“Hoof Hogan. Rough as a bag of spanners. Dressed like a tramp. He bought a bit of waste ground in London for next to nothing thinking you know it might come in useful sometime and it turned out years after it was wanted for an extra part of a runway for some airport. So one day this boy in a three piece suit comes to the door and offers him half a million for the land. Third of an acre it was, less than third of an acre. So your man Hoof tells him to go and get lost and he comes back the next week and offers him one and a quarter million.”
“Handy money,” said Jim.
“Handy money all right. This was the nineteen thirties now.” Seamus began to smile broadly. He took a sip from his Paddy, looked curiously into the glass and loosened his tie till it hung like a scarf. “But wait till you hear anyway. You won’t believe this so you won’t. He bought a Bentley.”
“That’s the car you’re talking about?” asked Margie.
“Aye, he bought a new Bentley. Three and a half litre job, Rolls Royce engine, one of the dearest cars going at the time, like a car royalty would have.”
“Christ,” said Willie Henry scratching at his fork with his free hand. “God forgive me for using the holy name but was that not the car Sean Connery drove in From Russia with Love was it not?”
“Not the same car,” said Seamus.
CZYTASZ
The Wake - Table of contents
HumorTHE YEAR is 1968 and the Swinging Sixties are still swinging - though not in Ireland. But wait! An old woman dies in a northern Irish town and her wake becomes a rendezvous for lesbians, bisexuals and political revolutionaries. And in there among t...
