The Girl From Yesterday

Midden Development’s plans to build a shopping complex on the Blaney land never materialized. The legal machinations dragged on for several years, but finally the company threw their collective hands in the air, and were never heard from in the area again. At the time of writing, someone has begun grazing cattle on those wild fields again. I’d give a penny to a pound those cattle belong to Gerry.

As we lay watching the sky I remembered her earlier comment: ‘You said the genie didn’t come right away?’

Robert Chaplin has not, as of yet, published his book on the Blaneys. Robert tells me that Gerry is continuing to keep things interesting around Garshaigh, wheeling and dealing and generally getting up to all kinds of mischief. Gerry is also a regular visitor to Dora and the children, and seems to have developed a fondness for them all. In some ways, I suppose, that is a happy ending.

‘No. I din’ see him until they was carryin’ me off.’
‘But you saw him then?’
‘One of de men had me over his shoulder so I was lookin’ back, away from him. I seen a little man, dressed all in mad colours. He had sticky-up hair and a thick forehead. He was standin’ in the door to our hideout and he was smilin’ at me and he said to me that I had my wish, and not to be afraid. It would be all right. And you know what?’
‘What?’ I said, feeling the words catch in my throat.
‘I knew he was tellin’ me the truth.’
She fumbled about and found my hand and held it.
And we lay and watched clouds until the sun set.

‘Know what I’d like to do?’
‘What?’
‘I’d like to play Cloud Shapes.’
For some reason, I felt tears come to my eyes at that.
‘I’d like that too,’ I said.
We went out into the sunshine.

‘But they won’t be successful.’
‘No. Not on that land. Far too much history on a tract of countryside that really hasn’t been changed – well, ever.’
I looked at the order and shook my head.
‘You are some piece of work, Gerry Blaney,’ I said.
‘Thank you,’ he said, standing up.

‘You look out for yourself,’ he said. ‘And I’d appreciate it if you kept an eye on my nieces and nephews.’
‘Or you could look in on them yourself once in a while,’ I suggested.
He smiled, a more pleasant expression this time.
‘Maybe,’ he said, and left me.

a relationship with their mother slowly but surely. They are a really wonderful bunch of children.’
‘Dora’s not such a bad skin either, if you give her a chance,’ Gerry said.
I looked at him.
‘What is the deal between you and her?’
‘The deal? Whatever do you mean?’
‘You know what I mean, Gerry.’
‘Would you believe me if I said I felt sorry for her?’
I almost choked on my coffee.
‘I would find that very hard to believe,’ I said.
‘Why so?’
‘It does not fit what I know of your character.’
Gerry grinned.

He made a ‘little bit of this, little bit of that’ wobble with his hand.
‘I never said that.’
‘Well, it worked out well from my end, anyway,’ I said, ‘if you ignore the threatened beatings, the near sackings from my teaching post and the added trauma for the children. Goddam it Gerry, what the fuck was going through your mind?’
‘I regret some of those things,’ he said.
‘Some of them?’
He took a piece of paper from his inside pocket and handed it to me.
‘That’s a copy, you can keep it,’

‘I couldn’t have done it without you,’ she said, sitting back down and rubbing her eyes.
‘I think you were ready to do the work,’ I said. ‘I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.’