Where Old Ghosts Meet - Kate Evans [74]
His voice broke in on her thoughts. “We spent a bit of time together, him and me. If ye wants I can tell ye how that come about.” He turned to look at her and she nodded.
“After Aunt Peg took sick and went to St. John’s, I used to come back to the island the scattered time. One weekend me mother says to me, ‘Here, take a loaf of bread and one of them chickens in the yard to that poor man above to Peg Barry’s. He’s got no one now to do for him.’ So I picks out a nice hen, ties up the legs, shoves her in a brin bag and heads up to the house. By and by, he comes to the door and opens it just the smallest bit.”
“I’ve got a bit of new bread and a chicken here, from me mother,” Joe said, and tipped the squawking chicken onto the doorstep.
“I can’t accept that. Thank you.”Matt Molloy began to close the door.
“I hears you’re a good hand with a gun,” Joe persisted. “Maybe ye could show me sometime. I’d like to bring in a few birds for me mother for the winter. If ya don’t mind, that is. I could come along sometime when you’re goin’ by yerself.”
Matt didn’t answer for a while then he said, “We’ll see.”
“You think on it, sir. No rush.” He set the loaf of bread on the doorstep and before her could utter another word, he left.
“See ya now,” he called back over his shoulder.
“After that, when I’d be home, we’d often go in the woods. He’d set up a target, a bit of sod or the like on the branch of a tree and show me how to load and take aim. One day we was in the woods practicing. I was to one side watchin’ while he was showin’ me what to do and didn’t the sod fall to the ground before he got the shot away. Like the foolish gommel I am, I runs up to set her back in place and BANG! The gun goes off. I falls to the ground. He’s by me side in a minute, holdin’ me head. ‘Oh, Mother of God,’ he’s sayin’. ‘What have I done to this decent, lovely man?’ He brings his head down to me mouth to hear if I’m still breathing and I whispers in his ear, ‘Ah, b’y, yer not such a great shot after all.’”
His thin shoulders heaved slightly as he recalled the incident. “But I tell ya somethin’, missus. I was the one got the shock. When I popped me eyes open I’m lookin’ right in his face, and here the two eyes in his head is filled right up with tears. I never told that to no one neither. It was between him and me.”
Nora didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Was that the end of the shooting lessons?”
“No, missus. I learned to keep me head down, and by and by, I got me own gun. I wasn’t good like he was but he always shared his bag with me, said it was for me mother. She’d take him up the few bottles of turrs in return and do him up a bit of bread. He was the finest kind with her, gave her the run of the garden. She could have all the cabbage, potatoes, turnip she wanted. That’s how we became buddies, him and me.”
Behind, in the hall, the accordion played a slow waltz and she could hear the crowd singing along.
“Will we try a waltz?” he said suddenly. “I likes the waltzes, I does.”
19
Nora removed her jacket and laid it on the arm of the big overstuffed chair. There was a faint smell of fish in the kitchen, the memory of a meal shared. It had been a long and tiring day and she was glad to be back in the cozy clutter of Peg’s home. She couldn’t live with it, she decided as she looked around, but when Peg had caught her eye at the dance and indicated that she wanted to go home, the thought of the little kitchen with the inevitable cup of tea was very inviting.
“It was terrible hot in that hall. I don’t know how people could dance. I was wishin’ we’d paid no attention to Gerry and stayed home where we were comfortable. We barely caught sight of him the whole night. Off politicking, I’ll allow. But I saw Joey Coady bendin’ your ear there a while. What old foolishness was he on about this time?” Peg was busy with the kettle.
“Oh, telling me what he knew of Matt.”
“I suppose, but now you wouldn’t want to pay too much attention to Joe. He