Cry Heaven, Cry Hell. Howard Gordon
Wednesday they met with the Priest. Father felt that a house that opposed throwing the Brits out of Ireland and defied the true road to God at the same time did not deserve to stand, but he could not participate because our Lord regards violence between men as not to be the mutual love Christianity preached .He also said what he did not know could not be sent to the Lord’s ears.
The Ornams had a family meeting to decide how to handle the Mikawbers. The father knew an employee of the factory where McTavish worked with his brothers, Brython and Oleander. One of his sons went to school with Michael and could detain him. The father would detain Tyndall at Avery’s Pub with a discussion about settling the differences between the two families. Likewise the three brothers could be taken out of the picture by joining their employee at another pub to celebrate the end of the workday. This left Craine alone in the house. The target date was Friday night of this week. The Ornams did not want too much time to elapse before they struck back. What stuck in Jesse Ornam’s craw was the picture of St. Patrick on his son’s arse. They’d pay for that one.
At 5:00 p.m. Jesse met Tyndall and suggested that they talk over some ales at Avery’s. Killiam engaged Michael in a friendly game of Rugby set up with two teams previously. One of the teams was short a man. He was interested in offering a gesture that the families could still be friends since no real physical harm had been done. After all, they were both still Irish, and there was more love between them than for the Brits. Tandry Obrits invited McTavish, Brython, and Oleander for a couple of cold ones and a game of darts at O’Donnell’s to separate themselves from the monotonous work day. The stage was set.
In November dusk and darkness come early. Six Ornams went to the Mikawber House with a bucket of live coals and another 3 buckets of horse feces . Delphious knocked on the door with two brothers behind him. They grabbed Craine and pinned him down, picked him up and carried him to a tree, tore off his clothes, and tied him to the tree. Delphious used a pair of tongs to hold the coals that burnt Craine’s face, arms and legs, and genitals. He told him they did not want him to suffer too much and rubbed the horse feces all over him to cool him. They smeared the second bucket all over the outside of the house and the third all over the inside.
Tyndall recognized that something phony was going on at Avery’s because Jesse never had much to say to him, and the time was too close to the time of the painting prank. McTavish had had differences with Tandry. They were also not very friendly, especially since he gave him a black eye a year ago over starting a union at the factory. Michael was suspicious of being invited to a Rugby game by a kid with whom he felt no friendship, and whose son had painted a family member orange and put one of their saints on his rear end. However, when the game was legitimate and involved both Prots and Lobsterbacks, he joined in.
The game was short lived because one of the players fell and broke his leg on a play. The Ornams thought they kept him away long enough for their family to get their business done. They bade Michael farewell and chuckled to themselves when he was out of earshot on the way home. Likewise Tyndall and the other boys left their rendezvous early because they didn’t feel comfortable with their company.
When they got home, they found Craine unconscious and smelling of horseshit, as well the inside and outside of the house. Tyndall brought his son to consciousness and asked what happened. He choked back his rage and dispatched the four boys to clean the house, while he cleaned up Craine and got the wagon ready to take him to the hospital to heal the burns. He promised a family meeting after he got back.
Once at the hospital, Dr. Bailen examined Craine and told the father that his son would have to stay in the hospital three weeks. He wanted to try a new technique called skin grafting with which they had been having successes. He diagnosed the lad with 2nd degree burns on his face and arms, and genitals.
Two days after Craine was admitted to the hospital, the Mikawbers had to get their anger out and develop a plan. McTavish was the hottest under the collar. He wanted to clean up the shotgun, steal a cannon from the armory, and blow the Ornams to smithereens. He also had a cache of dynamite that he wanted to use. Tyndall was against any killing. “We are not animals. I may be more patient than The Catholics, but I want the same freedom from the Brits that they do. Most of us Prots want the protection of England, but I’ve always fought my own battles. Besides if you take someone’s help there’s always a price to pay. I don’t feel like being pushed into that war overseas. It’s going to be one bloody, long thing, and we’ll never be the same again. I also don’t want it brought here. Let’s just insist on some simple justice.” McTavish had to admit that Da was right, but how could one teach the Ornams a lesson and not hurt them. Brython said, “We can hurt them without killing them. We can do irreparable damage to their property, enough to make them move back to Dublin, where they belong. They stunk our house up. Why can’t we burn their house down? We can do it when they’re gone.”
No one challenged Brython’s idea; all that remained was for them to implement it and come up with a logical plan. Oleander devised a scheme. The family would go visit Craine in the hospital Saturday night and stay overnight, due to the impending surgery and be available for matching skin grafts. After hours the least matched would sneak out and place dynamite in the woods adjacent to the Ornam property. He would return, and the next least matched would sneak out and put several cans of gasoline at the cache, then return. The next in line would bring wood and tinder to start a small fire near the house. Early Sunday morning, the family would wait in the woods with binoculars to observe movement and to dig a hole to bury the equipment. They’d burn the shack while the family was at church.
After hearing this plan Tyndall stated if the Brits conscripted his family, they’d win their war in a week. No one was to tell Craine about it or the Constabulary would be torturing him about it from his hospital bed. Care had to be taken to cause it to appear that the earth over the hole had been untouched. Tyndall would handle this due to his prior experience as a landscaper. That Sunday the deed was done. If Jesse Ornam complained to the authorities, he would have to explain about the damage done to the Mikawbers’ house and Craine. They had pictures of his face and arms, including the cuts and burns. No complaints were lodged with the authorities.
Craine was in a lot of pain and diverted himself from it by thinking what would happen if the shoe was on the other foot. He could picture skin being transplanted from Delphious’ arse to his face with that picture of St. Patrick on his puss. Father Wrigley would probably beat the hell out of him for it. The nurses seemed to fall all over themselves because he knew how to fight back. They also knew his family also did when rumors flew around Belfast about the Ornams’ house.
One girl in particular had a crush on him. She was Malkia. She was neither Catholic nor Protestant, but Jewish. She was freckle faced and had flaming red hair, brown eyes, shapely, long legs, bountiful breasts, and a shapely, juicy bottom. When she came in the room, and they were all alone, she would lie on him and hug him. She could tell in the obvious ways that he enjoyed her company. The same day he was in her embrace, his father and brothers came to visit him after their escapade at the Ornams’ house. They were all in a jubilant mood and began to tease Craine about his getting beat up so he could enjoy Malkia’s attentions. Tyndall asked what kind of wound he had to get to receive such attention. They found out her last name was Doleman and realized her religious affiliation. McTavish smiled and said, “At least ye won’t be a tryin’ to convert us. But we ain’t learnin’ any Hebrew. Ye’ll probably have to sneak out of your Sabbath services to see us of a Friday night or a Saturday. We may even take you to church of a Sunday, I’m warnin ‘ye now. Your Da will probably beat the the Bejaysus out of you. This was not to be the last time McTavish made her laugh and blush at the same time.
Chapter 3
Britain tried different stunts, such as giving Protestant and Catholic trouble makers a choice between conscription and jail or the gallows. The next two years found Irish demands for home rule and Irishmen, elected to Parliament refusing to take their seats. Under an Irish leadership (de Valera) buildings were seized, and conscription was resisted. The Brits had to divert some of their western front soldiers to put down the rebellion in Dublin around the time that they were engaged with the Germans at the Somme. Also at around this time the tank was introduced as a