Torn Away by James Heneghan

Author:James Heneghan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV000000
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2003-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

It was a calendar of birds and it hung on a nail over his uncle’s rattan chair in the kitchen. Declan took it down and flipped through the pages. April was the month of the great blue heron. His ma and Mairead died in April.

September was a horned puffin, October a Canada Goose, November a common loon, and December a bald eagle.

For Declan the December eagle was an omen, for hadn’t it watched over him during his attempted escape to Sea Island? So it was only fitting that this eagle now guard that promise of freedom, that last day of December which Declan had colored in red with a crayon so that when December came around and his Uncle Matthew glanced up at the calendar he would not fail to notice both the reminder of his promise and the eagle’s fierce eyes and deadly beak threatening revenge should he and Kate renege on their promise.

Meanwhile, in the month of the puffin, Declan could stop running for a while, he could relax; the deal with his uncle and aunt was forcing him to slow down and take things easy. He was surprised at the relief he felt: for the first time in five long months, he could stop rushing; he could stand still.

Five months ago, with the deaths of his ma and sister in April, he had suddenly become a different person—had changed overnight. Joining the Holy Terrors had allowed him to lose himself in action and revenge. Then when Matthew sent for him, giving the police a good reason to get rid of him, he had lived like a wild animal, constantly on the run, always looking over his shoulder.

Now he could stop searching for ways to escape. A few months in this peaceful place between the sea and the mountains would do him no harm, would help build up his energy and strength for his return after Christmas. And if those two meddling, do-gooder fixers, Matthew and Kate, thought they were going to work on him to change his mind, then they had another think coming. Declan felt almost light-hearted.

He thought about his return to Ireland. A new year. It would be a new, triumphant Declan keeping the promise he had made himself when he was torn away from his native soil: he said he would be back and he would. He felt tough, invincible. It would be a new beginning.

And once he was back, he would join the IRA if they would have him. Brendan Fogarty said they were recruiting for the Fianna, the IRA youth auxiliary for young people who were quick and smart, who knew the streets and the police and the Brits, who knew the ropes. Declan was already an expert maker of gasoline bombs. He knew just the right mix of sugar and flour and gas, and the right kind of bedsheet strips that made good fuses. Milk bottles made the best bombs. He chuckled to himself as he remembered the joke about the woman who asked the milkman to leave her one bottle of milk and two empties.

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