New school

4. When he had started primary school,
a slew of birthday invites arrived – but soon
they trickled to single figures. And by year
two, all the colourful invites stuffed in his
schoolbag with monkeys or clowns and
elastic writing in different-coloured inks,
stopped altogether. At which time, the
bottom bunk of Jamie’s bed, once considered
for sleepovers, was relegated/elevated
for Jamie’s ‘Books of Great Importance’. The
books were left in piles along the bare mattress
like tortoises with meticulous hand-written
notes pressed on their immaculate covers: Date
and Place of Publication. Date Started. Date
Completed. Initial Reaction. And most pressing
– Jamie O’Neill’s Star Ratings. The Star Ratings
were harsh and among the piles, only one book
received five hand-drawn Jamie O’Neill Stars:
The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan
Poe.
5. Next door, Eoin was restless having
spent the night tossing about the bed’s flat
sheet which ended up on the floor. The fibre
pinheads of the bare mattress scratched and
inflamed his skin. He picked up his phone and
dropped it so many times throughout the night
that he couldn’t recall, and he was good at
keeping count: his whole life had turned into
measurements and timings and while
Sundaynightitis was a fever he was used to, this
was different. Jamie was about to begin
secondary school and Eoin was filled with
whirling moments of the boy at different stages
of life. He tried for hours to remember the first
day Jamie lost a tooth or his first step. He
thought of the days that the boy never stopped
chatting, the times he had not listened back, or
was short tempered. And his regrets, coupled
with anxiety, had kept him awake until he
settled on a memory of Jamie making a daisy
chain one June evening out on the green and
gifting it to the scrawny neck of a stray cat.

📖 The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
/kəmˈpliːt teɪlz ænd ˈpəʊɪmz əv ˈedɡə ˈælən pəʊ/
→ «Повне зібрання оповідань і поезій Едгара Аллана По»

🌙 next door /nekst dɔː/ → по сусідству
😣 restless /ˈrestləs/ → неспокійний

🛏 tossing about /ˈtɒsɪŋ əˈbaʊt/ → крутячись у ліжку
🧺 flat sheet /flæt ʃiːt/ → простирадло
⬇️ ended up on the floor /ˈendɪd ʌp ɒn ðə flɔː/ → опинилося на підлозі

🧵 fibre pinheads /ˈfaɪbə ˈpɪnhedz/ → волокнисті гострі кінчики
🔥 scratched and inflamed /skrætʃt ænd ɪnˈfleɪmd/ → подряпали й запалили

📱 picked up his phone /pɪkt ʌp hɪz fəʊn/ → взяв телефон
📉 dropped it /drɒpt ɪt/ → впустив

🔢 keeping count /ˈkiːpɪŋ kaʊnt/ → вести підрахунок
📏 measurements and timings /ˈmeʒəmənts ænd ˈtaɪmɪŋz/ → вимірювання й таймінги

🤒 Sundaynightitis /ˈsʌndeɪ naɪtˈaɪtɪs/ → «недільна тривожність»
🌪 whirling moments /ˈwɜːlɪŋ ˈməʊmənts/ → вихор спогадів

😠 short-tempered /ˌʃɔːt ˈtempəd/ → запальний

😔 regrets /rɪˈɡrets/ → жаль, каяття
😰 anxiety /æŋˈzaɪəti/ → тривога

🌼 daisy chain /ˈdeɪzi tʃeɪn/ → вінок із ромашок
🌿 the green /ðə ɡriːn/ → луг, галявина

🐱 stray cat /streɪ kæt/ → бездомний кіт
🧣 scrawny neck /ˈskrɔːni nek/ → худенька шия