8217;, but they never had much to say. The most he got out of the contact was to encourage them to covertly defy Mrs Fox by smoking in the dairy, which resulted in two cans of milk being rejected and returned by the Milk Factory the following day. A day later Asbury tried to provoke a further reaction by getting the two Negroes to follow his example and drink a jelly glass of fresh milk straight from the cow. This time it didn’t work; they refused and gave no reason.“She don’t ‘low noner us to drink this here milk.” Randall said. Asbury persisted and still the reply was “She don’t ‘low it.” Asbury, now infuriated with their ‘subservience’ to the absent Mrs Fox railed against her. “My God.” He exploded. “She. She. She.” To show his contempt for his mother, Asbury continued to drink fresh milk each afternoon for as long as he helped in the dairy but Morgan and Randall steadfastly refused to follow suit.Asbury was aware of his mother’s rules. Was his disobedience a symbolic rejection of dogma? One dogma exchanged for what G. K. Chesterton once described as the ultimate dogma. ‘The dogma of those who will not accept any dogma.’ O’Connor was familiar with Chesterton’s writings.Lying there sick and feeling sorry for himself, Asbury brightens at a new idea to annoy his mother. He recalls the gathering at Goetz’s New York flat when he met the Jesuit priest and he badgers his mother into phoning the Jesuit house in the city and asking for a priest to visit him, something Mrs Fox is definitely not in favour of. But it’s the least she can do for him, isn’t it? He’s dying isn’t he? To which she retorts.“You are NOT dying. ... Nowadays doctors don’t let young people die.”Reluctantly, Mrs Fox phones the Jesuits and in a chilly voice explains the situation. The priest w...
