1982 / 1994 / 2002 / 2020

Barbara West met Harold Morris in the late 70′s when they were both teenagers. Barbara was a loud, brash Irish girl and Harold was a wealthy but friendly Jamaican boy, who’d just moved to Ireland with his parents who had bought a bed and breakfast. The two somehow ended up together despite their differing personalities and got married in their early 20′s.

They went on to have a girl named Gemma in 1985. Gemma is one smart cookie and went through a bit of a scene girl stage in her teenage years. At the age of 35, she is now a primary school teacher and is married with two kids of her own.

Barbara and Harold’s youngest, Jamie, was always a bit of a loner. He never liked the bed and breakfast life on account of the many guests that came and went. He was born in 1994, and is now 26 and living by himself in a little cottage and works part time at the local supermarket.

E P I L O G U E   -   C o s á i n   s i ó g a 

The boy was sitting on a bench, watching life pass with frustrating nonchalance. People walked by, waving at each other, talking about the weather, watching kids play on the moor. Nobody spared him a glance as he stood up, heading down toward the beach.

Nobody noticed Órlaith Hannigan missing. It will take a while until somebody ventures into her little cottage, notices the spiderwebs stretching along the entrance and decides to call the Garda. They will come and they won’t find a trace of her inside, no trace but a few objects scattered in the dust. Cassidy will tell them he had expected this sooner. She probably walked into the sea and drowned. Poor soul. She had that coming. Nobody can live with the murder of their own blood on their conscience. They are going to pack her things up and give the key to a real estate person from Dublin. The house is going to be sold to an English couple and be abandoned until the next summer. A few rats will find their way in and set up camp in the library, right on the spot where Órlaith kept her most precious fairy-tale books.

And the life goes by and nobody notices.

He passed the boy next, holding hands with a pretty girl. She wore a yellow ribbon in her hair and with a pang he realised it was the same girl he and Brian took home one stormy night after the faeries tried to pull her to their world. She smiled and the boy blushed and looked away, his gaze barely brushing the shadow passing him. Still the shadow turned, still it tried to hide its face from him before they disappeared in the fog and left him alone again, kicking pebbles on his way.

The man was waiting by the road when he arrived, looking pale and crestfallen. Putting boxes into the trunk, he huffed when he spotted Padrick creeping at his side. ‘Ready to go?’ he asked.

Padrick nodded, watching him proceed in silence. When he finally spoke his voice was so quiet it was surprising the man heard it at all. ‘Nobody will ever know, will they? Even if they find her body they will just think she finally broke down and jumped. Nobody will know she saved them.’

Brian looked up at him, dark eyes sad. ‘You know. And I know.’

‘And what good does that do to her? I don’t exist and you? Nobody would ever believe a single word you say, Sasanach,’ snarled Padrick, crossing his arms over his chest. ‘She sacrificed herself for people who hate her and they didn’t even notice she is gone.’

‘I know it’s hard for you, but you can’t think of it like that. Órlaith was… she needed this. She needed to help you and the other kids. It was her way of making amends,’ he explained, opening the driver’s door.

‘But she did nothing wrong. She didn’t need to be absolved,’ muttered the boy, kicking gravel with his shoes. He was angry, angry and sad, knowing she died to be forgotten, hardly more than a few dusty books left behind. ‘And she had you.’

‘Not everybody can be saved, kid,’ whispered Brian, looking back at the lighthouse. The sigh alone send chills to his bones. ‘Now come on. We have places to go.’

Padrick didn’t argue. With one last glance at the place he called his home he got inside and banged the door shut behind Fanore. He snatched the map off the windshield and pointed at a big red dot way off the east shore. ‘Here.’

Brian leaned down to look into his map, nodding. ‘Good. Care to tell me what do we find once we get there? Aside from a strong magical presence that is.’

Padrick looked up at him with a small shrug. ‘If you can believe the internet a detective agency.’

‘And you sense magic there how?’

‘I don’t know. But then, maybe detective Faye O’Donnel can tells us.’

The End

"Weather in March..."

"Sweeping view"