The Gospel of Orla by Eoghan Walls

Author:Eoghan Walls
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Published: 2023-02-07T20:56:14+00:00

24

It is a sunny day. There are a couple of dog walkers on the canal path and I reckon my shirt and tie are a dead giveaway. I can’t dump my uniform here in case they find it and work out I am on the towpaths. Or think I am drowned in the canal which is a laugh because I could stand up in it.

But I don’t want them thinking I am dead.

So I stop and take off the tie and ruffle the shirt so it looks like a top and put the hoodie in the gym bag and hang the bag off the handlebars so I am not all cluttered and hot. Anybody could see the skirt is a school skirt but not which school.

The sun is warm on my face and forearms. It is sweaty work and under the rucksack my back is soaking. But there is no one around as I go under the third bridge and the sunlight reflects all shimmery onto the underside of the bridge and the breeze is lovely through the gaps in my shirt.

I hoot a little.

Just a little. When there is no one near.

I don’t dare use the roads now as this is the last minute when they are most likely to get me. When I get to Daly’s Barn I cross the weir and go in quietly.

There are birds in the rafters. Small green shoots push out of the stone in the shadows. Ducks and crows sit on the crumpled body of Jesus in a far corner from the daylight at the door. The birds rustle as I come near. He has an arm over his face like he is dabbing.

I can see the marks on his arm where I battered him.

I shudder but I shake it off.

His beard has grass in it and his clothes are filthy with grass stains and birdshit. I go to the pile of clothes on the table and sniff a T-shirt.

It’s bad.

We will need to wash them before the ferry and I think about taking them to the canal and having a go now but anyone could be walking a dog on a day like this. We can wash them near Liverpool where no one knows me.

There are still some things to do though. I check Jesus is asleep then get changed in the shadows. Leggings and a T-shirt from my gym bag and then I empty a plastic bag of books and put my uniform in it. I spend a few minutes trying to chuck the bag onto the rafters and the pigeons are not happy then I hit one knocking it off its place and it flies for the door.

The second it hits the beam of sunlight it flashes into fire.

Feathers alight. An odd squeal in its throat. Falling ablaze in a short arc to the ground.

I duck low and grunt.

There is a pigeon burning in the barn doorway.

No noise no scream anymore just the quiet crackle of flame.

I rush to see if anyone is on the path.

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