Children Never Tell by Chrisdina Nixon

Author:Chrisdina Nixon [Nixon, Chrisdina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BLKDOG
Published: 2020-05-05T22:00:00+00:00

Eighteen

Iknew that my daughter was going to die.

I knew who would do it.

Their nick names, middle names and surnames.

Their faces and where they lived.

The cars they drove and brand of trainers they wore.

We live in a small Leitrim village and I know each of their parents since my ownchildhood. I know what jobs they do, the shops they buy their groceries in, and the box they place their Xs into on Polling day.

But I don’t know why their children chose my daughter.

I now know that they came to the house that night just to let me know how easy it was for them.

I was awake, reading and heard our dog barking.

Vicious. Unlike her.

I got up, thinking it had to be a cat or possibly a pine marten that had wandered too close. As I opened the front door the dog moved up the road in the darkness.

Kept barking and growling following whatever was annoying her.

I whistled and called her back but she would not come.

I could pinpoint the sound and knew she had stopped and standing near the gate into the meadow on the corner.

The following morning a quad bike had been stolen from our yard.

Our lane is a dead end, our house the last one and a neighbour who lives below us has CCTV cameras. I told him the times I heard the dog barking and he played the tape for us and the two Garda who had taken our statements.

We all watched as two young men walked by unhurried.

They seemed to stand and face the camera, their faces unidentifiable with the yellow security light.

But I knew who they were.

They had spoken to my daughter as she walked by them outside the Chinese Takeaway the weekend before, saying her name and repeating it as she left.

They laughed as she got into the car.

I had asked her what they had said.

“I don’t know.” She shrugged.

As we drove away they waved.

On the television screen we watched them as they came back with the bike, one riding, and one running along behind.

The elder of the officers said they’d do their best and that we should not worry as the thieves had what they had come for and would not be back.

I wanted to tell them they were wrong but I remained silent.

My husband angrily told them that if they did he would shoot them.

The Garda laughed. “Make sure and put a kitchen knife in the dead lad’s hand before we arrive!”

And that was it, they drove away, my husband went to work, my daughter to school and I nailed and screwed shut all the downstairs windows and the one in my daughter’s bedroom.

That night after I had checked on my daughter and returned to bed after smoking there was sounds of movement outside. Under my bedroom window I heard them shout “Missus”.

I got up.

No sign of them.

I shook my husband awake and he said I was dreaming and maybe I should make an

appointment to see a doctor to get something to calm me down.

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