Layers

‘GET yourself a haircut, love.’ His mother’s words echoed in Tadhg’s ears as he studied himself in the bathroom mirror. ‘It’s time.’ She had taken another day off work and stopped by for a cup of tea. As she spoke she had given him a sympathetic smile and a nod. As if she were attempting to usher him past a questionable period of his life. A tone she might have used when telling him to turn off the tv and study or to start applying for jobs. It was the tone that suggested she had waited silently, not passing judgment, until finally, she couldn’t wait any longer if they continued to be seen in public together. ‘It covers your eyes. You have such beautiful blue eyes.’

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Emergency Room

-Switch lanes as we come upon the roundabout

-Ugh roundabouts still make me nervous

-You’ll be grand, just need a bit more practice. Indicator!’

-I keep forgetting that.

-You’ll get it eventually … we’ll just keep practicing and drilling it into you. It’ll click.

-We’re going to a viewing in Greystones this weekend.

-You and Lisa?

-Yeah. Gonna get the DART out.

-Nice, man. That’s great. It’s gas that we’re both at that stage of our lives at the same time. We could even end up in the same place.

-Morning dips in the sea before a shitty commute.

-That would be the business. And weekend hikes.

-Jaysus listen to us.

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It's Tough Being an Assassin in the 2020's

‘IT’S in Paris,’ Gregory pushed. ‘You love Paris.’

‘I love croissants, Greg. That’s not the same thing as liking Paris.’

‘You came to me and I’m giving you another chance when no one else will. Make like a straw and suck it up. I’ll speak to you when you get there.’ The dialing tone sang.

Oisín rolled his eyes, he really was back now. It had been three years since the most embarrassing fuck-up of his life. But now he was on a train through Europe to complete a job and find out if he missed the life he thought he missed.

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Cash is Dead

‘CHANGE please,’ Cuan called out from under his hood as he watched a pair of heavy doc’s step by. A single drop of rain hit him on the nose and ran downwards, nesting on his lip. He was cold. The kind of cold that sat in bones causing a consistent dull ache and it had rained so much lately his clothes never fully dried. The smell of him alone would keep people away, but that wasn’t a problem these past few days it seemed.

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The Bloody Stream

in ,

‘HAS it got me,’ the old bird asked. The skin around her eyes was as thin as tissue and detailed with faint little veins.

‘Yes,’ coughed Sally. Clearing her throat and saying it again. ‘Yes it has. The dampness in your lungs is making it difficult for you to breathe and your body is tired from fighting.’

‘Feckin Corona. So what do we do?’ The old bird asked with a fierce strength in her tone.

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The Lights Spoke

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‘CLASS dismissed, enjoy your weekend children,’ Ms Flannery called out, slamming her duster down on the desk.

A chorus of squeaks from chairs being pushed out erupted from the class and the distinct gleeful chatter that came at the end of every Friday could be heard. Coats were thrown on and as Finn zipped up his schoolbag, he quickly removed the knife and stuck it in his pocket.

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Hey Babe

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NEXT stop, Milltown. An chéad stad eile, Baile Muileann. The intercom called as the train eased its pace towards Dublin City. Declan sat leaning against the window of the luas with his arms folded tight as if to restrain himself. A couple of rows ahead of him two lads sat about the same age as Declan. Only they were leaning against each other cozily, one nuzzling the others cheek with his nose. Declan watched them closely. He watched to see if other people were watching them too; but nobody appeared to notice.

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Fast Thumbs and a Slow Brain

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SQUINTING through the curtains of rain that lashed on his windscreen, Liam steered his shitty little Nissan with one hand around the long bend towards Stepaside Village. ‘Fuck fuck shit shit motherfucker,’ he called out. He never paid attention to the little details, he cursed. Always acting before thinking, gut before head, that was him alright …. gut before fecking head. He needed help, he had concluded.

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Dead People Gardening

in ,

‘Darragh!!!! Get up, I need help up at your Grandfather’s grave.’

Darragh twitched underneath the covers of his bed, the stench from his own body turning his stomach. It had not been twelve hours since he arrived back in Dublin, returning home from years away in Asia. The money had gone and real life beckoned he had supposed. He made good money teaching English in Hanoi, but spent it so fast he hardly got to touch it.

In one clean sweep he pulled the covers off himself and rose up; his lip pulling on the pillow a little, stuck from his own drool.

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MRDR Inc.

in ,

WENDY ran deeper into the Jewish Quarter. It was dark but not nearly as dark as she wanted. A full moon filled the sky with a pale, silver, light. She knew this part of Prague well having worked in it for almost six years. And it’s narrow winding streets offered her protection from what was coming.

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Party in the Dark

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THE club was about to close. Donnacha and Gabrielle both knew that soon the lights would be turned on and the plug would be pulled on the music. Donnacha guided Gabriele by sleeve of his black button-up shirt and led him through Crawdaddy, across the dance floor towards the large smoking courtyard near the entrance; the echoes of the house-beats rippling after them into the cool night air.

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Pool, Lads & Life

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THE “Plex” was the first place we all felt grown up. A dingy little arcade made out of a rundown barn towards the counties edge. It was somewhere to go on our own and meet outside of school. This hadn’t happened before really you see. And so on weekends I’d breeze through the house, offering the briefest of goodbyes to my parents, and walked the way a man with purpose walks, out the door to catch the bus. Hell, even taking the bus when not in a uniform felt grown up.

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Stains

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RAIN bashed the battered exterior of the little blue fiat as if marbles were being dropped from the coal black sky above; playing the car like a snare drum as it limped up the Dublin Mountains. Shifting in the drivers’ seat, adjusting gear, Gael thought to himself how the word “mountain” never did these rolling rocky hills justice. It was a strong, formidable description which he associated with things along the scale of Kilimanjaro or Everest, geological giants of the globe keeping watch over us all and not the forest and granite dappled mounds that separated the green fields of Wicklow from the Irish capital.

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Firsts

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THE sex was different, Ferdiad thought as he shoved his legs into his jeans one at a time. We move around more, toss each other and laugh.

She lay asleep with the covers dripping off the mattress. Her tanned body prodded by spears of orange light that pushed through moth bitten curtains, the cheeks of her bum like two large apple seeds gleamed, and chocolate coloured hair thick with wet. The room was saturated with the hot smell of bodies.

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Angry Man

in ,

I get these thoughts. Far more often than i would like.

What thoughts?

Bloody ones. Ones that make me fizz. For example I was a at a gig in Vicar Street recently. I don’t remember the name of the band, I was with my girl and I was there for her…some post modern folk rock band she liked who I remember never hearing of and obviously have forgotten about since.

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Dog Days & Organic Decisions

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THERE was a flat light to the sky that framed seagulls coasting effortlessly from one side of the Liffey to the other. Taking turns, they stopped to perch upon streets lamps to peer and poo on the bustle of people below. Don’t you dare, I thought as I crossed quay road that bordered the south side of the river and onto Grattan bridge, being well accustomed to shite dropping on me out of nowhere.

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Routines

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‘IT’S the first Wednesday of the month.’

‘And?’

Arthur looked up from his newspaper which he read every afternoon at the kitchen table since retiring last year. He enjoyed watching Mary run around the kitchen polishing things that she had polished not twenty-four hours before. It was time he valued with his wife because he got to spend time with her without him being the full focus of her attention.

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