The Irish Times - Friday, February 10, 2012
18.05.12
Dollhouse
By Seán Ó hEochaidh
FLASH FICTION: IT WAS Joe, him and his wee girl. He made the house for her when she was at school, something to do now that he was on the dole.
His da built ships but there’s none of that now, so he built this dollhouse, out of sheets of wood. It was modelled on his own, his family house, his father’s house here in the docks.
It started as a joke. We were just drinking, having a few cans in his garage when Joe left to go get her from school. He had the house packed into a box for her to find in the morning, the furniture was separate. He had the wee bits in different boxes.
Billy said it as a joke and then we stopped and thought and all laughed. “What’s a Belfast House without a mural on the gable?” That was it; we had the house out and in an hour we had King Billy and his great white horse on the gable wall. We copied the tattoo Billy had on his arm. I can draw a bit and John’s not bad. It was good, if I say so myself. We slipped it into the box, loose like, so the paint wouldn’t smudge, and then left before he came back from the school run.
Source: Irish Times