IT WAS THE SECOND anniversary of Rabbit’s death and, below a big blue sky the whole family, the lads from the bands, Vera Shaw and Karen Faye stood around Johnny Faye and Rabbit Hayes’s brand-new gravestone. The gravediggers had dug a small hole and covered it over with a piece of fake grass; Jack lifted it and placed the urn now filled with all of Rabbit’s ashes into the freshly dug earth. The family had come together the previous night to pour the contents of their heart-shaped boxes into the urn. Juliet wanted her mother kept together and all in one place. Father Frank stood with the family, Francie, Jay, Kev and Louis and they said a prayer for Johnny the believer and played a song on Davey’s phone for Rabbit the atheist. It was the song Johnny had written for her, and his voice rang out over their new joint gravestone, heralding their eternal love. On the gravestone was the black and white photo of Johnny sitting on the edge of the stage and Rabbit staring up at him from the sound desk below, eyes locked, slightly smiling, lost in their own time and world. It was a beautiful photograph, which encapsulated them and their story. Underneath the photo were Johnny’s words:

Dear God, if my end be suffering, open that door, let me fly in and when her time has come to land, dear God, allow me to grab her hand.

Followed by the words:

‘By Johnny Faye, written for the love of his life, Rabbit Hayes.’

Their birth and death dates lay underneath Johnny’s poem. Juliet was charmed. Rabbit was exactly where she was supposed to be, and when the deed was done, before anyone made a move to leave for the pub, Marjorie whispered, ‘Who loves ya, Rabbit Hayes?’

Molly squeezed her shoulder and said, ‘We do.’

About the Author

About the Author

ANNA MCPARTLIN is a novelist and scriptwriter from Dublin, who has written for TV serial dramas featured on BBC UK, RTE Ireland and A&E America. She has been writing adult fiction for over ten years, and also writes for children under the name Bannie McPartlin. She lives with her husband Donal and their four dogs.

@mcpartlin.anna

@annamcpartlin

A Note From the Author

If you enjoyed Below the Big Blue Sky – and I hope you did – if you are an Instagram user you can find me there, too.

This is me, @mcpartlin.anna

I can’t promise my posts will change or enhance your life in any way, but I’ll do my best to make you smile once in a while. #Trying

Yours,

A McP. X

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements