‘Who is it?’

‘It’s me, Cormac.’

‘What do you want? Go back to your room, or we’ll be sent home.’

‘Harry please open the door. I’m really scared.’

And this was the point when Harry Crossan became Cormac O’ Reilly’s best friend in the world.

Harry opened the door and let him in. He said Cormac could sleep on his bed and he would sleep on the floor. He said anyone would have been scared in that room. He said he would never tell anyone, especially not Liam, that Cormac had been crying.

He never told.

‘Are you awake, Harry?’

‘Harry?’

‘Yes, I’m awake.’

Harry sat up on and placed his pillow behind his head.

‘How could I not be awake? Rip Van Fucking Winkle couldn’t sleep in the same room as you! I’ve been awake since you switched the fucking light on! And I was awake about 2 o’clock when your pillow hit the TV and nearly knocked the lamp over! Cormac, it’s half-four in the morning. Switch the fucking lamp off, would you?’

‘I’m sorry, it’s just my mind has been racing since we saw Bernadette. She looked beautiful, didn’t she?’

‘She’s looked beautiful for the last twenty years. So it wasn’t exactly a surprise to me.’

‘She was pretty angry, though.’

‘Yeah, Cormac, I think it is safe to say she was angry, alright.’

‘How long has she been married to the English professor?’

Harry got up to go to the bathroom.

‘How do you know he’s an English professor?

‘Is he?’

Harry shouted from the bathroom.

‘Yeah, he has a chair at Trinity.’

Cormac congratulated himself.

‘How long has she been married?’

‘About five years, I think?’

‘Is she happy?

Harry climbed back into his bed and pulled the covers over his head. Cormac flicked his lamp off.

‘Jesus, Cormac! I don’t know if she’s happy or not. I couldn’t even tell my own wife wasn’t happy!’

‘Why did you bring me to see her?’

‘Because you’re my friend and I thought you would want to. Maybe I thought you two still had something to say to each other. I don’t know.’

Cormac lay down on his uncomfortable bed.

‘Do you think she will come tomorrow?’

‘I think it is highly unlikely, my friend.’

‘Do you mind if I go, just in case?

‘I would expect nothing less.’

‘What about Annie and Claire?’

‘I’ll look after them.’

Cormac felt a sudden need to sleep. He turned on his side to face the window, where the first light of the morning was framing the curtains.

‘Thanks for Jordanstown, Harry.’

He didn’t answer.

The flicker of hope for the coming day and the comfort of Harry’s gentle snoring rocked him to sleep.

17

The pain in his neck ensured he woke early. The four pints of Guinness meant the first minutes of his morning would be a battle between his trainers and his need for breakfast. Despite the noisy pleadings of his stomach, he grabbed his tracksuit from the case and pulled his trainers on. He shut the door gently on his way out and made his way along the corridor. He turned left to the lifts that would take him into the brisk Dublin morning, where a steady forty minutes would set him up nicely for the day.