Bridge of Clay

We had a piano no one played.

Our TV was serving a life sentence.

The couch was in for twenty.

Sometimes when our phone rang, one of us would walk out, jog along the porch and go next door; it was just old Mrs. Chilman—she’d bought a new bottle of tomato sauce and couldn’t get the wretched thing open. Then, whoever it was would come back in and let the front door slam, and life went on again.

Yes, for the five of us, life always went on:

It was something we beat into and out of each other, especially when things went completely right, or completely wrong. That was when we’d get out onto Archer Street in evening-afternoon. We’d walk at the city. The towers, the streets. The worried-looking trees. We’d take in the loudmouthed conversations hurled from pubs, houses, and unit blocks, so certain this was our place. We half expected to collect it all up and carry it home, tucked under our arms. It didn’t matter that we’d wake up the next day to find it gone again, on the loose, all buildings and bright light.

Oh—and one more thing.

Possibly most important.

In amongst a small roster of dysfunctional pets, we were the only people w

e knew of, in the end, to be in possession of a mule.

And what a mule he was.

* * *

—

The animal in question was named Achilles, and there was a backstory longer than a country mile as to how he ended up in our suburban backyard in one of the racing quarters of the city. On one hand it involved the abandoned stables and practice track behind our house, an outdated council bylaw, and a sad old fat man with bad spelling. On the other it was our dead mother, our fled father, and the youngest, Tommy Dunbar.

At the time, not everyone in the house was even consulted; the mule’s arrival was controversial. After at least one heated argument, with Rory—

(“Oi, Tommy, what’s goin’ on ’ere?”

“What?”

“What-a-y’ mean what, are you shitting me? There’s a donkey in the backyard!”

“He’s not a donkey, he’s a mule.”

“What’s the difference?”

“A donkey’s a donkey, a mule’s a cross between—”

“I don’t care if it’s a quarter horse crossed with a Shetland bloody pony! What’s it doin’ under the clothesline?”

“He’s eating the grass.”

“I can see that!”)

—we somehow managed to keep him.

Or more to the point, the mule stayed.

As was the case with the majority of Tommy’s pets, too, there were a few problems when it came to Achilles. Most notably, the mule had ambitions; with the rear fly screen dead and gone, he was known to walk into the house when the back door was ajar, let alone left fully open. It happened at least once a week, and at least once a week I blew a gasket. It sounded something like this:

“Je-sus Christ!” As a blasphemer I was pretty rampant in those days, well known for splitting the Jesus and emphasizing the Christ. “If I’ve told you bastards once, I’ve told you a hundred Goddamn times! Shut the back door!”

And so on.

* * *