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Back Trespasses Save as PDF
Chapters (44)
  1. COVER
  2. HALF-TITLE PAGE
  3. BY THE SAME AUTHOR
  4. DEDICATION PAGE
  5. TITLE PAGE
  6. 2015
  7. THE IRISH FOR NO
  8. 1
  9. 2
  10. 3
  11. 4
  12. 5
  13. 6
  14. DÚIL
  15. 7
  16. 8
  17. 9
  18. 10
  19. 11
  20. 12
  21. CHIAROSCURO
  22. 13
  23. 14
  24. 15
  25. 16
  26. 17
  27. 18
  28. IN CALVARY’S FLOW
  29. 19
  30. 20
  31. 21
  32. 22
  33. 23
  34. 24
  35. WHEN I MOVE TO THE SKY
  36. 25
  37. 26
  38. 27
  39. 28
  40. 29
  41. 30
  42. 2015
  43. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  44. A NOTE ON THE AUTHOR

Will you stop bloody talking about them? said Cushla. She left the room and went through the kitchen to the back garden. The baby plants Mr Reid had given her were still on the windowsill. She carried them halfway down the lawn to where the daffodils were rotting back into the soil. She knelt and dug holes with her fingers, placing a seedling in each cavity, pressing the earth between them with her palms. Inside again, she stood at the sink and took a nail brush to her hands. She looked out the window. It was as though she hadn’t planted anything at all.

23

23

A twenty-two-year-old man was shot dead in an ongoing feud between the INLA and the Official IRA.

The sixteen-year-old who was shot in the neck and chest on his way home from visiting a friend in the north of the city at the weekend has died from his wounds.

Zoe left on Saturday, said Lucia, looking dolefully at the empty seat beside her.

You could drop her a line, said Cushla. We have an hour to put in before Sports Day starts. I’ll show you how to write a letter.

Can we write to Jimmy Savile? said Jonathan.

What in God’s name would you be writing to him for? said Cushla.

Jonathan said Jimmy had a new programme on television, where he made children’s dreams come true.

OK, she said. I suppose it would be good practice.

She went to the board and wrote an address in the top right-hand corner.

Thirty-two Windsor Gardens, said Lucia. That’s Paddington’s address!

She told them how to begin a letter, with polite enquiries about the addressee. How to lay out the paragraphs, how to sign off. The children began writing; opening her journal, so did Cushla.

Dear Jimmy

I hope you are keeping well. Things are fine here. The school holidays begin in a few days and I will be off work for two months. I had intended to spend the summer slinking round Michael Agnew’s flat, making myself irresistible to him so he’d leave his wife. Only his wife is a lady, they appear to be happily married and he is a lying, cheating philandering fucker.

Yours sincerely

Cushla Lavery (aged 24¾)