Read Online May the Road Rise Up to Meet You: A Novel by Peter Troy - Free Book Online

healthy.
    They pass the official who stands with arms folded as if assessing the passengers for fitness. But when Ethan walks by he notices that the official stares at a point halfway up the mainmast, not lookin’ at a single passenger as they set foot in their new country. The disembarkation is completed with great haste, as if covering a wrongdoing quickly before anyone notices. Members of the crew even help the frailest carry their possessions off the ship, and in a matter of minutes the pier goes from nearly empty to swarming with a hundred ninety-five people and all their worldly possessions. And as Ethan steps off the gangway and onto the dock, he is filled with more thoughts and emotions than he can keep track of all at once. He looks back at the ship to see if maybe Suah is there on deck or atop the mainmast, forgetting about his anger of just a few moments before and hoping his friend can give him some direction on where to go. But there is no sign of him, and he is pulled along with the crowd of people for a while until he walks out on an adjacent empty dock to figure out what to do next.
    He’s become so accustomed to being on his own that he almostforgets to look for his Da and brother Seanny, who Mam had written to before they left for Newry. But now, remembering, he can’t imagine finding them in all this mess of people. Boys not much older than Ethan swarm the docks, grabbing people’s bags and runnin’ off with them. When they’ve run far enough away so that the tired and hungry men stop chasing them, the thieves rifle through the bags and toss aside the books or clothes or trinkets that are of no value to them, pocketing little bits of jewelry and whatever money they find. Determined that they won’t do the same thing to him, Ethan takes out his books and the few clothes he has in his satchel, and spreads them out separately along the bit of pier that he occupies. When one of the boys approaches him and sees Ethan’s feeble possessions laid out before him, he curses at him and then turns toward another victim.
    Within the first hour, most of those off the ship venture one way or another into the giant city before them, and the vultures leave right along with them. But there is still no sign of his Da or Seanny, just an endless stream of buildings as tall as anything he’s seen in his life. And he decides to wait for a while longer before venturing out into it in search of the place called Brooklyn, where his Da’s last letter said he and Seanny now live.
    When the crewmen from the
Lord Sussex
begin to dump the few remaining pieces of rotted fish and salted pork into the harbor, Ethan almost instinctively jumps in to salvage what he can, but the seagulls quickly swarm in before he can act. And he can’t help but feel that New York, that all of America will be like this, swarms of people and young boys and seagulls even, waiting to grab whatever they can before anyone else has the chance. Life here, he thinks, will be faster than anything he’d known along the Lane back home.
    Two even shifts now, the Captain calls out to his men from over on the deck of the
Lord Sussex
. You have three hours each shift, then back on the ship to clean the resta this filth! Get a bath, a meal, whatever you will, but if you’re past the time of your shift, don’t expect to be paid the resta your wages.
    Some of the crewmen walk down the gangway, Suah among them, and Ethan’s happy to see his friend again. Amidst such spectacle, he forgets for a moment about how angry he was just a little while ago that Suah hadn’t told him about Mrs. Quigley and the fever. He wavesto him as soon as he’s off the gangway, and Suah smiles and walks over to the pier where Ethan is seated.
    There you are Etan, he says, apparently unaware that Ethan would have any reason to be angry with him. I worry about you dis morning but I was up above and could not see you.
    But quickly comforted by his friend’s presence, Ethan remembers to be