THE KISS #ENGLISH STORY

 The Kiss

It was a most beautiful morning. The white clouds, above this part of the Irish coast, seemed playful and benign.* The waters of the river went over the weir* like a flow of silk and emptied placidly," a short distance farther on, into the sea. The flowers on the far bank of the river were white and purple. Many small, brightly coloured pleasure boats were tied up along the near bank, waiting for the tourists to get out of their beds.

The boy paid not the least attention to those real boats. Standing on a ramp leading into the river, he sailed his own boat. It was a short piece of rough timber, the front of which he had shaped very crudely into a sort of bow. He had put a nail in the bow and tied a long string to it. He would push his boat out into the water, and it would wobble its way towards where there was a slight pull from the current, and as it set off towards the weir he would pull the string and the boat would turn reluctantly, half drowned, back towards him. He was about nine years old, with brown, curly hair. He wore a shirt, short trousers, and sandals; the sandals were wet, and one of them had a broken strap. Sometimes his boat was a great battleship. He would purse his lips and make big-gun sounds. Sometimes it was an ocean liner, tall and majestic, and he would make a deep siren sound from his chest. It was also a fussy tug, a river boat. It was anything he wanted it to be, and he thought it was wonderful.

Then this girl came along by the riverside. She was six or so. She had fair hair and a short dress that showed her well-browned limbs, which were in the pudgy stage. She had blue eyes and fat wrists, and she was still inclined to bite one finger. She was pulling a wooden horse by a string Over the uneven ground. It was on wobbly wheels, this horse, and was painted white, with red trimmings.When it toppled, she would stop and put it upright and go on again. She came to the ramp and stood there and watched the boy playing with the boat. "Hello, Jimmy," she said. Jimmy gave her one glance over his shoulder. He wished her to go away. She knew this, but it didn't embarrass her. She just squatted down and watched him - boat in, boat out. Like Jimmy, she thought it was a beautiful boat.

"Nice boat," she said.
He raised one eyebrow to look at her. He didn't smile, but he was pleased that she knew a beautiful thing when she saw it. "Huh," he said. "Could you carry my horse across the river?" she asked. She asked that as if it were an impossible thing.
Jimmy considered it. He knew she thought that he couldn't possibly do such a thing, so he said, with scorn, "Of course! Bring the horse down to- the dock."
She rose from her squatting, and very carefully pulled the horse to the edge of the ramp. She wished to show him that she could handle a horse well. As the boat was then in midstream, he had to turn it with finesse.
He used the string gently, so that when the boat turned it didn't even go under the water. Like a master mariner* he brought it safely to port.
"You will have to back the horse on to the ship," he said. "Careful You might swamp the boat and there is no insurance on her"
"I'll be careful," she said. She put her small red tongue between her teeth and held it there as she started backing the horse on board. The horse would take up a lot of room - nearly the whole width and length of the boat. She was conscious of a critical eye watching her and when finally the horse stood on the boat she clapped her hands and said, "Now!" "That was easy," the boy said. "Now it is hard."
The weight of the horse was almost submerging the vessel, so he was very cautious. He gently eased the boat and its burden out into the water with his little finger, and as the flow of the stream caught the boat he loosed the guiding string with extreme care. They held their breath. The boat went out the full length of the string. It wobbled a bit. The girl bit at her finger. "Crossing the rapids is the worst part," the boy said as he delicately began turning the boat and its burden around. Slowly it came around, little by little, and then, after a few terrible moments of anxiety, it started to come back to them. They were standing by, tense, as he brought it in. Finally, it scraped against the ramp. He bent down, pulled the horse on the ramp, and then, standing up, he said. "Now you will have to pay!" To his astonishment, the little girl clapped her hands and said, "Oh, Jimmy!" and stood on her toes and kissed him.
It was this sight the priest saw as he glanced up from his breviary. He thought it was a most wonderful sight. He was pleased with the morning, the summer sun, the flowers, and the green leaves. The psalms of his office were in praise of the material works of God, and this sight to him was the climax of the morning. He was pleased he had come to the riverside.

