Felicia's Journey by William Trevor

Author:William Trevor
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Psychological, Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780394281230
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 1994-01-02T10:00:00+00:00

‘Of all the trees that grow so fair,

Old England to adorn,

Greater are none beneath the Sun

Than Oak, and Ash, and Thorn.’

They go, and Felicia watches them sauntering through the flowerbeds, while George’s voice continues, before it fades away to nothing.

13

Mr Hilditch is in his big front room. ‘Blue Hawaii’ is playing. The Daily Telegraph is limp on his knees.

When the doorbell sounds he doesn’t move. He knows she won’t go away, she’ll ring again. When she does he rises slowly and crosses the hall at the same leisurely pace, all the nagging doubts he has experienced dissipating so swiftly that they have gone completely by the time he reaches the door. ‘Blue Hawaii’ has come to an end, but he continues the tune with his breath, passing it softly over his lower teeth. He raises a hand to the mourning tie he’s wearing, straightening it before he opens the door.

‘We meet again,’ he says, his smile agreeable.

Mr Hilditch doesn’t press his visitor to enter his house. He stands on the doorstep with her, having to peer at her because it is dark. He recalls as a child trying to entice a mouse into a trap that was made like a cage. You put the cheese down and then go away. Every day you put the cheese down a little closer to the metal wire and in the end the mouse goes in of its own accord, confident that it knows what’s what.

‘You’ve had no luck in your searchings?’

Mr Hilditch speaks coolly, not wishing to give the impression of any satisfaction on his part. He listens while he’s told that the Irish girl has been all over the place. He leaves it to her to tell her story.

‘I’ve had my money stolen.’

‘Stolen?’

‘Well, it disappeared. It was hidden away in one of my carriers and when I looked it wasn’t there.’

‘You’ve been in doubtful company, have you?’

He listens while he’s told about the religious house, and then contributes the view that any kind of fanatic isn’t to be trusted. The Irish girl says she doesn’t know what to do. She has been in other bed-and-breakfast places, she says.

‘How long have you got?’ Mr Hilditch pats his stomach. ‘You know.’

‘I’m four months gone.’

‘It hardly shows. Just a little. Just beginning to.’

‘You said could you – you said could you help me that day…’ She begins to stutter, then steadies herself. ‘I was wondering…’ Again she breaks off, and he nods to encourage her. ‘I was wondering if you could lend me the fare to go home.’ The stutter sets in again when she tries to say it’s a cheek asking a stranger. She says she doesn’t know where to turn.

‘You want to go back?’

‘It was a mistake coming over here, I shouldn’t ever have come over.’

‘What about your friend though?’

‘I’ll never find him.’

When the girl says that Mr Hilditch realizes she has lost heart. In spite of his reservations, he should have approached her again when he saw her on the street. It

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