‘First exam Monday?’ said Mr McCoy.
‘Yeah.’
‘You’ll be grand, you’ve worked hard and it’ll pay off, just keep focused.’
‘I’ll buzz you and let you know how it went?’
‘I’d be insulted if you didn’t,’ he said.
It was hard to know how to end the evening after what we’d just shared – to talk about exams again felt insignificant.
‘Mr and Mrs McCoy,’ I said, turning in the doorway before stepping out into the night, ‘just wanted to say, I really do have a lot of love for you both, so, yeah … I just wanted to say that.’
‘We know,’ said Mrs McCoy, the two of them smiling at me in the doorway, ‘we absolutely know.’
‘Now away into the car before your da tells us off!’ said Mr McCoy, giving my dad a wave.
As we drove off the McCoys stayed standing in their doorway, one arm around each other and the other waving me goodbye. They were still waving as we came to the end of the road until we turned the corner and I lost sight of them in the wing mirror.
40
The McCoys weren’t the only ones trying to keep me focused on exams.
‘You need to keep your head in the game, young fella,’ said Mr Feeney.
‘But who’s going to wash the vehicles every weekend if I don’t?’ I said.
‘The wife,’ he said with a wink. ‘Only jokin’, we’ll look after things, Brendan, don’t you worry. Nothin’ll be done to your standards, a’course, apologies in advance for the state they’ll be in on the other side of your exams.’
‘Mr Feeney, I know you think time off work to study is the right thing but I really need my weekends here, I really do, I’ll even work for free!’
‘Brendan, if it were either of my own two daughters going through their exams I’d be doing the same thing.’
No amount of protesting could convince him.
It was the same with driving lessons; Dad said we wouldn’t be doing our Sundays during the exam weeks.
‘But you’re not getting out of Fridays and Saturdays; you’re doing well but notthatwell,’ he’d said.
On the last study day before my first exam, I was sitting in the school library with Jennifer. We were the only ones there; most students were staying home for their study days.
‘God, if even your dad is cutting down on your driving lessons then you know it’s serious,’ Jennifer whispered.
‘I know,’ I whispered back, ‘they think they’re taking the pressure off, but they’re actually laying it on!’
‘Do you know what it is, Brendan? They feel helpless.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Parents: they can’t do the studying for us, they can’t sit the exams for us, there’s very little theycando except impose some level of control.’
‘Great, I’ll blame them if I fail then!’
‘Doesn’t work like that,’ Jennifer said. ‘But you won’t fail. The end’s in sight.’
‘Yeah, that’s a good target, then I can say goodbye to this place.’
‘You really want school to end?’ Jennifer asked.
