Chapter Eleven
Dun Laoghaire has two piers which reach into the sea in two curves forming an almost complete circle. And it’s along their limestone flags, either on the West or the East pier, most of south county Dublin stretch their legs. And it was where I went when I needed to clear my head. The sale of the Copse was bothering me, the money seeming less and less important as different issuesclouded what I had once thought an obvious and simple issue.
The pier was full that summer evening, dog walkers, couples, small children on trikes weaving precariously close to the edge as we made our way to the lighthouse and back again. But just as I reached the bandstand, halfway along, I saw Red with his dad; the two of them, like everyone else, taking an evening stroll in the pink-tingeddusk.
For a moment, I panicked. It was one thing dealing with Red every day; we’d transcended awkwardness and were easing into a grey area of not friends but not acquaintances. But Christy was different. I’d let him down as well, rejecting him when I ghosted Red. I’d managed to avoid Christy all these years, our paths and worlds never colliding. Until now.
I thought I might get away with pretendingI hadn’t noticed them, but Red saw me and said something to Christy, who looked up, bright-eyed, like an elderly meerkat. And I had no choice but to lift my hand in a wave and they both waved back. There was nothing for it but to go over. I felt a burning shame at my cowardice but also a loss for these two good men. My life, I realised, had been poorer without them.
‘Hello Tab,’ said Red. ‘Lovelyevening.’
‘Yes it is,’ I said and leaned towards Christy and kissed him on the cheek.
‘Well, well, well,’ he said. ‘Where have you been hiding, Tabitha?’ He peered at me, wonderingly, as though I was some great unsolved mystery. ‘Now you’re a sight for my old eyes. We haven’t seen you in some years. And you’re looking all the better for it. Red told me he was teaching in your school.’
‘HelloChristy,’ I said, ‘nice to see you too. After all this time… and Red, lovely evening.’ I smiled at them both without actually making eye contact.
‘Red insisted we came down,’ said Christy, the same eyes as Red, I remembered, and the same smile. ‘Says I’ve been stuck inside so much, twiddling the old thumbs. I don’t come down to the pier. I like to shuffle about the town instead.’
‘How are youfeeling? Red told me you’d been ill.’
‘Still kicking. It’ll take more than a stroke to knock me over. Like an ancient oak, I am. But then this fella here turns up…’ he nodded at Red, ‘…as though I’m on my way out. So I says to him there was no need, no need at all, but he insists on sticking around.’ He looked at Red affectionately. ‘Who’d have thought it?’ went on Christy. ‘You two in the sameschool.’
‘I know, small world, isn’t it?’
‘It’s only to the end of term, though,’ said Red, as though he didn’t want to give Christy any ideas of a great reunion. ‘It’s been… nice seeing Tab again.’
‘Well, it must be!’ said Christy. ‘Lovely girl like Tabitha. Head teacher at the school. I’ve been following your progress, young lady. And married. To Michael Fogarty. Well, I didn’t see that coming…but maybe there’s more to him than the stuffed shirt.’
For a moment, I wanted to laugh. Trust Christy to cut straight through the awkwardness and put everything out there. But Red looked annoyed.
‘Dad…’ he warned.
‘What? Statement of fact, is it not. Tabitha, statement of fact?’
I nodded. ‘No, that is true.’ But I wanted to tell them both that it had been a mistake, that to the outside world,it must seem as though Michael and I were happy. After all, we were still together. I wanted to explain why I hadn’t left, or why I’d married him in the first place. ‘And a daughter,’ I said instead. ‘Rosie.’
‘Ah! The rose of summer. Lovely,’ said Christy, smiling, oblivious to Red’s shifting from foot to foot, itching to get going again and away from me and all I represented. It was one thingbeing polite to me in school but he obviously didn’t want to socialise with me and chatting on the pier would definitely qualify as socialising.
‘Now, the school,’ went on Christy. ‘I saw on the news. The protest. Nice to see some of the old faces again. I recognised Arthur Fitzgerald. Haven’t seen him for years now. And your mam, of course. Might have a wander down myself and say hello.’
‘Dad,’said Red. ‘Please don’tyoujoin the protest? It’s enough that one parent of the teaching faculty is involved. Another would be a parent too far.’ He smiled at me, apologetically, shaking his head.
‘They look like they are in for the long haul,’ continued Christy, ignoring him. ‘You’ll find it hard to shift that type, you know, the ones with the Primus stove and the camping chairs. They’ll bethere next Christmas with the oil barrel fire, the tents.’
‘It’ll be fine,’ I told Christy. ‘I’m sure of it. There’s no way this’ll still be going until Christmas. We have to make a decision one way or the other.’
‘And which way are ye leaning? Trees or no trees?’
‘Dad, you make it sound like a game show,’ said Red. ‘Ignore him Tab. Dad, it’s a difficult decision. Tabitha is already going throughenough without anyone poking and prodding.’
‘I’m only asking,’ he said, innocently. ‘Anyway, Tabitha here doesn’t mind, do you, loveen? She’s not the type to take umbrage and offence… She’s one of us.’ He smiled at me, confident in his pronouncement. But there was a slight puzzlement in his eyes as if to say, she was one of us but something happened and now… now she’s married to a ProgressiveConservative.
‘I haven’t made a decision yet, Christy.’ I managed to keep my voice steady. ‘But when I do, you will be the first to know.’
He nodded. ‘Listen,’ he said. ‘I want to see you sometime. Come over to the house. Cup of tea and a chinwag. We haven’t had one of those in quite a few years. Time to stop being a stranger.’
For a moment, I didn’t think I was going to be able to get thewords out. For years, I thought that they both hated me and I would never be forgiven and here he was being so lovely. ‘I’ll call in,’ I managed.
