me. My mother was pregnant and they got married
thinking they were doing the right thing. Then the
others arrived, one after the other, and with them
came money problems and everything went to hell.
My father was a womanizer, unable to think of
anyone else but himself. That’s where I got my
moral principles from.
Luckily, two years after he walked out, my mom
met Carl, a good man who is divorced and
childless who was able to make her happy and give
back a bit of normal living to us all.
We always lived in the same house on Pearse
Street, four boys sharing one room with two bunk
beds in a few square meters and the two girls
sharing the only other room available.
My mom and Carl have slept on the couch for at
least six years. They gave up their room for my
sisters and could not afford a bigger and more
expensive house.
Carl works at the Guinness Storehouse and my
mom works part-time in a bakery on Mary Street
because she still has children to raise.
So basically, it was a shit sandwich. We were
never without anything, especially since Carl has
been with us but I have to be honest: at Christmas,
when we got one gift for all of us to share, it’s not
the greatest. It’s not that we didn’t understand, we
k n e w a l l t o o w e l l w h a t t h e e c o n o m i c
circumstances were and we weren’t upset because
we didn’t have more. What really sucked was
