84

I

 

‘Maybe a small tin of biscuits,’ he said, thinking hard. Was there anything that Fiona could buy that would not be

criticised? Very unlikely.

 

When Declan was doing his rounds, Judy Murphy surprised

him by saying that she worked part-time as a bookkeeper in Quentins. She did the VAT for them once a week and they

told her that the nice young doctor, who sounded like the one who had walked her dogs, had been in for a meal with a beautiful fair-haired girl.

‘Was it our friend?’ Judy nodded down the room towards

Fiona.

‘Yes, it was actually. How did you know?’

‘Everyone knows,’ she said.

‘God!’ Declan was alarmed.

‘She’s a lucky girl,’ Judy said, as if she meant it.

 

Barbara was going to a wedding in Kilkenny. She would be away all night. She told this to Declan twice in case he hadn’t understood it the first time. He approached Fiona who was with Lar.

‘Have you a moment?’ he asked.

‘I have indeed.’ She seemed eager.

‘Thanks,’ she said when they left the cubicle. ‘I’m meant to know four of the major cities in Tennessee. I can’t remember any of them. Is there a Tennessee City by any wonderful

chance?’

‘I don’t think so, but there’s Memphis and Chattanooga

and Nashville,’ he offered.

‘One more please, Declan.’

‘Isn’t that where Knoxville is too?’

‘I love you,’ she said and kissed him on the nose.

‘ Wait!’ He caught her by the arm. ‘ Wait one moment. I was

wondering, Fiona, since Barbara will be away tonight, could I maybe, you know, stay over, in the flat?’

‘I thought you’d never ask,’ she said and he heard her

reciting the Tennessee names out to Lar as she took his blood pressure and reassured him that he would indeed live to see all these places if he spent less on the horses and more on building up his travel fund.

Declan went to phone his parents and tell them that he had to be on duty tonight. That’s the way it was …

 

They were nervous of each other at first and making little jokes almost putting off the moment. Eventually Fiona took the lead.

‘We could always take our glass of wine into the bedroom,’

she suggested. And after that it was all right. As he lay there afterwards, Fiona asleep with her head on his chest, Declan knew that the happiness he had felt on the train had only been a very faint preparation for the happiness he felt now.

They woke late and had to scramble for the bus. They

thought that everyone in the clinic knew what they had done.

Though this could not possibly be so. Declan didn’t care if they did know. He would be proud for them to know. And in two days’ time Fiona was coming home with him to meet his parents to have supper in St Jarlath’s Crescent. What could go wrong with life now?

 

Molly had got a new perm for the occasion and she had

warned Paddy a hundred times that he was to wear a jacket and tie for the meal. She had ironed the table napkins which had been a wedding present when they married and hardly

ever used since.

Tim the security man had told Declan that he would give

him the loan of his car for a few days.

 

‘Am I insured?’ Declan wished that he weren’t always so cautious.

‘Sure, you’re on my insurance, and have my permission to drive the car. Anyway, you’re not a maniac driver, I’d say!’

Tim laughed.

Declan rehearsed the journey so that he wouldn’t be a

complete amateur. On the day of the big meal he saw that Fiona had fixed her hair and had brought smart clothes into work. A cream silk dress and jacket. Her best outfit. Possibly too smart. His mother would find fault with that too. Back home, Dimples had been washed and brushed and refused

permission to sit on his favourite chair. Dad’s friend Muttie Scarlet had been warned not to call in and ask Paddy out for a pint. Declan’s mother was wearing lipstick at breakfast. She told them she was breaking it in since she didn’t normally indulge. He wanted to hold her newly permed head to him

and tell her that she was marvellous and he loved her and that he would never abandon them, but of course he did nothing except grin foolishly and say it would be a wonderful evening.

The day seemed endless. Bobby Walsh had been having

chest pains and his wife said he was not going into that ward where everyone from all parts of this country and the Lord knew what other countries were gathered. Whatever he came in with he would be much, much worse when he came out.

Declan wished that their son Carl was with them. He would be able to calm his mother down.

For the second time since he had gone to work there,

Declan found himself watching the clock. Finally it was time to leave and he opened the door of Tim’s car proudly for Fiona. His girlfriend. They drove cheerily through the traffic, Fiona chattering happily about the day that had just ended.

What a marvellous man Lar was, his mind so full of information.

How Mrs Walsh, Bobby’s awful wife, had sighed and

 

groaned at Lavender when she was giving her a diet sheet for Bobby.

‘At least you’re Irish. I suppose that’s one thing that can be said about you,’ was how she finished.

‘Right in front of Ania. Really, the woman is a monster!’

After a while she noticed that Declan wasn’t responding.

‘Am I talking too much? I’ll be quieter when we get there,’ she promised.

