The Girl from Ballymor by Kathleen McGurl

Author:Kathleen McGurl
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2017-10-19T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

Maria

We left the church and had a cup of tea and a sandwich at the café across the square. The waitress, a woman in her forties with a frilly white pinny tied around her ample midriff, flirted a little with Declan, patting his shoulder and fluttering her eyelashes at him. I guessed that women felt safe doing this around Declan, as he was a priest and would therefore never take it too seriously.

After we’d finished the sandwiches, Declan checked his watch. ‘So, if we leave now we can walk to the sports ground, or if you’d like a cake or another cup of tea I could drive us there. It’s about a mile away, so.’

‘Let’s walk,’ I replied, and he smiled and stood to leave.

The route took us through town and past a row of single-storey cottages which Declan said dated from the early 1800s. They looked tiny but well maintained, their roofs tiled although I guessed they might originally have been thatched. They were all whitewashed, with brightly painted front doors that opened directly onto the street. I felt an almost irresistible urge to peep in at the windows, but didn’t dare in case someone was inside. But I did take a photo – I imagined the cottages up at Kildoolin would have looked something like this if they’d been kept up and inhabited over the years.

From there we went through a modern housing estate, across a children’s play area where kids from six to sixteen were hanging out, doing their own thing – the younger ones on the climbing frames and roundabouts; the older ones on the swings with their mobiles in their hands. There were no adults in sight. I wondered who was looking after the little ones – perhaps the teenagers were their siblings. If so, they weren’t keeping a very close eye on them – they all seemed to be focused entirely on their phones. I resolved to make sure my child was always watched carefully at parks. I’d give him or her freedom to run around, of course, but supervised and with a parent on hand to ensure safety.

There I went again – planning how it would be when I was a mother. Different to Jackie – she’d never taken me to the park, not once. That had always been Dad’s job. He’d push me higher than anyone else on the swings, spin the roundabout so fast I’d be squealing for him to stop, and was always there to catch me at the bottom of the slide.

After what Jackie had said on the phone, it was a fair bet that she wouldn’t be the kind of grandparent who took her grandchild to the park either. Dan would love to, I was certain. And I – well who knew, but I’d definitely try to be the kind of parent Dad had been, rather than Jackie. Kids deserved to have fun.

‘Good to see the kids playing, isn’t it?’ Declan commented, as if he could read my thoughts.

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