The Closet of Savage Mementos by Nuala Ní Chonchúir

Author:Nuala Ní Chonchúir [Ní Chonchúir, Nuala]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New Island Books
Published: 2014-04-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

When I think of Dónal, I imagine the warm smell of skin, his tongue hot with the tang of beer, and him walking towards me through the city, cool under a sweep of ochre leaves. In my mind, Dónal is all about late autumn: gelid air, snug jackets and early-dark nights. I skitter backwards and remember his wide, little-boy smile as he sallied along, never in a hurry.

Some days he would turn up to meet me after my photography course or work – it was never pre-arranged – and we would walk a crowded Westmoreland Street or up Grafton Street, Dónal taking my hand. I would rub the rough pads of his long fingers while we strolled and talked. I looked into his face, liking the jag of his cheekbones and the way he tossed his head to chase the fringe out of his eyes. He was the type of boy that made everything not as it was. Dónal carried an air of impending excitement about him, and being with him meant a feeling of suspension in anticipatory moments. We walked Dublin without direction and sometimes we would end up by the quay wall in the dark, smelling the river.

‘I’d hate to fall in there,’ Dónal said once. ‘I have a morbid fear of dying suddenly. Dramatically, you know?’

I hugged him from behind, my arms tucked around his waist, gently nosing the tobacco smell of his hair.

‘Mmm,’ I said, peering into the black churn of the water.

I turned him around to face me and pressed his back into the river wall; I took his cheeks in my hands and pushed my tongue between his lips. He tasted of the barley sugar sweets he sucked after each carefully smoked cigarette.

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