Chapter 10:
It’s that time of the year where it gets cold and wet again, so the McCourts move upstairs again. Due to the weather, Angela gets feverish and demands lemonade. Because of this demand, Frank goes out and steals two bottles of lemonade from a crate outside of South’s pub and a loaf of bread from a van parked outside O’Connell’s grocery store. Frank fabricates a story around the theft to amuse his brothers, to which Michael says that Frank is an outlaw while Malachy compares him to Robin Hood. The day after, Frank steals a full crate of food from a rich neighbourhood. But they have no fire to cook the food. So they go around the rich areas of town asking for turf or coal, but no one gives them even a bit. So they go stealing again, now from people’s backyards. A guard comes to the McCourt home to ask why the boys have been absent from school. The official tells Frank to get his grandmother and aunt, who then ask for a doctor. The doctor diagnoses Frank’s mother with pneumonia and takes her to the hospital. The boys stay with aunt Aggie. In contrast to Pa Keating, who is kind to the boys, aunt Aggie abuses the boys. Frank writes a letter to his father about how his mom is in the hospital, so Malachy returns home to look after them. But the day after Angela gets home from the hospital, Malachy leaves again. Malachy has only sent one paycheque home, so Angela goes back to the Dispensary to ask for public assistance. Their situation makes Frank sad, which soon turns into despair after seeing his mother begging for food outside a church. He’s ashamed of his mother, he can’t even look at her anymore.
Chapter 11:
Frank starts a football team with Billy Campbell and his little brother Malachy and a dress his mom bought in America inspires their name: “The Read Hearts of Limerick.”
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He uses the dress, which was located in an old trunk, to make red hearts for their uniforms. While looking through the trunk, he finds his parents’ marriage papers and finds out he was born 6 months after they got married. He wonders if his birth was a miraculous one. Peter Molloy takes his son, Mikey, who just turned 16, to the pub for his first pint and they bring along Frank who gets a lemonade. Frank asks what it means that he was born 3 months early (because he doesn’t know his parents did the deed before marriage, because that’s a sin) and Mikey tells him he’s doomed to spend all of time in Limbo and also tells him how babies are made. Frank is worried about Limbo, so Mikey gives him a penny so he can light a candle and pray to save his soul. The barman says: “Everything has an opposite.” While doing a crossword puzzle. Which triggers Peter to stop drinking immediately. He tells Mikey that he’ll move their family to England and stop pestering his wife. Frank, after, doesn’t use the money to pray for his soul, but he buys toffee instead. Frank scores the winning goal achieving Frank’s team the victory against a group of rich kids. Frank now knows he’s not doomed because of his luck. Together with his neighbour, Mr. Hannon, Frank is now delivering coal. He feels like a man now and loves riding on the float next to his neighbour, who’s also a kind man. Mr. Hannon tells Frank he should keep going to school and read books so he can one day leave Ireland for America. Mr. Hannon even one day picks Frank up from school. Frank’s classmates get jealous of the manly job Frank is working, so they ask him if he can put in a good word for them at the coal yard. The coal dust makes Frank’s eyes irritated. One day it’s so bad that Angela won’t let Frank continue working, even though Mr. Hannon, who suffers from sores on his legs, can’t continue working. Mr. Hannon is hospitalized and told he can’t work again due to his legs, to which Mrs. Hannon invites Frank over, telling him that him being with Mr. Hannon gave him the feeling as if he had a son of his own. Frank only cries.
Chapter 12:
Frank’s father comes back home for Christmas, promising he’s a changed man, but he arrives a day late. The family eats a sheep’s head for Christmas dinner, but Malachy senior leaves right after the meal. While Angela is sick and is pretty much always at home, Frank now avoids the upper class boys, who he believes will make it far in life, while he and his brothers won’t. Angela and Malachy both take people home to take care of them, and also dogs, but this only brings them trouble and lice, so they stop. Frank sits outside Mrs. Purcell’s window listening to Shakespearean plays that are played from her radio. One day she invites him in because it’s cold and she gives him some food. Together they listen to more Shakespeare and other channels. One of which is an American show about jazz, which makes Frank dream of America. Owing a month of rent, they have no money anymore, so they take down a wall to use as fuel for the fire. Angela tells the boys that they’re not allowed to touch the support beam, but they do anyway which makes the roof collapse. The grandmother tells the landlord to fix the roof, but when he sees that a wall has been taken down, he evicts the family. Now they live with a cousin of Angela’s, Laman Griffin. Being a former officer in the Royal Navy, Laman is a strict man and forces the ill Angela to climb up to the loft and clean his toilet. Frank gets books for Laman and is allowed to get one for himself too. He learns that grandma died of pneumonia and tells the family. And consumption becomes the death of Uncle Tom and his wife. Malachy junior joins the Army School of Music in Dublin.
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