Cal -bernard mac laverty

The Author Cal was written by Bernard Mac Laverty. It was first published by Jonathan Cape in 1983. Bernard Mac Laverty was born in Belfast, where he worked for ten years as a medical laboratory technician before studying English at Queen' s University. He then moved to Scotland and taught for a number of years. He now writes full-time and lives in Glasgow. He has written three novels "Lamb", "Cal" (both of which have been made into successful films) and most recently, "Grace Notes". He is also the author of four collections of short stories: "Secrets", "A Time to Dance", "The Great Profundo" and "Walking the Dog".



The Story
Cal, he is 19 years old, and his father live in a Protestant estate in Ulster but they are Catholic. They are the only Catholic family there. Cal' s father Shamie McCluskey works at the abattoir. Other Catholics moved before but Shamie is stubborn and wants to stay. He always says: " No Loyalist bastard is going to force me out of my home. They can kill me first." Cal is worried. He also doesn't fear a single bastard, a Protestant, but an accumulation of them. Only two of their near neighbours would stand by them if something would happen like an eviction. Cal gave up his job at the abattoir because he hadn't a strong enough stomach. So Crilly got the job and Shamie is embarrassed about this. Now Cal is unemployed.
One day the boy walks to the library. Cal finds it a good place to pass some of the time. But today he sees a new woman behind the counter. She is small and dark-haired and she looks foreign. Cal associates her with France. He also can't guess her age. She isn't very young, maybe in her late twenties. Her name is Marcella. When Cal is at home he gets more and more fascinated of her and his curiosity grows. So he goes back and borrows a Blues tape just to see her again. But there he notices a gold ring on her wedding finger and leaves.
Some days later Cal takes Shamie' s van and drives to Crilly. Also Finbar Skeffington is there. They talk about the fact that they are losing too many good people and so they ask Cal to be the new driver. But Cal wants to get out and explains that he will drive the last time.
On Friday Cal waits for Marcella. She appears with a large cardboard box of groceries and as a carton of salt falls down Cal picks it up for her an d carries the box to her car.
This night he gets a warning letter. It says that they shell leave or they will be burnt out. He wakes his father to show him the note and Shamie takes out a gun. Once he got it from Crilly when the first threat had been posted the same way. Some weeks later Crilly asked them if they would do him a favour. Since that day he hides occasionally stuff in their roof space and a couple of days later it would be taken away again. And then Cal had to run Crilly in the van. They moved something from one house to another. Cal was worried but he didn't tell anyone. One night the Army stopped the van. Both had to give their names and addresses and they searched the van. They couldn't find anything because half an hour ago they had unloaded it.
Late in the night they make tea and talk about Cal and to find a job for him. But then Shamie thinks about moving away. They can't find a answer and so he asks his son how old he was when his mother died. When the boy says "eight" the old man gets into his bed again. On the next morning Cal goes to church where he meets Marcella. She has a little girl with her. He is surprised because he had not thought of her as a Catholic. The family of her husband, Robert Morton, had been Protestant farmers for centuries. The next week a friend of Shamie' s asks him to help him with a couple of dead trees. So Cal and his father buy one, cut it down and split it. Then the boy drives to the Morton's and sells them. After doing this job he leaves the lorry at the abattoir and walks home. On his way he makes three figures out he has seen outside his house. They stops in front of him. They are about Cal' s age and he knows their faces but not their names. When they begin to fight Cal runs away. At home he realizes that there are some scratches on his face and both lips are beginning to swell. He spits blood and the knuckles of his hands are bleeding. So Cal asks his father about moving away but Shamie doesn't give a real answer. He doesn't want that the Protestants win.
On the next day Cal drives back to the Morton's where he meet the girl from the church and Marcella. After he finishes he gets his money and a beer and Mrs Morton offers him a new job. They will lift potatoes on the next days and he can help if he wants. Cal accepts. After the three days of hard work Mrs Morton asks him to work on the farm and he accepts immediately again. His father is very enthusiastic when he hears about this new job but after having dinner Cal has to drive to Crilly. This guy plans to rob a shop. He has a gun for himself and for Cal but he refuses. Crilly is about two or three minutes in the shop but they can flee without anybody seeing them. Then they drive to Finbar Skeffington to count the money. They have seven hundred and twenty two pounds. Following this Skeffington tries to explain Cal why he can't leave them. He mentions that Cal helps to keep the Brits in Ireland if he refuses to help Crilly and Finbar.