Jimmy was about to wipe his mouth with the back of his hand where sin had kised him, when this tall figure of a priest dressed in black loomed over them. He was smiling. "Oh, this won't do, the priest said." "I saw you kissing jimmy, Cecily. Now you will have to be married. You know that,"
He was marking his place in the breviary with the index finger of his rignt hand. He put his hand on Jimmy's head and his free hand on Cecilys head. Now, he said, laughing, "you are married."
He was very pleased with his joke. He looked at their innocence and smiled, and then walked on, chuckling. It was a little time before he could erase the picture they made and get on with his office. Jimmy was glaring at the little girl. His fists were clenched. "Now see what you have done," he said. "What?" she asked.
"Everything! Everything!" he shouted. "You have ruined everything!" He saw her face starting to crumble. He bent down, took his boat, string and all, and fired it out into the river. He watched it as it went under the water and then popped up again and settled. It was near the weir. It went around and around and then it was gone. He felt sad. He felt it was the total end of a way of life.
"Come on!" he said roughly to the girl. She was biting her finger now, He snatched this hand from her mouth and took it in his own. Her finger was wet. He bent over and took the horse in his other hand. "Come on!" he said again, and walked off with her. She had to run to keep up with him.
He walked her from the riverside, up one street and into another street. He knew her house well. It was only a few doors from his own. The door of her house was open to the sun. The red tiles of the front step were polished. "Go in, now, he said," "and don't stir out again." She went in and stood, looking back at him. There were tears in her eyes. "And don't be biting your finger. You are not a cannibal," he added, and left her. She watched him go. Then she came out and sat on the step. She reached for her horse he had set down there, and cuddled it in her arms. She was bewildered.*

Jimmy wondered where he would go first. Somewhere away from home he would have to go  It wouldn't do near home. Everyone left home when a thing like this happened. He thought of places he had been with his father. They might know him, those shopkeepers. He headed for the shops. lt was quite a walk. He had to stop now and again to pull the sandal with the broken strap up on his heel. Down into town and along the main street and across the bridge and down another few streets. He saw this shop where his father often took him. He went in. He liked the smell of it. Raisins and spices and fruit and at the back a closed-off place where his father would drink a glass ot stout and Jimmy would have fizzy lemonade and a biscuit with currants in it; he would pull out the currants and eat them before he threw away the biscuit.
"Mr Moran," he said to the shopkeeper. Moran had to bend over the counter to see where the voice came from.
"Ah, hello, Jimmy," he said. "Do you want a pint?"
"No sir," said Jimmy. "I want a job."
"Oh! Ah!" exclaimed Mr Moran and roared with  aughter. "Hey, Dominic," he called to a man in a white apron "Here's a fella" after your job.
"Don't be laughing, Mr Moran," said Jimmy, desperately.
"What do you want me to do?" Moran asked. "Now, look at the size of you. You couldn't reach the bottom shelf. You're a comic, Jimmy. Come back when you've grown four feet."
But Jimmy was gone. His face was red. He was digging his nails into his palms. Why wouldn't they understand? They shouldn't laugh. The man in the hotel laughed. He called a lot of people to look at Jimmy and tell them what Jimmy had said. The man in the fun palace laughed.
His laughter and the laughter of his clients followed Jimmy as he ran towards the sea.
There he sat on the rocks. The tide was coming in, and he flung round stones at the sea. He felt really desperate. He understood, now, all the
hardships of being grown up.
Jimmy's father's heart didn't return to its proper position until he saw the lonely figure on the stony beach. He left his bicycle on the promenade and walked down to him. He's alive, he was thinking. Imagine, he's alive!
When Jimmy hadn't come home for lunch, he had begun searching for him; that was two hours ago. He had been thinking of getting the river
dragged, thinking of small bodies caught at the weir.
"Hello, Jimmy," he said, sitting beside him. Jimmy looked at him. His father's face was serious. This pleased Jimmy. "You didn't come home for your grub," his father said. "I was looking all over the place for you." He had heard about Jimmy looking for a job. "Did something happen?" "Yes," said Jimmy. "It was that silly Cecily. We' re married."
"Oh" said his father. But he didn't laugh. Jimmy noticed that and put his hand on his father's knee, and after a pause, Jimmy's father put his own hand on the small one. "Married?" he said. "I see." jimmy told him about the priest. "So I had to go looking for a job," he said, "and go away from home."
"I see," said his father. "I see." But, again, he didn't laugh. "That's serious, right enough. It's a tough life."
"what am i going to do now?" Jimmy asked. 'Nobody wants a boy to work for them. I'm too small."
"The best thing we can do is to go and see that priest," said Jimmy's father.
"Will that do any good?" Jimmy asked. "You never know," said his father. "Come on.."
He put him on the bar of the bicycle, and they went into town and over to the house of the priest. I hope, Jimmy's father was thinking, that he will understand the feelings of a small boy.
"Will he be able to do anything?" Jimmy asked, as they stood at the front door.
"They have great power," said Jimmy's father, ringing the bell.
The priest's housekeeper showed them into a room lined with books. Jimmy was very nervous. The priest came in. He smiled when he saw
Jimmy. "Ah, Jimmy," he said "Hello, Joe, what ails you?" "I believe," Joe said slowly, "that you married my son to Cecily this morning." Don't laugh now, Father, he thought, because you are the one that started it.
Jimmy was watching the priest slowly. The priest didn't laugh. He nodded, and sat down in a leather-covered chair. Joining his fingers together to cover his mouth, he said "Ah!" "So Jimmy did the right thing," said his father. "He went looking everywhere for a job to support Cecily."
"Hmm," said the priest. "Cecily would be an expensive wife. You should see her eating ice cream," said Jimmy.
"I see,"  said the priest. "Tell me, did you go into her house at all since younwere married?"

