Another Life by Gaynard John J

Author:Gaynard, John J. [Gaynard, John J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2010-06-16T22:00:00+00:00

10

THE PRIEST drove them both back to the large two storey Georgian house he lived in near the Church. He asked Peter to get out of the car to open the double gates and close them behind him and then he parked the car in the gravel drive that led up to the building. They walked about twenty yards over the small pieces of sharp stone that Peter could feel through his soles and then up three concrete steps to the door of the house. The Priest searched his pockets for the house keys but there was no sign of them in his jacket and trousers. He went back to the car and found them in the boot, in his briefcase.

“Sorry about that,” he said to Peter. “I’m very careless minded about all the small but essential things in life.”

Father Patrick Keane opened the glass-paned, heavy oak front door and switched on a dim light in the hallway. The walls were papered with fox-hunting scenes and young women carrying pink parasols. Peter could see a staircase leading up to the first floor. Three doors led off the hallway: one at the far end behind the staircase, one off to the left and the third one off to the right. The one on the left was open and Peter could see that it gave access to the Priest’s sitting room. The Priest pointed to an old black telephone that stood on a low table to the left of the staircase. “Do you want to use that straight away to call your sisters or would you like me to show you the bedroom first?”

“Whatever’s easiest for you, Patrick,” said Peter.

“Well, in that case I’ll show you up to your bedroom first,” said the Priest. “If you don’t mind I’ll go to bed as soon as I’ve brushed my teeth. I have to say early Mass in the morning. I’m dead on my feet.”

Patrick Keane led Peter up the stairs that turned to the right halfway up and that brought them onto a landing. Four doors led off the landing. The Priest showed Peter into a small bedroom papered with Japanese garden scenes and small bridges over streams. It contained a single bed, a tall cupboard, a polished wooden desk, a straight-backed wooden chair, a wash basin and a low white bedside table with an electric light in the form of a storm lamp on it. Fluffy green towels and a pair of striped pajamas were laid out on the bed.

“This room and another one in the house are used by visiting Priests or nuns or anybody the diocese wants me to put up for a few nights,” said Patrick Keane. “You never know what time some of them will turn up so the rooms are always in a state of readiness. I’m lucky enough to have a housekeeper who comes in every afternoon for a few hours.

Now come with me and I’ll show you the bathroom and the toilet.” The Priest showed

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