‘What? Your husband running off with his secretary, your mother organising a protest outside your school?’ He shook his head. ‘If only Ihad such powers, I would have put them to better use.’
‘Like what?’
‘Like the two of us flying on a magic carpet to the terrace of a palazzo on the Grand Canal in Venice to drink Bellinis.’
‘The last one’s possible,’ I said. ‘Rosie’s even saying she thinks she will be able to go away with her friends in a couple of weeks. She’s even thinking of getting a summer job and…’
‘And what?’
‘I thinkshe’ll be okay,’ I said. ‘I’m so proud of her.’
He smiled. ‘So Venice?’
I nodded. ‘Oh God yes!’
‘However,’ he said, ‘I can’t do the magic carpet. Would Ryanair be an adequate substitution? I’ll book it tonight and find a palazzo fit for you.’
‘On one condition,’ I said.
‘Anything.’
‘That you don’t do any Johnny Logan songs in Venice.’
‘What? But that was going to be the big moment, whenI get dressed up in a white suit and be Johnny. I thought that would clinch the deal.’
‘Deal?’
‘I’ll just have to think of another way to get you to marry me.’ He smiled at me. ‘But we can talk about that another time.’ He took my hand again and kissed it. ‘Oh Tabitha Thomas, what a spell you cast on me.’ He held me tightly and I clung on.
‘Dad’s poetry was reviewed in the New York Times yesterday,’said Red. ‘He’s delighted. Peggy and the poetry gang are going to have a special party. You’ll have to come.’
‘Of course. What did the review say?’
‘A talented voice singing new songs of Irish freedom… something like that anyway. Dad has it cut out. The book should do well.’
‘That’s amazing,’ I said. ‘When can I buy a copy?’
‘It’s being launched next month. Now, you know he is giving everypenny in royalties to the school…’
‘What?’
‘He doesn’t want it. For the school coffers, he said. Tab,’ he laughed at my shocked face. ‘He’s an old communist He doesn’t want to make money out of art. He wants the school to have it.’
‘I don’t know what to say…’
‘Allow an old man the feeling that he might be doing some good.’
The full-length of the pier, we walked with arms around each other,as though we were one person, and talked and talked and talked. Just like we used to, as though nothing had happened except for a couple of weeks away. And the seagulls soared along with our hearts and love and life was in the air
*
I woke really early, thinking of all the people in my life that meant so much. Rosie, Rosaleen, Red… and Nora.
She’d be on her way to the Forty Foot right now forher daily dip. The early morning sun predicted a hot summer’s day. The sky was Aegean blue, there was a warmth already to the developing day. The rare, perfect Irish summer weather.
What was she always saying, that I should join her? And I thought I never would again. But suddenly I wanted to. Now, it seemed like the very rightest thing to do. Quickly, I gathered some things together. My suitcasewas at the end of the bed packed for Venice. Red and I were flying off for two nights that afternoon, and Nora was going to be looking after Rosie. She’d promised me she was going to be all right. And later in the summer, Rosie and I were going to Paris. Just the two of us. I couldn’t wait.
But as I tiptoed past Rosie’s room, her door suddenly opened. She was standing there in her pyjamas, yawning.She eyed by bag with my swimming things in. ‘Where are you off to?’
