(the portly figure of john o'connell, caretaker stands forth, holding a bunch of keys tied with crape. beside him stands father coffey, chaplain, toad bellied, wrynecked, in a surplice and bandanna nightcap, holding sleepily a staff of twisted poppies.)father coffey (yawns, then chants with a hoarse croak.) namine. jacobs vobiscuits. amen.
(foghorns stormily through his megaphone.) dignam, patrick t., deceased.
paddy dignam (with pricked up ears, winces.) overtones.
(he wriggles forward, places an ear to the ground.) my masters' voice!
john o'connell burial docket letter number u. p. eightyfive thousand. field seventeen. house of keys. plot, one hundred and one.
(paddy dignam listens with visible effort, thinking, his tailstiffpointed, his ears cocked.)paddy dignam pray for the repose of his soul.
(he worms down through a coal hole, his brown habit trailing its tether over rattling pebbles. after him toddles an obese grandfather rat on fungus turtle paws under a grey carapace. dignam's voice, muffled, is heard baying under ground: dignam's dead and gone below. tom rochford, robinredbreasted, in cap and breeches, jumps from his two-columned machine.)tom rochford (a hand to his breastbone, bows.) reuben j. a florin i find him. (he fixes the manhole with a resolute stare.) my turn now on. follow me up to carlow.
(he executes a daredevil salmon leap in the air and is engulfed in the coalhole. two discs on the columns wobble eyes of nought. all recedes. bloom plodges forward again. he stands before a lighted house, listening. the kisses, winging from their bowers, fly about him, twittering, warbling, cooing.)the kisses (warbling.) leo! (twittering.) icky licky micky sticky for leo! (cooing.) coo coocoo! yummyumm wom worn! (warbling.) big comebig! pirouette! leopopold! (twittering.) leeolee! (warbling.) o leo!
(they rustle, flutter upon his garments, alight, bright giddyflecks, silvery sequins.)bloom a man's touch. sad music. church music. perhaps here.