Touchy Subjects (32 page)

"Do you think," Martie asked May half an hour later, "I know this probably sounds really stupid, but do you think it's any use, do you think it's any help to people, if you're there?"

"Where?" asked May, eyes vacant, taking a sip of Glucozip.

"Near them. Thinking about them."

"Like, faith healing?"

Martie's mouth twisted. "Not necessarily. I just mean, is it doing Laz any good that we're here?"

"I think maybe we're irrelevant," said May, without bitterness. "He never liked either of us that much in the first place."

"You don't have to like your family," said Martie uncertainly.

"Just as well," said May under her breath. "Just as well."

"Laurence Coleman? Laurence Coleman?"

They both registered the words at last and jerked in their seats. "He's not here," said Martie confusedly to the man in the white coat, whose small badge said
D
R
.
P
.
J
.
H
A
S
S
I
D
. "They took him in there," pointing vaguely.

"If you would come this way—"

They both scurried after Dr. Hassid. May plucked at the doctor's sleeve. "Is he alive?" she asked, and burst into tears.

Martie stared at her elder sister, who had tears dripping from her chin. One of them landed on the scuffed floor of the corridor.

"Just about," said Dr. Hassid, not stopping. There were dark bags under his eyes.

Laz, lying in a cubicle, didn't look alive. He was stretched out on his back like a specimen of an alien, with tubes up his nose, machines barricading. May wailed. Martie took hold of her elbow.

"Laurence will get through this," said Dr. Hassid, fiddling with a valve.

"Laz," May sobbed the word. "He's called Laz."

"It doesn't matter," said Martie.

But Dr. Hassid was amending the clipboard that hung at the end of the bed. "L-A-S?"

"Zee," gulped May.

"L-A-Z, very good. It's better to use the familiar name. Laz?" the doctor said, louder, bending over the boy. "Will you wake up now?"

One eyelid quivered. Then both. The boy blinked at his sisters.

"Touchy Subjects" was first published as a self-contained chapter in
Ladies' Night at Finbar's Hotel,
devised and edited by Dermot Bolger (Dublin: New Island, and London: Macmillan; San Diego and New York: Harcourt, 1999).

"Expecting" was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1996, and first published in
You Magazine/Mail On Sunday,
8 October 2000.

"Oops" was first published in a shorter form in
Sunday Express
(Summer 2000).

"Do They Know It's Christmas?" is adapted from a short radio play, part of my
Humans and Other Animals
series (2003), produced by Tanya Nash for BBC Radio 4.

"The Cost of Things" was first published in
The Diva Book of Short Stories,
edited by Helen Sandler (London: Diva Books, 2000), and then adapted into a short radio play as part of my
Humans and Other Animals
series (2003), produced by Tanya Nash for BBC Radio 4.

"Pluck" was first published in
The Dublin Review
(Autumn 2002); before publication, I adapted it into a ten-minute film of the same name, directed by Neasa Hardiman and produced by Vanessa Finlow (Language, 2001).

"Good Deed" was first published in
Rush Hour,
edited by Michael Cart (Volume 1,2004).

"The Sanctuary of Hands" was first published in
Telling Moments,
edited by Lynda Hall (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2003).

"Team Men" was first published in
One Hot Second: Stories of Desire,
edited by Cathy Young (New York: Knopf, 2002).

"Speaking in Tongues" was first published in
The Mammoth Book of Lesbian Erotica,
edited by Rose Collis (London: Constable/Robinson; New York: Carroll & Graf, 2000).

"The Welcome" was first published in
Love and Sex: Ten Stories of Truth,
edited by Michael Cart (New York: Simon
8c
Schuster, 2001).

"Enchantment" was first published in
Magic,
edited by Sarah Brown and Gil MacNeil (London: Bloomsbury, 2002).

"Necessary Noise" was first published in
Necessary Noise,
edited by Michael Cart (New York: Joanna Cotler Books, 2003).

I'd like to record my gratitude to Sinead McBrearty for providing all the soccer knowledge for "Team Men," to Dermot Bolger for editing "Touchy Subjects," to Tanya Nash for her work on the radio version of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and to Vanessa Finlow and Neasa Hardiman for their work on the film version of "Pluck."

For inspiring these stories, on the other hand, I want to thank Maria Walsh for "Speaking in Tongues"; Helen Stanton for "Oops"; Sharon Switzer and Claire Sykes for taking me on the trip to LA that lies behind "Baggage"; Helen Donoghue for the one in Belgium that led to "The Sanctuary of Hands" (and also Catherine Dhavernas for her conference on The Hand which was the story's occasion); Denis Donoghue for proposing I take a fresh look at Martha, Mary, and Lazarus in "Necessary Noise"; all my former housemates at Paradise Housing Co-operative in Cambridge for "The Welcome"; Wen Adams and Nairne Holtz for "Do They Know It's Christmas?"; and Emma our late great cat for "The Cost of Things."