Sister's Trio Squad

CHAPTER ONE When Nancy O'Maxwell lost her temper, the whole street knew about it. Curtains twitched, doors were inched openi and children playing noisily on the cobbles were suddenly struck dumb. Even the marmalade cat that belonged to Ma McCabe pricked up its ears and shifted its overfed carcass to the safety of the potted geraniums on the windowsill. Nancy was possessed of what her mother, Sarah, termed 'the Divil of a temper' and the subject now the trouble was the result of a discussion the night before. A discussion conducted in loud whispers between Nancy and her two sisters, Margaret and Lisa, in the bedroom they all shared in the house in Anne Street. Anne Street was a row of twenty-four, early Victorian terraced houses, which had been well maintained, since over the years they had mainly been occupied by arti sans. In fact, the girls' father, Patrick O'Maxwell, had been a Master Carpenter, like his father before him and, following tradition, both his sons Fergal and Matthew known to everyone as Matty - had also been apprenticed to that trade. Collectively the girls were known throughout the small, country town of Clonmel in County Tipperary as 'The Sisters O'Maxwell' - a sobriquet bestowed on them by the nuns in the convent school because of their close resem blance to each other. They all had red hair which varied from Margaret's light copper to Nancy's fiery Titian and Lisa's dark auburn. They all had hazel eyes and clear, pale complexions. There were some similarities in their characters, too, but not many. The only trait they did all possess was the O'Maxwell temper, and even that varied in degrees of volatility, as last night's disagreement had demonstrated. They were all unanimous in their decision to leave Ireland, but the bone of contention between them was just when they should impart this news to the rest of the family. The night before, Nancy had been sitting on the bed vigorously brushing the thick, wavy hair that framed her oval face with its high cheekbones and pointed chin, while Lisa had been neatly folding the navy skirt and white blouse, ready to be worn the following day for work. At the end of the obligatory one hundred strokes Nancy had flung down the hairbrush. 'Will you stop fussing with those clothes and sit down. I want to talk to you!' I'm not fussing! I always fold them. You know I like to look my best and Mrs O'Leary is always saying she's never had an assistant who is so neat and tidy and that it reflects, favourably, on the business.' But Lisa had given the skirt a final pat and sat down at the foot of her own bed, tucking her feet under her. She had worked in O'Leary's Haberdashers on the Main Guard ever since she had left school. 'What do you want to talk about?" 'You know what! Us leaving here. Hasn't it been the most important thing we've had to think about for weeks?' Nancy had stared at her sister impatiently, wondering if it had been wise to include her at all. After all, Lisa was not quite twenty, whereas she, at twenty-one, thought of herself as far more 'worldly wise' and Margaret was twenty-two, although that wasn't necessarily an asset. In her opinion Margaret was getting rather staid. 'Hadn't we better wait for Margaret?' 'If we wait for her we might well be up until midnight! I don't know what's got into her lately, she's getting so finicky about stupid household chores.' "That's not fair, Nancy, you know she sees to them so Ma can go to bed earlier and not worry if the kitchen fire has been damped down or the table set for breakfast… "The way she's carrying on I don't think she really wants to leave at all." 'She does! When we all decided to go she was just as enthusiastic as you.' 'Will you keep your voice down or everyone will hear you!' Nancy had risen and walked to the window that over looked the small yard at the back of the house, the view obscured by the cotton lace curtain. 'I think we should tell Ma tomorrow. After all, we've decided to leave so let's get it over with!' 'I thought we'd agreed to wait until the weekend?' Nancy had turned abrupt and frowned. 'What's the matter with you? Have you changed your mind now?' 'No, I haven't! Sure, I'll be sorry to leave Ma and Matty and even Mrs O'Leary, but I'm not staying here on my own, not the way things are going.' They had both fallen silent, as Nancy stared moodily out of the window seeing nothing, her thoughts elsewhere, and Lisa smoothed out and folded the stockings she would wear next day. She wasn't staying in Clonmel now that Civil War was staring them in the face. She was desper ately afraid and both her sisters knew it. Margaret had remarked in her usual, quiet way that anyone who wasn't afraid of the future was a fool. The last four years had been terrifying and had left their mark on everyone and Lisa couldn't face any more, yet the ties of home and family were strong. She loved her Ma and she was afraid for Matty's safety. She didn't have either Nancy's consuming ambition to move on from her job as a Nurses' Aid at the Cottage Hospital, or Margaret's calm, practicality. She was so terrified of the future that when Nancy had first suggested they all leave, she had jumped at the chance. And yet, in the rare moments when she could put aside her fears, she realized that she did have her own dreams, her own ambitions. Lisa had worked for Mrs O'Leary for years, but sometimes she wished she could work in a much bigger shop, one like Cleary's department store in Dublin. She was nearly twenty and had never been in love and all things considered, she reasoned that life was beginning to pass her by.