The Blackwater Lightship: A Novel by Colm Tóibín

Author:Colm Tóibín [Tóibín, Colm]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literary, Sagas, Fiction
ISBN: 9780743203319
Google: V9rUaWjCelwC
Amazon: 0743203313
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 1999-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

In the morning Helen found her mother in Declan’s room, cradling his head in her hand.

‘You must have come back very early,’ she said, and immediately realised that she sounded as though she were accusing her mother. ‘You look tired,’ she said then, trying to soften her tone.

‘Declan wasn’t well again this morning,’ her mother said coldly.

Declan stared at her. The bruising on his nose had become darker, almost purple, and seemed to have spread; yet there was a strange contentment in the way he lay without moving. He did not appear to be in any pain.

‘Are the boys up yet?’ she asked.

‘They’re being fed by your granny,’ her mother said. ‘She’s in her element she thinks she’s running a guesthouse again. It’s rashers and sausages and how would you like your eggs?’

‘If we had rashers,’ Declan said hoarsely, ‘we could have rashers and eggs, only we’ve no eggs.’

‘You’ve been saying that since you were about five,’ Helen said, laughing, ‘and I’ve never thought it was funny.’

‘Go in and have your breakfast before they eat it all,’ her mother said.

When Helen went into the kitchen, Larry was talking and her grandmother was giving him her full attention. Paul acknowledged her arrival, but the other two ignored her.

‘No, Mrs Devereux,’ Larry was saying, ‘no, knocking down a wall costs nothing, and widening a door costs nothing. You could do the whole thing for a thousand pounds, but if I were you I’d put in the anti-damp system too and an oak floor, or at least a pine floor …’

‘Is that fellow still talking?’ Helen asked.

‘Your breakfast is in the Aga, Helen,’ her grandmother said.

‘Granny, I hope you’re not listening to him,’ Helen said.

‘But where would I put the kitchen?’ her grandmother asked Larry.

‘No,’ Larry said, ‘leave the kitchen where it is, but put in a ramp and a rail.’

‘We’re talking about if I fell, Helen,’ her grandmother said. ‘Or if I was in a wheelchair. And, anyway, I can’t be going up and down the stairs much longer.’

‘No,’ Larry continued as though no one else had spoken, ‘put the bedroom and the bathroom where Helen and Declan are sleeping, with a big, wide door between them, but make them both much bigger by using some of the dining-room. Sure I bet you never use that.’

‘Have you brought your measuring tape, Larry?’ Helen asked as she sat down.

Larry ignored her. ‘I checked those walls,’ he went on.

‘It would take half a day to knock them down. It would be like a new house. You wouldn’t know yourself.’

By the time Helen had returned from the village, having bought groceries and the newspaper, and phoned Hugh, Larry was making drawings to scale in a large sketch pad on the kitchen table. He had the measuring tape beside him.

‘There’s no talking to him,’ Paul said. ‘He’s a maniac’

‘Where would the bed be, though?’ her grandmother asked, turning away from her washing-up. ‘I don’t want it against the window.’

‘Is it a double bed or a single bed?’ Larry asked.

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