Virgins

By Steven Duggan

"Wonderful, remarkable, unforgetable stories"
- G.K. Nelson, editor, Savoy Magazine

"The Irish have a history of producing great short story writers. Steven Duggan is the latest in a long line"
- Patrick Hegarty, editor, Planet Ireland

Joyce claimed that a great short story succeeds by capturing an ‘epiphany’ or sudden moment of realisation in a character’s life.

The stories in this collection range from an incident in the early life of Jesus, to a young mother’s despair on being faced with the loss of her child to miscarriage in modern-day Dublin.

Many of the stories are set in the author’s native Greystones in Ireland during the 1980s and evoke the innocence and hardships of that time. From the trials of first love, to a father’s realisation that his daughter is no longer his ‘little girl’.

Steven Duggan's work has been published in Savoy Magazine, Planet Ireland, Rattle, The Bomb Shelter Press and the Edgeworth Papers.

Please note: 100% of the author’s proceeds from this edition will go to WorldVision.org, to help provide access to healthcare and education for children in the developing world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Steven Duggan
• Release date: Feb 11, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465909787

Steven Duggan

"Wonderful, remarkable, unforgetable stories" - G.K. Nelson, editor, Savoy Magazine"The Irish have a history of producing great short story writers. Steven Duggan is the latest in a long line" - Patrick Hegarty, editor, Planet IrelandSteven Duggan's writing has been published in Savoy Magazine, Planet Ireland, Rattle / The Bomb Shelter Press & The Edgeworth Papers.He is represented by the Marjacq Agency in London, and is currently completing work on the 2nd novel in a trilogy which his agent is hoping to place with a UK publisher.100% of the author’s proceeds from this edition of 'Virgins' will go to World Vision to help provide access to healthcare and education to children in the developing world.Please visit www.worldvision.org to learn more about the wonderful work this organisation does to ‘build a better world for children’.

Book preview

Virgins

by

Steven Duggan

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © Steven Duggan 2011

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Acknowledgments:

Extract from

‘Sweet Little Mystery’ © John Martyn 1980

Extract from

‘The Whole of The Moon’ © The Waterboys

Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music Inc

Extract from

‘Girl From Dublin Town’ © Eoin Woods

used with kind permission

Author’s note

February 2011

100% of the author’s proceeds from this edition will go to the World Vision organisation, to help provide children in the developing world with access to healthcare and education.

Please visit www.worldvision.org to learn more about the wonderful work this organisation does to ‘build a better world for children’.

‘When Jesus Cut Ruth’s Eye’, ‘Ruskin’s Daughter’ and ‘Conway And The Devil’ were all first published in Savoy Magazine. My thanks to editor G.K. Nelson for his guidance and friendship over the years and for first giving me access to an audience for these stories.

A revised version of ‘Conway And The Devil’ was published in Planet Ireland. A heartfelt thank you to editor Patrick Hegarty.

Seven of the nine stories in this collection were written between the ages of 19 and 23 and I apologise in advance for any youthful indiscretions or failings evident upon the page.

If you want to share your views about any of the stories in this collection (positive or otherwise) feel free to email me at [e-mail]

Best wishes,

Steven

When Jesus Cut Ruth’s Eye

The Love Bite

Ruskin’s Daughter

Conway and the Devil

Precious Little

Concerning Arthur

Matthew’s Journal

Resurrections

Home

When Jesus Cut Ruth’s Eye

He never seemed that happy a kid, Jesus. Never out playing, like. Everyone said it was his parents. My dad always said they were too strict: sort of standoffish. He seemed all right though - Jesus’ dad. Not exactly chatty, but he'd say hello when he met you on the street. And he always knew your name. I'd forgotten that.

Hello Joseph the carpenter! we'd say, and he'd answer, Hello Joel the butcher's son! or Hello Abraham the weaver's son! Not exactly funny, but sort of easygoing.

Not like her. She was weird. Friendly, but a bit too friendly, if you know what I mean, according to my mother. I never knew what that meant, but she was different. The other mothers were always talking – complaining Dad said - discussing whatever it was that was the current talk-of-the-town. She'd go over to them, always with a smile on her face, but never join in. It wasn't as if she was unpleasant; just that she'd never say anything. Not if it was gossip. She'd just stand there and smile until the subject changed, making them all feel guilty of a sudden for whatever minor scandal-mongering was going on. All she ever wanted to talk about was Jesus.

