Cal door Bernard MacLaverty

Summary Cal goes to the abattoir, his father works there and he used to work there as well. He asks Crilly, someone who works at the abattoir too, to call his father. Cals father is named Shamie, Cal asks him for some cigarettes. Cal and Shamy McCluskey are the only Catholics in the whole estate. Cal plays the guitar and often listens to music. Cal goes to the library and thinks he recognises the woman that works that, she’s named Marcella Morton. The next day Cal goes to the library again, he waits outside for Marcella. Cal used to go to school with Crilly, Crilly is a big guy that took Cals job at the abattoir because Cal couldn’t handle the smell in there, Cal doesn’t have a strong stomach! Cal goes to Crilly’s house, Skeffington is also there, they talk about steeling money from a shop. Cal doesn’t want to take part of this ‘gang’ anymore, he wants out, Crilly and Skeffington won’t let him go, they think of it as deserting the organisation while Cal thought he was never part of this organisation. Cal waits for Marcella outside the library again. He helps her carrying her groceries to her car. When he comes home he finds a note that says that he and his father should move and get out of the protestant estate or else they’ll be burned out of their home. Cals mother died when Cal was eight, his brother Brendan died too, in a car crash. Cal is late for church, when he goes he sees Marcella with her little girl. Cal is attacked by a group of Protestants, another warning to get out of the neighbourhood. To make some extra money Cal sells the wood of a tree for firewood. He sold all his woodblocks at once to a woman that takes care of Marcella’s daughter. This woman is Mrs Morton, the mother of Marcella’s late husband. The Mortons are a protestant family. Mrs Morton tells Cal that they will be gathering potatoes that week and he can come too if he wants to. Cal says yes to the temporary job. When the potato gathering is done Mrs Morton offers Cal a permanent job on her farm, he takes it. Cal joins Crilly in robbing a shop, Cal has to drive, Crilly handles the robbery. After the robbery both Cal and Crilly go to Skeffingtons house. Skeffington and Crilly try to talk Cal into staying with the IRA. Cal doesn’t want to. Cal starts work, Cyril Dunlop is someone Cal works for, he is a very strict protestant. When Cal comes home one day, his house is on fire. For the protection of Cal and Shamie Crilly has given them a gun. This gun is still in the house, Cal gets it out of there before the police finds it. Because Cal has no home anymore he stays at a cottage that isn’t inhabited, this cottage is the property of the Mortons. Crilly and Skeffington don’t know that Cal stays there, so he feels safe. In that cottage Cal thinks a lot about something that happened about a year ago. Crilly and Skeffington asked him to drive on the night of an attack. Crilly murdered Marcellla’s husband that night and Cal drove the car. Marcella’s husband was a cop with the police reserve. Cal keeps living in the cottage, he is in love with Marcella, sometimes he spies on her. Marcella is about ten years older and Cal helped murder her late husband, he is in love with the one woman he can’t have he thinks. Cal doesn’t live unnoticed in the cottage, one night the cottage is being searched and Cal gets caught. Because Mrs Morton can’t keep the cottage when no one lives in it, she allows Cal to live in the cottage. Marcella helps Cal decorating the house, they talk a lot. The next day Cal picks brambles with Marcella and her daughter Lucy. Marcella invites Cal for an Italian dinner that night, they kiss. But Marcella says she doesn’t want it to be like that, she wants to be friends. Later Marcella comes to Cals cottage to tell him she does want to go on with him, they make love. Cal doesn’t tell Marcella about what he has done. Crilly finds Cal in the library, he takes Cal to Skeffington. They say he can’t leave the IRA that would be deserting. Cal escapes from them, he goes to Marcella, they make love again. The next morning Cal gets arrested, Crilly and Skeffington got caught and they told the police about Cal.