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“Oh no What happened?” I asked,to my lips

He took a small step back, as if clearly shocked that I didn’t know anything about his father

“He didn’t tell you?”

“No,” I said,into my stomach

“Our dad He’s not well Kind of brought it on himself with the booze and the smack”

My jaw dropped

“The smack? Like heroin?”

Eoin nodded

“Aye, he’s a lifelong addict Keeps disappearing and turning up odd places A gutter, a rooftop, in the forest passed out It’s gotten to be like a ame of Where’s Waldo? Anyway, last time he went on a bender, he OD’d and was dead for ten minutes”

He paused then, and I could tell as co He put on a brave face, but his chin wobbled, and I knew that Eoin MacBride was about to cry

“I tried to get hiested last time I talked to hiot a real bad blood infection It’s not looking good I need to knohat to do Gavin is down as next of kin The hospital staff won’t listen to me or any of our brothers We need to decide the next step, and since he’s been ignoring my calls, I decided to come here and talk to him one on one”

I reached intoit to Eoin, which he took gratefully I really wanted to give hi, but I restrained myself, unsure if he wanted me to

“Thanks,” he said, blowing his nose noisily

“He never told me about that,” I said

He never told

“I’ the tissue “He likes to keep his dark secrets in the past He’d rather run from them than actually have to face them”

My stomach somersaulted

Dark secrets?

“Was he— violent?” I asked, re him off

It suddenly dawned on one to bed with

“Only when he had to be You’ve got to understand we’re frohborhood in West Belfast Pretty much every boy over fifteen has at least one scar It’s considered a sort of rite of passage Tiuns and bo the end of The Troubles We count ourselves kinda lucky that we just gotta put up with the occasional shanking now Hurts like hellfire, but everyone survives, mostly”