The Silent Children by Honor Harlow

Author:Honor Harlow [Harlow, Honor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Crime Fiction, irish woman, single mother, childhood trauma, abnormal psychology, psychological thriller, abandonment, teen mom, Maternity homes, Banshee, catholic school, Child Abuse, domestic abuse, mother and baby home, Tuam, emotional abuse, teen pregnancy, suspense books for women, single mom, dark psychology, celtic, Ireland, Irish Fiction, celtic woman
Publisher: Orla Kelly Publishing
Published: 2021-02-20T22:00:00+00:00

Dr Kelly let me back to school on the last day before the Christmas holidays, to see the crib outside Sister Anthony’s office. When I was in High Babies with Sister Paul, we made a line and went to look at the big a curly-haired Baby Jesus lying in a box with straw. The statues of Our Lady and St Joseph were kneeling behind the cow and ass because the animals had to be near the baby to blow their breaths on Him and keep Him warm. I wanted to see it again and kept tormenting Mammy to let me go to school and see it. In the end, the doctor said it wouldn’t do me any harm if Mr Delaney drove me and Mammy to the school and I wasn’t out much in the cold. We went in through the door, looked at the crib and we left straight away. I didn’t see my pals Úna, Kait, Brigid or Liam, only the table and the straw.

In the car Mr Delaney said, “Dervla, we’ll stop at the Royal Hotel for a Christmas drink.” He drove to the hotel on An Lár and parked the car in front of the hotel door, so I didn’t have to walk in the cold air. I stopped for a second to look at the bulbs of blue, red, green and yellow up in the sky. They were hanging on lines going from one side of the street to the other side near the hotel. I wanted to stay looking at them, wondering would a flying canister shoot across, like in the drapery shop, but Mr Delaney pushed me in through the hotel door.

He walked in front and we followed behind him to a room with a carpet all over the floor, spreading out until it hit the walls. We twisted in and out among round tables and chairs until we were standing in front of a low table near the windows. Mr Delaney pulled it out a bit and we sat in behind it on a long seat with cushions, the same colour as the curtains falling to the ground at the long windows. At the other side of the room, right in front of us there was a woman standing behind a short counter. She lifted a flap and came out and crossed the room to us.

“Howya, John? Great weather for this time of the year.”

“Tis indeed. We’ll never feel until Christmas is on us and we are plucking the turkey.”

“Never said a truer word. In less than a week, we’ll all be at Midnight Mass.”

“We will indeed.”

“The usual for yourself, John, and I suppose a glass of lemonade for this pretty little girl, and Mrs Blake, what will you have?”

“Mrs Blake will be having a glass of sherry and some of your trifle for the young lady, as well as the lemonade.”

She went off and after a while a man came carrying a tray and placed a small glass with a leg at the bottom in front of Mammy.

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