‘No, don’t be quiet, please don’t. Just be yourself. But you will realise that they are themselves too.’ He looked very sad.

‘But they’re your mam and dad. I’ll love them. They produced you. What’s not to love about them?’

‘They’re awkward and shy. They’re not normal and casual

like your parents.’

‘Ah, God, Declan! Would you come on! No one’s parents

are normal. It will be fine.’

 

Back at St Jarlath’s Crescent, Molly and Paddy were ready.

The kitchen was glowing with its peach-coloured walls and gleaming white paintwork. The melon was sliced and each

piece had a glace cherry on top. The beef was cooking away in the oven, beef chosen carefully by Paddy Carroll, master butcher, that day. Was there anything else that should be done?

‘That dog will want to have a wee the moment the girl

arrives,’ Molly declared.

‘Right, I’ll take him out now,’ said Paddy Carroll who

thought this night would never be over.

‘But be back in time!’ Molly screamed.

Paddy put the big dog on the lead and marched him out,

but at the gate Dimples saw a cat slinking along the road. He didn’t like it. He growled. Paddy took no notice. He didn’t realise how serious the growl was. Then the cat streaked across the road and Dimples was after her with his lead dangling

behind him. Paddy watched as it all happened in slow motion.

The car coming down the crescent, trying to swerve to avoid the dog, and driving straight into the lamppost. He heard the sound of glass breaking, metal buckling and saw the blood of his only child all over the windscreen.

He had never felt so powerless or shocked in his whole life.

And as he stood rooted to the ground Dimples came back

penitently and licked his hand.

And from the passenger seat in the car emerged a beautiful fair-haired girl, her face and dress covered in blood.

‘Call an ambulance,’ she shouted, ‘quickly! Tell them that there are head injuries.’

Paddy realised that this was her, the nurse, the girl that Declan had said was really special. And she had been coming to dinner tonight, except that now Declan was dead.

He looked at the angle of the boy’s head. His neck must be broken.

He moved like a robot into the house, pushing past Molly who had come out to see what was happening. ‘Come back inside, Molly, I beg you,’ he said, and picked up the phone.

But she didn’t and as he was giving the emergency services the address, he saw his wife with her hands to her face looking in disbelief at the car where Fiona was kneeling in the broken glass and talking in the driver’s window. She was assuring Declan that help was on the way. And she was telling him that she loved him.

Dimples knew something was wrong but he didn’t know

what it was. He sat down sadly beside the range and with a great degree of interest smelled the beef that was cooking.

Paddy had brought out a rug and people had gathered in

the street. Fiona was completely in charge.

‘He can’t hear us,’ she was saying to Molly. ‘Please believe me, he’s unconscious. They’ll be here any moment.’ And

amazingly they were.

 

The ambulance men were very relieved to see a nurse in

charge of everything. Fiona held the crowds back, spoke

reassuringly and took complete control. She assured them that she had only surface wounds in her forehead and she would see to them once they had Declan on the way to A&E.

She wanted to go with him as they lifted his body from the front of the car, but she knew that his parents needed her more.

‘Anything?’ she asked one of the men.

‘A weak pulse,’ he said.

‘Better than nothing,’ she said with a watery smile and then turned to the police who had turned up in a Guards car and were beginning to take statements.

‘Could we have the discussion inside?’ she said. ‘These are Declan’s parents and they must want to sit down in their own home after the shock.’ She helped Molly back into her own house, got a rug for her knees and rubbed her hands for her.

She got a nip of whiskey from a man called Muttie to bring some colour back to Paddy Carroll’s face. And she turned off the oven where an enormous joint of beef was cooking away.

And then they began the interminable business of the dog who had seen the cat and had run out on the road, and the son of the house who had seen the dog and swerved to avoid it and hit the lamppost.

Several times Fiona left to call a friend in the hospital, a friend who would be able to tell her more than the enquiries desk. The news was reasonable. He was on a life support, but everything seemed to be working well enough. A fractured skull, a broken arm, but no internal injuries in the rest of his body. He would not be able to be visited by anyone until the next day.

At ii p.m., five hours after she had arrived in St Jarlath’s Crescent, Fiona spoke to both her friend and enquiries for the last time that evening. They were both able to say that Declan

would live. And so they took the beef out of the oven and the three of them sat and ate it with slices of bread and butter.

And she stayed the night with them in the same house where Declan had been born and brought up. And she actually

managed to get some sleep as she lay in his bed.

And in his hospital bed Declan Carroll slept a normal sleep and dreamed about the clinic. He was on the floor trying to reach up to the desk and Hilary kept telling him to rest where he was and let nature take its course. Eventually after a few failed attempts he decided to do that. Hilary was usually right.