On Monday morning Cal starts to work on the farm. Cyril Dunlop, who also works there, explains the boy what he has to do. After some days of working Cal is really disappointed. He always hopes to see Marcella and eventually to speak with her. But he only sees her when she is on her way to the library and when she comes home. So he decides to go to the library. He talks a little with her, then borrows a book and leaves. When he is outside the library he gets aware of the blue pulse of a warning light and smoke. He sees a lot of people, a fire engine and a police car and then he realizes that it is his house. The firemen are pumping water through the window but it seems to be having no effect. Small explosions continues. Then Cal finds his father. He begins to cry when he sees that his son is not in the house. Shamie and Cal are at Dermon Ryan's, one of Shamie' s cousins, when the father tells the boy that he had taken out the gun and that it is still lying on the bedside table. So Cal explains the firemen that he must get his father's blood-pressure tablets to get the gun. Back at Dermon' s house Cal feels safe for the first time in years. Later Shamie tells him that Crilly wants to see him. So the boy asks his father to tell everybody that he left after the fire and that he doesn't know where his son is. Mr McCluskey is afraid but he promises. On the next day at lunchtime Cal hides the gun in a derelict cottage near the Morton's. Then he remembers a day almost a year ago: First he and Crilly drove to the town hall to a dance. After a lot of people had arrived they stole a car and drove to a big house with dogs. Crilly went in and Cal waited outside with the car running. Then a man opened the door and Crilly pulled the gun from his pocket and shot him twice in the chest. The man lay on the floor and called the name Marcella. Crilly fired a shot through his head and then three more shuts up the hallway. Then they left. After some kilometres they stopped near the hall and Crilly burnt the car. Cal went back to the dance. He drank some whiskey's, danced a while and then went home.
One night Cal tiptoes to Marcella's house and watches her while she is in the bathroom. He thinks of her being the only woman in the world who is forbidden him. He is in love with her but he had helped killing her husband. When he is back suddenly the room gets filled with a blue-white light and the door exploded open. Cal is kicked on the side of the head and falls back against the wall. A member of the Army asks him what he's doing here. Then he explains that the Morton's have called the Army. They ask him a lot of questions and bring him to Marcella and Mrs Morton. Cal fears they could find the gun but the drive away. After having a long conversation they decide that Cal can stay in the cottage and that he can fix the place up the best he can. On the next day he gets a bed, curtains, a lamp, some other things and clothes from Marcella's dead husband. Now Cal and Marcella often meet. She gives him a lift for mass on Sundays and when she feels depressed she visits the boy to talk with him.
One day Cal decides to visit his father. But Shamie is terrible to look at. He had aged twenty years in a couple of weeks. He misses his house and his garden and he is depressed all the time. But not only he missed Cal. Also Crilly and Skeffington have asked for him. Days later Marcella and her daughter Lucy invite Cal to search for blackberries. They talk and joke and the happier Cal feels, the sadder he becomes. He wants to tell her the truth about her husband's death but he can't. While they are on their way home they hear an explosion. Cal runs to see what has happened. He sees a cow lying there and on a tree one of the Preacher's red tin plaques where he always writes his famous sayings from the bible.
A few days later Cal visits Shamie again. He continues to be depressed and has stopped work. Most of the day he sits in the armchair smoking and staring through the window. After Cal had to duck into a garden to avoid meeting Crilly' s mother he decides not to risk a visit for a while. Then one morning after Halloween Marcella tells him that her mother-in-law is going away for a week to Belfast because her granddad must have another operation on his lungs.
On the next day Cal is alone in the house. He walks up to Marcella' s room. He looks for her underwear, he smells her perfume and he reads in her diary. When she and Lucy come home Marcella invites Cal to come for dinner. Meanwhile Cal buys a bottle of wine. He dresses in a clean shirt and chooses the best trousers and also Marcella is well dresses, her hair is different and she wears more make-up. After having dinner and drinking two bottles of wine they moved to the other room for coffee. Then suddenly Cal kisses her. But Marcella withdraws. She tells him not to be that childish and that he is her friend so he walks to the next pub to drink. The next week it begins to snow. Cal didn't see Marcella some days but now she stands in front of his door and wants to apologize. They drink tea with whiskey and after talking some time Cal kisses her again but now she doesn't refuse. Then she takes her clothes off and goes to his bed. They have sex and as Cal asks her what will happen if she gets pregnant she answers that she used a diaphragm. She explains that she come to him hoping. They go inside the house and Marcella tells him that she didn't really love Robert. On the next day Cal walks to town to do his Christmas shopping and to visit his father. At Dermon' s no one is at home. When Shamie' s cousin arrives he mentions that his father was put in for treatment. Cal walks to the library to wait for Marcella but she isn't there. Instead of her he meets Crilly. He wants to bring Cal to Skeffington and although he knows that he shouldn't go he finds himself sitting in Crilly' s front room. Finbar Skeffington calls him a traitor and an informer and tells him that there is no way out of his situation. Suddenly the Army knocks on the door so that Finbar, Crilly and Cal must flee. But only Cal can escape. Then he informs the police that Crilly took a fire bomb in the library in a book called "Middlemarch". Now he really is an informer and traitor. On the way home he wonders if either Crilly or Skeffington will give the police his name. When he reaches the Morton' s house he wants to tell Marcella all. Also that he saved the library but it would be to complicated. He can't tell her anything. After spending the night with her he goes back to the cottage. The next morning, it is Christmas Eve, the police arrives to arrest him.