The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes Read Online Free PDF

nurses or I’ll murder you,’ Molly said.
    Rabbit laughed. ‘Yeah, there’ll be two of us in the hole.’ Everyone stopped dead. It was a classic tumbleweed moment. ‘Too much?’ she asked.
    ‘Too much,’ Grace replied.
    ‘Hey, Davey,’ Rabbit changed the subject, ‘I’ve been back in time.’
    ‘Oh, yeah?’
    ‘Yeah. Back to our wall, back to the garage. I could see you beating the drum, the boys kicking it on guitar, bass, piano, and Johnny singing. I swear I stayed there until you’d all rehearsed every song twice.’
    ‘You always did.’ He took her withered hand in his.
    ‘Lying on the cold floor, daydreaming to your music – those were some of the best times I’ve ever had.’
    ‘That’s not at all depressing,’ he joked.
    ‘It was lovely, actually,’ she said.
    It was then that Grace brought up Juliet. The subject was delicate and Molly dreaded Rabbit’s reaction.
    ‘Tomorrow,’ Rabbit said. ‘Bring her tomorrow.’
    ‘But what should I tell her?’ Grace was unable to hide the tremor in her voice.
    ‘Tell her that her ma loves her.’
    ‘But . . .’
    ‘Grace, please.’
    ‘She’s asking.’
    ‘I don’t care what they say. I’m not giving up.’ Rabbit’s eyes were suddenly drowning, and tears flowed as though a dam had burst inside her.
    Suddenly she was choking, and Molly was on to it, lifting her up, rubbing her back and soothing her. ‘There, there, my girl, no more tears. We’ll fight and fight and fight.’ She stroked and kissed Rabbit’s head, and when the choking had passed, she laid her down and stroked her cheek until Rabbit’s tears slowly stopped. ‘Go to sleep now, love,’ she said, and Rabbit’s eyes closed. She let out a sigh and was asleep as suddenly as she had woken.
    Grace and Davey were horrified. Although Grace was forty-six and her brother forty-four, they were reduced to helpless children standing at the end of their little sister’s bed, unsure what to say or do and desperately willing their mammy to make everything all right.
Grace
    ‘Lenny?’ she shouted to her husband when she arrived at home with ten bags of shopping.
    Nine-year-old Jeffrey appeared in the sitting-room door. ‘He’s across the road looking at Paddy Noonan’s new car – well, it’s not new, it’s a 2008, but it’s new to Noonan.’ He took a bag from her, leaving her with the other nine. He looked into the bag. ‘It’s all green in here,’ he said sadly.
    ‘Get used to green because, until you’ve dropped two stone, it’s all you’re going to be eating and playing on.’ She walked through the hall and into the kitchen.
    ‘Harsh,’ he mumbled.
    ‘Where are your brothers?’
    ‘Stephen’s still in college. Ryan’s in Deco’s and Bernard is upstairs playing Nintendo.’
    ‘Jesus Christ! Ryan is supposed to come home straight after school.’
    ‘He told me da he’d a school project to do with Deco.’
    ‘Lying little toerag,’ she muttered.
    Jeffrey sat opposite her at the counter while she put away the shopping. ‘That’s what I said but Da’s a sucker.’
    ‘Stop watching me,’ Grace snapped.
    ‘Wha’?’
    ‘You’re following the food, Jeffrey, and I’m telling you, I’ll have every morsel accounted for. If one morsel goes missing, I’ll chase you with a hammer.’
    ‘Jaysus, Ma, there’s something wrong with you.’ He got down from his stool.
    ‘Where’s Juliet?’ she asked.
    ‘Where she always is.’
    ‘Is she OK?’
    ‘Don’t know. She won’t talk to me.’
    ‘OK. Well, get your tracksuit on. We’re going for a run before dinner.’
    ‘Wha’?’ Jeffrey was evidently appalled.
    ‘You heard me.’
    ‘I’m not running anywhere with you.’
    ‘Oh yes you are.’
    ‘I’ll be laughed out of it if the lads see us.’
    ‘Well, they’ll be the ones who are sorry when you lose all the weight and all the girls want you.’
    ‘Girls are disgusting.’
    ‘They’re disgusting when you’re nine, but by the time you’re