You'd understand if he was something out of the ordinary, my mother would sigh, But he's no Roman Apollo. Still; every mother thinks her child is beautiful. I suppose God makes us that way.

You could see she embarrassed him. Soon as she'd see him - even if she'd only been over to him an hour or so before - she'd be all over him. Messing with his hair You know. Fussing... And he was no helpless puppy.

One time I remember he lifted a hive right off Joel's dad's eaves, when the hornets had swarmed. My brother saw him do it. Just walked right up, and picked it off. He got a few stings of course but he just kept on going, carrying it over to the cypresses and prizing it between the trunk and the branch of one of them. He was famous round our way for a few weeks, after that.

We liked him well enough. He didn't say much though, and we knew, kind of instinctively, that he didn't much care if we liked him or not. Which is not exactly designed to make you popular amongst young boys. When we were playing - or fighting most like - he'd just sit there and watch. When he didn't have to be inside working with his father that was. He'd join in if we invited him, but he never seemed to understand the rules. We'd explain - we'd say, We're the Judeans. We have to get the Romans, and take their flag off them. Then we'd have to explain as to how Daniel's sister's 'kerchief tied on a stick was the flag. And he'd just look at us. Not judging, like. Just, unaware. Couldn't see the point. And as we tried to explain all the rules it'd seem silly even more than it was to us, too. And we'd give it up in frustration. Seeing as he never actually asked to join in, after a while we'd just leave him out. But he never seemed to mind.

The time Ruth got knocked over though, he jumped right up. She'd been caught up in some particularly bloody manoeuvres by the Gaza. Two armies at full strength, bent on destruction, and she'd decided to try to carry the cheese for her brothers' lunch right through the battlefield. Daniel was running with the flag (he never let anyone else hold it) not looking where he was going, and he jammed it right into her eye. Jesus, as I said, jumped right up and ran over to where there was a heap of us, all blaming each other even though it was her fault, because she was hurt and everything. He tried to feel her eye where the stick had cut her, just below her eyebrow, but there was dust and grit on his hand and he just made things worse. She started crying - really crying now, not just to get us into trouble. A piece of dirt or a little stone from his hand had gotten into her eye, right in behind the eyelid. It was still red two weeks after.

Jesus wept. You couldn't blame him. Not knowing what Ruth's father was like. When he came out to us a few minutes after Ruth had run home he gave Jesus such a smack on the back of his head I thought his eyes would come shooting right out of him and go rolling around in the dirt.

He eventually got round her, though. He could do this thing where he'd cut an orange into segments, inside its skin. Really. The most amazing thing I've ever seen! Even with your nails long you couldn't do it. I remember, because that was the day he first did it. Or maybe a few days after. The first time he saw Ruth after the accident. It was really strange: he didn't apologize or anything. Maybe he was too embarrassed. He just stopped her when she was walking past giving him a dirty look and, smiling, took a new orange from behind his back, showing it to her like it was some sort of jewel or something. He got her interest, and then started to run his thumbnail - his left I think, I remember he was left handed - back and forth over the skin, tracing out the sections. He never split the skin when he did this, and you could never make out any marks on it after it was peeled off. When Ruth saw him remove the peel and all the segments fell open inside, she just stared one of those huge-eyed girls' stares. We made him do it for us too, when we heard, but try as we might we could never do it ourselves, and he wouldn't tell us how. Which went down well with the rest of us as you can imagine.

Really, he was his own worst enemy! All he got in the end was Ruth and her friends following him around as well, just like his mother, and the rest of us jealous.

And then the kiss of death: he started getting interested in scripture! We all went to synagogue of course, and were looking forward to our Bar mitzvah. But we didn't talk about it! At least not about the God part. Jesus knew better than to share his new interest with us, but he was always going off there. Talking with the oldies! Shem said he was just doing it to get away from Ruth and her gang - to hide out from them - but the rest of us weren't convinced. It was just another thing