The Graces by Siobhan MacGowan

Author:Siobhan MacGowan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Welbeck

26

The winter it happened, Aunt Ellen received news of a neighbour of whom she’d been greatly fond. A young man, only thirty, with three small children. He had been cutting back the rose bushes for winter when, it appeared, his finger had been pricked by a thorn. I was in the parlour, placing my aunt’s celery jar on the sideboard as she lamented the man’s demise to the visiting Dr Lydon.

‘I can’t believe it. That something so simple, so seemingly harmless could cause it,’ she said. ‘Could cause him to die.’

‘Sepsis. A blood infection,’ Dr Lydon said. ‘There was nothing could be done.’

I eyed him from the sideboard. Since our conversations about Emma Rainsford, whom he had rightly suspected to be suffering from syphilis, our encounters, although civil, were cool. That he had surmised correctly did not worry me. It was not the illness but the cure on which we disagreed. My aunt sat shaking her head, then sprang up, seeming to remember herself.

‘What am I thinking? Dr Lydon, will you have some tea?’

‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘Yes, that would be nice.’

‘I’ll fetch Mary,’ Aunt Ellen said, seeming flustered as she left the room.

I could only suppose it was the bad news regarding her neighbour that had my aunt so distracted she would not think to send me for tea but, in any case, it left me and Dr Lydon alone in an uncomfortable silence. I could not resist, however, making a jibe. Arranging the celery, I spoke, my voice slow and deliberate. ‘It seems then, if our poor neighbour died, that your science does not hold all the answers.’

My back was to him so I could not see his face. ‘Not yet,’ he said. ‘But there is great work going on in the study of bacteria. I am certain that someday soon we will have the means to treat such infection.’

‘Perhaps,’ I said, my back still to him, ‘the answer lies somewhere in nature. In our own natural world. Not in your chemicals.’ I turned then to face him. ‘The earth offers up its riches.’

He observed me for a moment. ‘And also its diseases and disasters.’ He shifted at the table. ‘Besides, all life is formed from chemicals. All of nature. And many of them toxic. And do not forget, bacteria are natural. Cancer is natural. Earthquakes are natural. The thorn of a rose is natural.’ He looked up to meet my eyes. ‘Not everything in nature is benign.’

* * *

That Christmas I spent in Dublin. I had written to Mammy, asking if I might, and she had given me her blessing. The city felt vibrant, both men and women hurrying along the footpaths with spilling bags and extravagant boxes, urgently hailing cabs in the cold, even the horses seeming spirited, alerted by the icy nip in the air.

I was thrilled when Rían called to take me to the Grand Christmas Bazaar at Switzer’s department store. The night was frosty and, afterwards, we stepped out on to Grafton Street, talking of

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.