The Ladies' Midnight Swimming Club(75)

Eventually, rubbing her eyes, the nun turned to Dan. ‘The truth is… if it’s not too politically incorrect to say it, I’d remember you if I was without a single other memory. You see, Dan, you were the only baby we’d ever had at the orphanage who wasn’t as white as new boiled potatoes. Your beautiful golden skin set you apart, so there’s only one person who could be your mother – and that’s Elizabeth O’Shea.’





34


Lucy


The weeks that followed rolled into each other much too quickly. Summer holidays had never slipped so deliciously or slyly by. Lucy snatched hours away from the surgery when she could in July and August, ostensibly so they could spend time together before Niall headed off for Australia, but mostly they just sat at the end of her mother’s bed, talking of things that happened over the years, mainly because they all knew that those hours would never be played over again. Since the charity swim her mother seemed to have lost all of her vitality. Now, she stayed in bed all the time and even drinking the energy smoothies Niall made took so much out of her that they took turns holding the straw to her lips.

The past couple of years, which should have been happy for all of them, had worn them down and now, in the time that was left, it seemed that their relationship had taken on fresh new warmth as if to crash together as much as they could before Lucy was left alone in Ballycove.

‘How will it work? When I go… you’re moving back here full-time, will you…?’ Niall asked one afternoon.

‘I’ll sell the house in Dublin. I have no interest in keeping it on. It’ll be money in the bank now that I’ve bought the practice with my savings, and I’ll be a confirmed country GP.’ Lucy smiled.

‘You… you should buy Elizabeth’s house,’ her mother whispered softly. ‘Let her have this place. It would set you both free to start afresh.’

‘Oh, Mum, I don’t know…’

‘It sounds perfect to me,’ Niall said. ‘You’d be living right next to the practice and it’d be a great project to take on. You’d love it, Mum.’

‘Think about it,’ her mother whispered before closing her eyes. ‘I’d like to know that everything is settled, before I…’

‘I promise, I will.’ Lucy bent forward and kissed her gently. ‘I’ll have a chat with Elizabeth, see what she thinks.’

‘Good.’ Her mother sighed with a satisfied quiver of her lips –the merest of smiles.

‘You know I kind of envy you all, here,’ Niall said softly.

‘No, you don’t.’ Lucy smiled. ‘We’ll be facing force-nine winds in winter while you’re basking in the hot sun.’

‘With my red hair and white skin?’

‘Okay, wear plenty of sun cream.’ Lucy laughed and then she looked at him. ‘You’re going to love it. I only hope you’ll want to come back for holidays and all that.’

‘Sure, if you’ll have me.’ That was it, really – Niall clearly wasn’t so sure that there would be a place for him. Perhaps he was already sensing that his move to Australia would put more than miles between them. Lucy’s life would take on a new unfamiliar shape of which he would no longer be a part. When Lucy thought about it, her biggest fear was that he might feel he didn’t fit properly anywhere anymore.

‘Of course we’ll have you,’ Lucy whispered, then she picked an imaginary piece of fluff from his grandmother’s cardigan. ‘Well, as often as you’ll come home and of course, your father will probably have plans for most holidays so…’

‘Probably. I’m sure he will,’ Niall said softly.

And that’s what it would be, one long trip, of staying in places that were not home. Niall looked out the window in silence, lost in thoughts that seemed to pull him in two. Six months ago, he’d have been packing his bags the minute his father agreed to have him. But now, over the last few weeks, his mother could see a new life was beginning to open up for him here in Ballycove. He had friends and a place he was beginning to call home. Was he already seeing the green of those far-off fields was not all emeralds? Perhaps. Lucy hoped he’d realise what he was leaving before it was too late.

She had a feeling he’d miss more than just the countryside and Ballycove. He’d miss his family, his mother and, yes, he’d miss his grandmother, but then, he’d miss her anyway, although perhaps he’d miss her even more on the other side of the world. He’d miss Dan who had taken Niall under his wing in a way that had meant so much to Lucy. Then there was Zoe too and the large group of friends he was so recently beginning to make. The truth was, he had gotten to know more people over the last few weeks than he had in all the time he’d been coming here and he liked them, Lucy knew. He was finally fitting in.

‘Mum, say if I didn’t go…’

‘If you didn’t go?’ Lucy turned to look at him now.

‘Yes, say I decided to stay here, in Ballycove, with you and go to the local school and we lived in the house on the hill – our house, a new start for both of us…’

‘I suppose… your father would be very upset.’ She looked out into the garden for a second. ‘Are you saying you’d like to stay here after all?’