She wasn’t listening but was rooting around in her cupboard. ‘Now, you’ll be wanting tea, I expect.’ She opened a tin. ‘I’ve run out of Barry’s but I do have fennel and liquorice. Highly recommendedby the lady in the health food shop. Well, until they asked me not to go in anymore…’
‘What for?’
‘Said I was putting off customers. But it’s their fault for using Israeli chick peas. Anyway, let’s see… We have Rooibos somewhere…’
‘I’ll drink whatever.’ I had learned not to be too fussy in Nora’s house.
Her voice muffled from the dark and dusty recesses of the food cupboard. ‘Ah, here it is.’She stood up, holding onto the work surface to help herself up and squinted at the jar, reading the label. ‘It’s still in date. Just,’ she said, filling the kettle. ‘I think. Not that I can see a thing, anyway.’
‘Put the light on then.’
‘No, it’s not as simple as that. Although that helps. It’s just I’m going a bit blind, that’s all,’ she said. ‘My eyes are getting bad. Can’t see as much asI used to. Have to get right in there to get anything. I’m already on the large print books in the library with the pensioners!’
‘Mum, youarea pensioner,’ I reminded her.
‘I asked if it was okay to keep cycling and Dr Jones said as long as I don’t enter the Tour de France I should be fine.’
‘But what is it?’
‘They’re thinking cataracts. Nothing to worry about. All very operable, they say.If it comes to that.’
‘Oh Mum, why didn’t you tell me?’ It was horrible seeing her get old. In school, when we had been taught about Grace O’Malley, the sixteenth-century pirate queen who sailed the Mayo coast, ruling the waves, I had thought of Nora.That was it, I remember thinking,she’s a pirate queen. And now even Nora was fading, her power slipping away. And I didn’t like it.
‘Anyway,enough about that, thereissomething I want to talk to you about.’ Her eyes had suddenly taken on a gleam. So much for being half-blind, she suddenly looked excited and wholly alive. Now I knew where I’d seen that look before, that sense of purpose. And I knew exactly what she was thinking of. The trees.
‘Mum,’ I said quickly. ‘It’s none of your business.’
‘Of course it’s my business. It’severyone’s business. Trees belong to everyone. You know when I was a little girl, we used to play there. And you played there. Remember? And I still know where all the paths are and where the blackberries are and where that itching powder plant is.’
‘It’s all overgrown now… there’s nothing there. Just brambles and nettles. It’s of no use to anyone.’
‘Naturebelongsto everyone.’
‘We just needa small injection of cash and we have exhausted every other avenue. This seems like an obvious solution. Anyway, who told you?’
‘Nellie.’
‘And how on earth does she know?’
‘She keeps an ear out. You know Nellie…’
‘Mum,’ I said. ‘There’s nothing to worry about, okay?’
‘So it is true then? You are going to sell it?’
‘I told you, nothing’s decided. And when it is, you and Nellie will be thefirst to know. Brian Crowley from the board of governors is coming in to school this week. He says he’s found a buyer.’
‘Now, I’ve heard a few things about him…’ she started.
‘Mum, it’s just because he wears a shirt and tie.’ Nora was always too quick to judge. She only liked men who wore cardigans, preferably hand-knitted. By themselves. ‘Listen, whatever happens, just trust me that it’s forthe right reasons. And whatever happens is going to be appropriate and sensitive. There’s not going to be a housing estate or an industrial park. What would you say if the proposal was for a community centre? You’d like that wouldn’t you?’
‘I’d prefer the trees,’ she said, looking utterly unconvinced.
*
That evening, I was foraging in the fridge for dinner. Thank God for eggs, I thought.
‘Hi, sweetheart,’ I said, hearing Rosie come into the kitchen. ‘You’re in luck. Banquet time. Oh yes.’ I held up the eggs. ‘Omelettes!’
