Marian Keyes by Anybody Out There

Author:Anybody Out There [There, Anybody Out]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-11-13T12:36:16+00:00

41

But later on, at home, I wondered if Leisl might have been onto something. The spirit “person,” “voice,” whatever you want to call it, had sounded a bit like Granny Maguire. Then there was the dog connection; I know it had come through a bit garbled, what with talk of my (unfortunately, nonexistent) dog putting on weight. But the thing was, Granny Maguire had kept greyhounds.

Rumor had it that she used to sleep with them. Sleep sleep with them, if you know what I mean. Although, now that I think of it, it was Helen who’d told me that and I’d never had it corroborated by a more reliable source.

Whenever we used to visit Granny Maguire, the minute I stepped out of the car, she’d urge, “Go on, Gerry; go on, Martin.” (Named after Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness.) And two blurs of leanness would whip out of the house and pin me to the wall, a paw on either side of my face, barking so hard my eardrums would hurt.

Granny Maguire would be in convulsions. “Don’t let on you’re ascared,” she’d screech, laughing so much she’d have to thump the ground with her stick. “They can smell the fear. They can smell the fear.”

Everyone said that Granny Maguire was a “character,” but that was only because she hadn’t set the dogs on them. They wouldn’t have been so quick to say it then.

And what about Leisl mentioning a little blond nephew in a hat? Not everyone had one of those. With a tickle of anxiety, I started to worry about JJ. What if Leisl had been giving me a warning? What if something was wrong with JJ? Fear continued to badger me, until eventually I had no choice but to ring and see if he was okay, even though it was one in the morning in Ireland.

Garv answered the phone.

I whispered, “Did I wake you?”

He whispered back, “Yes.”

“I’m very sorry, Garv, but could you do something for me? Could you check that JJ is okay?”

“What sort of okay?”

“Alive. Breathing.”

“Okay. Hold on.”

Even if Aidan hadn’t died, Garv would have humored me. He was nice, that way.

He put the phone down and I heard Maggie whisper, “Who is it?”

“It’s Anna, she wants me to check on JJ.”

“Why?”

“Just.”

Thirty seconds later Garv was back. “He’s fine.”

“Sorry to have woken you.”

“Not at all.”

Feeling a little foolish, I disconnected. So much for Leisl.

As soon as I hung up, I was filled with a terrible need to talk to Aidan.

Typing furiously, I looked up Neris Hemming on the Internet. She had her own site, bearing literally hundreds of grateful testimonials. There were also details of her three books—I hadn’t known she’d written any, I was going to run out to the nearest Barnes & Noble right now—and information on her forthcoming twenty-seven-city tour: she was playing thousand-seater venues in places like Cleveland, Ohio, and Portland, Oregon, but, to my bitter disappointment, she wasn’t coming to New York.

The nearest city was Raleigh, North Carolina. I’ll go, I thought, with sudden determination.

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