Shuggie Bain

After work, in his room at Mrs. Bakhsh’s boarding house, Shuggie breaks one of Agnes’s ornaments. He snaps the ceramic deer’s legs off. Afterward, he collects the tins of fish he gathered from work and sets off. On the bus, he thinks of Catherine who had not come to Agnes’s funeral; she wanted to remember her mother as she was before the alcohol ruined her.

Leek had taken a train back into Glasgow for Agnes’s service. The government provided a cremation, but they could not afford a proper funeral. Though Leek kept Agnes’s death from the papers, “word of her death leached out to Pithead, and all the old ghouls came out to Daldowie Crematorium” (417). Shuggie expected Big Shug to be there, but he never came. Leek was rather casual about his mother being cremated. Afterward, the Pithead folks offered condolences, either in person, or through a delegated family member. Eugene tried to say something kind to Shuggie and Leek, but Leek turned away.

Shuggie tries to stop thinking about the funeral. He thinks of calling Leek, knowing he would ask how his new baby is, but would not mention art school. They would make vague plans about visiting each other.