No Country for Young Men by Julia O'Faolain

Author:Julia O'Faolain [Julia O'Faolain]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571310449
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2015-12-16T16:00:00+00:00

This afternoon, she had had a strange telephone call from someone who refused to give his name but had very distinctly threatened her.

‘No need for you to know who I am,’ said the strange, uneducated voice.

‘Are you sure you wanted to speak to me?’ Sister Judith had not been telephoned in years. But the girl, Bridie, had assured her she was wanted on the phone. She had even brought the instrument up and plugged it in on Sister Judith’s floor so that she need not face the stairs.

‘Are you Sister Judith Clancy, sister-in-law to Owen O’Malley?’

‘That’s right.’ She waited and heard breathing. Was this going to be one of those dirty calls you heard about? Some corner boys maybe had got hold of her address and dared each other to phone the nunny sister-in-law of the famous statesman? The sort who burgled churches and stole the altar wine. She’d heard about that. The cleaning woman in the convent had had a store of such information that would keep you going for weeks if you let her get started. ‘Who is it?’ she asked again, intending to hang up if she didn’t get an answer quickly.

‘Sister Judith?’

‘I’m still here.’

‘This is a warning,’ said the voice, speaking very slowly now. ‘I don’t want you to think it’s a joke. It’s a serious warning and you’d better heed it. You don’t know me but I know you and I’ve information that you intend talking on the TV about sensitive matters. Sensitive, do you understand that, Sister Judith? Do you know what I’m referring to?’

‘I do not,’ said Sister Judith angrily, ‘and I’d like you to know that you could be prosecuted for making calls like this. Nuisance calls.’ She’d seen cases on television. The person being called was supposed to hang on as long as they could so that the police could put a trace on the caller. But there were no police to do that here and she was on the point of hanging up when it struck her that she might be hearing things. ‘Are you there?’ she asked, wishing she had the Yank’s tape-recorder. That was a wonderful instrument. It would prove once and for all what was a delusion and what was not.

‘I’m here all right,’ said the voice, ‘and I want you to know that you should keep your gob shut if you know what’s good for you and divulge no information whatsoever to yon Yank. Or to anyone else. If you know what’s good for you. I’ll know,’ said the voice. ‘I know every move you make. You are under surveillance, Sister Judith.’

‘Bridie,’ screamed Sister Judith.

‘Bridie! Tell me,’ she asked her, calming down and forcing herself to speak quietly, ‘who was that on the phone just now?’

‘I dunno, Sister Judith.’

‘Now Bridie, think. You called me to the phone, didn’t you? You took the call. There was a man on the phone, wasn’t there?’

‘Of course there was someone on the phone,’ said the girl. ‘I don’t know who he was.

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