Fox, Swallow, Scarecrow by Eílís Ní Dhuibhne

Author:Eílís Ní Dhuibhne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blackstaff Press Ltd
Published: 2012-03-26T16:00:00+00:00

Kate was not at the office. He was not answered by a taped recording of her voice, however, but by an actual human voice – Lauren’s.

‘Oh, no,’ she said. Her tone was neutral. ‘She isn’t here at the moment. Maybe I can help you?’

‘It’s … thank you,’ he said sadly. ‘I am a friend of hers.’

Professionalism indeed.

There was a pause. Leo lifted his eyes and looked out his window at the grey railway station. For some reason it looked unaccountably sad and he began to wonder when it had been built. Connolly Station. He did not see James Connolly, strapped into a chair to be executed in front of another grey wall in the stone breakers’ yard or whatever they called the execution ground in Kilmainham (was he mixing it up with Calvary? People did). He saw crowds of soldiers on their way to the Great War. There in front of his eyes he could see them, lines of marching men in their khaki uniforms, heading to Flanders and the Somme. And among the ranks someone odd marched, a woman who looked like a scarecrow, with black straw for hair and a wide red smile. On her head was a black straw hat with a red rose in the brim, a hat only a scarecrow would wear. I had not thought death had undone so many, said Leo to himself, and this scarecrow waved at him, cheerily.

‘Is there something wrong?’ he asked, knowing there was.

‘Kate is on leave,’ Lauren said cautiously but with more warmth. ‘You should contact her family if you are a friend.’

‘All right,’ said Leo. The next question was going to be awkward. ‘Can you give me her parents’ telephone number? We went out together for a while, recently, Kate and I, but I don’t know her family as such.’

There was another pause, quite a long one, but when she spoke again, she gave him the number.

‘Two – eight – seven – six – five – double four.’

‘Oh thanks,’ said Leo.

‘Take care!’ she said, even more warmly.

If Leo had read her voice, its tone would have told him that something bad was about to happen. But he was too distracted to pay attention to Lauren’s tone, to what she was saying between the lines.

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