The Tenant’s Tale by Terence Casey

Author:Terence Casey
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781909204188
Publisher: Dolman Scott Ltd
Published: 2013-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

At the time of receiving the news of Owens’s death, our circumstances were at last improving and that winter I had been busy making plans for the coming year. But the loss of my brother was like a dagger to my heart and there was now a tremendous emptiness in my life. To fill this void for the first and only time during our marriage I started drinking. Each afternoon I slipped away to Charleville and every night I returned home roaring drunk. Sadly poor Catherine had a wretched time trying to cope with my drunkenness and violent moods. My three sons were left with the burden of running the farm and were bewildered by my actions. As my depression deepened my drinking increased and on many occasions I never even made it home. On many occasions I woke up in a doorway or a field, shaking with the cold and with the only thought in my head being where could I buy my next drink.

As my condition worsened, I began to lose all self respect and shamelessly began begging for money to satisfy my craving. Fortunately for me my eldest son Michael, unbeknown to his mother was determined to rescue me from my stupidity. One morning in early April as I was wandering through Charleville, searching for a scrap to eat, Michael and my other son James suddenly pounced on me and threw me into the back of our cart. Then riding as fast as they could they rushed me back to Springfort. Once back at the farm, they carried me to the edge of our duck pond and dropped me in. The freezing cold water soon brought me to my senses, but they would not let me out until I agreed to listen to what they had to tell me. I could see from their expressions that they meant business and reluctantly I promised to hear what they had to say.

On hearing the commotion Catherine suddenly appeared at the scene and was shocked to see the condition I was in. She immediately brought me into the house and made me eat the first decent meal I had eaten in weeks. Then she stripped me of the stinking rags I was wearing and ordered me to go to bed. Once in the luxury of my own bed I realised how tired I was after weeks of sleeping rough. But sadly when I woke up I found my whole body shaking and I was craving a drink. Somehow I rose from the bed and dressed myself, thinking that I could slip out of the house without being noticed. My hopes were quickly dashed, because Michael, knowing that I would take this course of action had organised one of my family to keep guard on me. James was on duty on this occasion and on hearing me dressing informed his brothers, who came rushing in to give him support. On seeing the three of them standing there I realised that it was impossible for me to sneak out.

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