2ZI

‘Oh, Tony, I didn’t see you there. We had a grand turn-out even for a cold February night.’

‘Aidan getting on all right?’

‘He’s fine really, Tony. His girls have been very good.

Brigid is with him tonight and you know your Grania is

coming tomorrow when I have to go and see my mother so

he’s not left alone. He’s in very good form.’

‘I’d go to see him only …’ Tony O’Brien paused.

‘I know, I know exactly, he’d think he had to hurry up and get back to work.’

‘I don’t want him to come back to all that rough and

tumble, Signora. I’ll try and sort out some kind of pension, allowance, whatever …’

‘Ah, Tony, you know Aidan,’ she sighed.

‘Which is why I was hoping you might help,’ he began.

‘He’s not a child in nappies, he’s a grown man; everyone wants me to treat him as if his mind has gone rather than someone who has enlarged ventricles in his heart. His brain is still functioning and he is determined to go back to work.’

‘And you’re going to let him?’

‘I’m not going to add even more to his stress by having

dissension at home,’ Nora said crossly.

‘I could work things out,’ Tony tried again.

‘You know Aidan, he would smell pity and sense charity

even when it didn’t exist.’ To Nora Dunne it was simple. Her husband had to go back to his job.

When Tony O’Brien went home that night, Grania seemed

very excited about something.

He wondered had she seen some exotic Easter holiday that they could book. He hoped not. There was a lot to do in

Mountainview over the Easter vacation.

She had the table set and a bunch of flowers. God — it

wasn’t an anniversary or anything? No, no, of course not. He was good about that sort of thing. He looked at her blankly.

‘Sit down, Tony,’ she said.

He sat obediently.

‘I have very good news,’ she continued. ‘We’re pregnant.

It’s official, Tony, we’re having a baby!’

And to his total surprise, Tony O’Brien began to cry. Huge sobs and heaving shoulders. The works.

‘Aren’t you happy about it?’ Grania was anxious and

wrapped her arms around him.

‘Happy? I’m unhingedwith happiness,’ he sobbed.

Brigid had met a man, she told her father. Well, it was too soon to talk about seriously. But for the first time she had met someone that she wouldn’t mind spending the rest of her life with.

Aidan was delighted.

She had met him at a press reception some months back

and they got talking. They had both been working, she had been doing a presentation of their winter sports holidays and Kato had been in charge of the buffet supper. When everyone else had gone they stayed in the empty room and talked and talked. He was setting up a shop selling African objects. She had been out with him every week since then. They liked the same kind of movies and theatre and everything. It was nearly time to bring him home to meet her dad and Nora.

‘And what does your mother think of him?’ Aidan knew

that the girls saw Nell from time to time.

‘Oh, Mother hasn’t met him,’ Brigid said very firmly.

‘Really? Why is that?’

‘Kato’s Moroccan, Dad,’ Brigid said, as if it should have been obvious to everyone from the word go. ‘Imagine introducing Mum to anyone from Africa.’

When Nora came in from her Italian class she was told the story.

‘Where in Morocco is he from?’ Nora asked with interest.

‘Marrakech,’ Brigid said, surprised.

Nora clasped her hands with pleasure. ‘How wonderful.

We’ll go to see you there!’

‘But Kato’s going to live here. He has a shop, I told you.’

‘I know, but you’ll have to go and buy things there, and maybe your dad and I could go and you could show us round the Djemaa el Fna - it’s this huge square in the middle of Marrakech where they have all kinds of things, a great market, snake charmers, musicians … It would be lovely to go with someone who knew it.’

Brigid was all smiles at the thought of this journey.

‘And do you have a picture of Kato?’ Nora asked.

‘Of course I do.’ She took out a packet of pictures where she stood with the arm of a tall handsome Moroccan around her shoulders.

‘Isn’t he handsome,’ Nora said. Not a word about him

being foreign and how there would be many differences to get used to. Just that he was handsome and that it would be great to go and see his country.

Aidan looked at Nora with affection. He was so lucky to

have her. He must face those big bullies up in Mountainview School and get a proper life and pension for her. It was the very least that she deserved.

It was the exercise demonstration in Johnny’s room. Nora and Aidan were sitting with the exercise sheet following, while Johnny went through the various movements. A man in a

wheelchair joined in cheerfully for all the arm and neck exercises. He looked on enviously as Aidan did four minutes on the treadmill.

‘I’d love to be able to do that,’ he said. ‘But I get out of

breath after a few seconds so it isn’t worth it.’ His name was Bobby Walsh, he said; he had owned a big business once but after his heart attack he retired.

‘Did you hate retiring?’

‘I did at the beginning, but there are so many things I never had time to do before. It’s hard on my wife, I think, having me under her feet all the time.’

‘Is she with you today?’

‘No, Rosemary has a hundred things to do, people to

meet …’

Aidan felt lucky and loved because Nora had come with

him. She was questioning Johnny about what kind of weights Aidan should lift. Johnny said everyone should have a couple of large tins of peas around the place.

‘Did you have a son to take over the business?’ Aidan

wondered.

‘No - Carl was never interested in it. Never at all. He’s a teacher up at Mountainview - a tough place, but he’s able for it; he says that a few of the older brigade find it hard going.’

‘That’s me for one,’ Aidan said. ‘I teach Latin there, that’s when I can get into the classroom.’

‘Oh, you’re Aidan Dunne!’ Bobby smiled with recognition.

‘Carl often mentioned you, he said you make the kids love Latin — which is no mean achievement.’

‘What’s your son’s name?’

‘Carl Walsh.’

‘Of course I know him, very nice young lad, teaches English, doesn’t he?’

‘That’s right.’

‘Well, I’ll see him when I get back there, in a few weeks’

time.’

‘You’re going back?’ Bobby seemed surprised.

‘Have to,’ said Aidan Dunne.

Clara was pleased with the way Nora Dunne had given her support. So it might only be for six weeks but it was certainly whole-hearted. Nora Dunne was interested in everything. It was a great way to be, Clara decided.

She would take out her portable atlas and look at a map of Poland to find where Ania lived. She would take it out again so that Fiona could show her the little island in Greece where she had spent a summer. Nora would talk to the other patients and debate the merits of Jack Russells who barked their heads off with Judy Murphy. She would find Something New Every Day for Lar. She would discuss diets seriously with Barbara: Nora Dunne who was built like a lithe greyhound would

puzzle over why celery soup was meant to be so good for you while a potato with a nice lump of butter on it was the devil incarnate. She would never be without entertainment and

stimulus in her life and it was a gift far greater than money.

‘Do you mind not telling your dad about the baby?’ Tony

O’Brien asked Grania.

‘What?’

‘I mean just at the moment.’

‘But why? I was going to go over and tell them this

evening.’

‘I thought we could wait until Sunday lunch, they’re coming here.’

‘But Brigid is bringing Kato, she won’t want us stealing all her thunder.’

‘I’d say she and Kato won’t mind a bit of the spotlight

going off them at all.’

‘I was looking forward to telling them!’

‘This way is better, we might tie it in with asking them to baby-sit and maybe it would provide a way out of teaching for your father.’