worried?'
    'It's quite hard to think of him being in prison. I keep thinking of sitting in the back row of the flicks with him., holding hands, sneaking a kiss. I think I was quite smitten. Then we split up. You know how it is. You think you're over someone then you hear he's taking a girl out for dinner and you feel all right about it, but then you hear he's meeting her again and you're in tears for seventy-two hours. Miserable. I hated him for doing that to me. He's a good-lookin' fella. There were a lot of broken hearts along the Falls when he went inside, and it wasn't for the love of Ireland.'
    'You'd not go out with him again then?'
    'I don't know. I suppose in a way I still love him. But things would have to be different.' Margaret ran her fingers through her hair, then through mine. 'You're nice, y'know? A lot of men wouldn't like to hear a woman they've just slept with talking about old boyfriends.'
    'As long as they don't come through that door with a shotgun I don't mind who we talk about,' I said. And I didn't. I had enough problems of my own without worrying about anyone else's, but I could listen all day. 'Well, I take it you're from at the very least a fairly Loyalist family - I've seen those records, and they aren't a pretty sight - what did they make of Cow Pat Coogan? It must have been like bringing the Pope home for dinner.'
    'We may be Protestants, but we're not bigots. Mum got on with him all right, I suppose. Dad never met him. He's not home much.'
    'What's he do?'
    'Don't ask.'
    It was a don't ask that was a do ask, but I took her at her word and left it. It was getting late and my head had cleared and my stomach was rumbling.
    A high-pitched whine, gradually growing in annoyance, enveloped us as we lay in sunny silence.
    I said: 'I let the dog out a while back. I gather he wants in.'
    'If there's blood dripping from his mouth, you're in big trouble.' Margaret jumped from the bed, her small bottom a marvel of tightness. She pulled on a T-shirt with Mickey Mouse on the front and hurried down the stairs. I heard the back door open and a scampering of paws.
    When I went downstairs about ten minutes later Margaret was making a fry-up. Sausage, bacon, egg, fried bread, soda bread, potato bread, mushrooms, pancake, tomato; I liked the way she took it for granted that what I most needed after a night on the tear was a fry. She made me wait in the living room and we ate in there on the settee with the plates on our laps.
    When we'd finished she went to wash up and I ordered a taxi. We sat awkwardly in the lounge for ten minutes until it arrived. What, after all, do you say? A pump of a horn from outside, and I stood up and slipped my jacket on. She stood up with me and