"I did not," said Jimmy.
"You mean you didn't go into her house and have a meal or anything?"
"I did not," said Jimmy scornfully.
"Ah, then it's all off," said the priest.
"It is?" said Jimmy.
"Certainly," said the priest. "If you don't go and live in the same house as Cecily, it's all off."
"I'll never go near her again as long as I live," said Jimmy.
"That's a pity," said the priest. "I thought you were a nice couple."
"She's-a silly girl," said Jimmy.
"Incompatibility," said the priest. "So you are as free as a bird again Jimmy."
"I'm glad! I'm glad! I'm glad!" said Jimmy
The priest and his father wondered at the fervent* way he spoke.
"Thank you, Father," said Joe. "You are very kind."

"No," said the priest. "I'm very silly." Jimmy was running into the hall towards the door. "They were such a pretty picture. I meant no harm. That
silly joke and it gives a boy many hours of worry. Who would think it?"
He watched father and son go out the door. Jimmy was a different boy from the one who had stood in the room with the books. He was
books. He was chattering now, joggling about on the bar of the bicycle. Joe waved at the priest, and then they were gone. Joe thought how relieved his wife would be to see Jimmy. He thought of the change that had come over his son. He wondered if he would remember this when he was grown up. He himself would never forget it. He wondered if, somehow, it was his fault. He wondered if he was was responsible for something buried deep in the mind of his son that hadbcaused this simple joke of the priest to bring such terror. He wondered if his son would ever understand what had happened. Jimmy was honking from his chest as it he were the horn of a motorcar.

The Kiss Questions

1.Why did Jimmy try to impress Cecily with his skill at handling his boat?
2. Why did the priest decide to play the joke on the children?
3. How did Jimmy's attitude to Cecily change once he believed they were married?
4. Jimmy accepted that it was a husband's responsibility to support his wife. Nowadays it is normal for both husbands and wives to go out to
work. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this arrangement, especially for the children and the wives themselves.
5. Why did the children take the priest's joke so seriously?
6. Write a story about a joke you played on someone.

Answers on our ig, special thanks to **Walter Macken**

# THE END!