How’s the groupie situation? Barney says to him. Banging, he says. Banging. Better than ever, he says. When Tommy was around I had serious competition. But now I’ve got the run of the field. I’m getting my cock sucked every night of the week, lads, he says to us. No word of a lie. Fuck me, I says to him, I was just saying that there’s a fucking drought on blow jobs in Ireland, always has been. When Saint Patrick ran all the snakes out of Ireland he must have fucking ran all the blow jobs out too, your man Del Brogan says. But they’re coming back, he says. Mark my words, they are coming back. For a second I’m caught there, speechless. Can he see me, I’m wondering, the way I saw him? What’s coming back, I says to him, the snakes? The fucking blow jobs, you divot, he says to me. The fucking blow jobs are coming back. The fuck you think I’m talking about? Then he winks at me. He fucking knows, I’m telling myself, he fucking knows. The snake means you’re marked. The snake means knowledge of the future. But then the blonde comes over and puts her arm around his waist. These are my good friends Barney and Sammy, he says to her. This is Babs. Babs gives us both a really limp handshake and then puts her mouth up to his ear. I hear her whispering to him. When are we getting out of here, Daddy? she says. She’s calling him Daddy. Daddy’s little girl.

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