25
On Wednesday morning, Lou walked Jack down to the harbour to meet Aidan and Bo for the boat tour. He chattered happily the whole way about seeing dolphins.
‘Bo saw an orca once!’
‘Really? That’s amazing.’ She was so happy he was getting to do this and she didn’t even have to be involved.
They saw Aidan and Bo on the quayside chatting to Abbie and walked down to join them.
‘You’ve got a great day for it,’ Lou said to Abbie, shielding her eyes from the sun.
‘Yeah. You sure you’re not tempted to come?’
‘No, I’m a total wuss about boats.’ Just the sight of the boats bobbing on the water was making her queasy.
‘Aw, that’s a pity.’
‘It’s a lot smaller than I was expecting,’ Lou said, nodding to Abbie’s boat.
‘Yeah, it’s smaller than most of the tour boats. But that means we can get closer and we’ll get to see loads more,’ Abbie said to Jack. ‘The dolphins much prefer my boat to those big ones – it’s friendlier. And I’m a great captain, aren’t I, Bo?’
‘Yes! She’s the best captain in Dingle,’ Bo told Lou.
‘I can vouch for that,’ Aidan said. ‘Don’t worry, Jack will be perfectly safe. We’ll take care of him.’
‘Oh, I’m sure you will. He’s really excited about it, aren’t you?’
Jack nodded, grinning.
‘There’s only us and four other people today. Oh, this’ll be the rest of them now,’ Abbie said, shielding her eyes as a couple and two children walked down the quay towards them.
‘Right, let’s get on board,’ Aidan said. ‘And we’ll see you later,’ he said to Lou. ‘Around one?’ They’d arranged to meet for lunch after the boat trip at a restaurant across from the harbour.
‘Great. See you then. Have fun!’ she called as Aidan shepherded Bo and Jack onto the boat. ‘Hope you see lots of dolphins.’
She stood on the quayside, watching as the boat pulled out into the bay, and waved at the three of them. Then she turned around and headed for home.
Much as she loved spending time with Jack, Lou was glad to have a few hours to herself to just potter. She called into the library on her way back to the cottage and borrowed a couple of books for herself and Jack. She usually found it hard to relax and just loaf and indulge herself, always having a niggling background feeling that she should be doing something productive. But she decided she was on holidays and could give herself a break. So when she got home, she made a cup of tea, put her feet up and just read for about an hour. Then she pulled out the box of Nora’s photos and spent the rest of the morning going through them, trying to find one she’dlike to frame. She really liked that idea of Sheena’s. She came across one of a christening, two men and two women standing around the font with the priest, with Noreen holding the baby. She peered at it more closely, intrigued. Noreen had been her father’s godmother… did that mean the baby in the picture was her father? Were those her grandparents? She put it aside with a few others she thought might be suitable for framing.
She turned to the box of letters then and started idly looking through them, pulling up short when she saw the name Bernie Rafter on the back of one of the envelopes, the return address in Marino on Dublin’s north side. Lou had never known her grandparents, but she knew this was where her father had grown up. This letter was from her grandmother! She upended the box, searching for every letter from Bernie Rafter and making a pile of them on the floor. Then she pulled one after another from their envelopes, reading her grandmother’s neat, loopy handwriting. There were birthday and Christmas cards and letters full of news and updates about Noreen’s godson Tom. Her breath caught when a photograph of him fell out of one of the cards and Lou gazed at in wonder, trying to see her father in this smiling, innocent boy, so full of potential. Her heart twisted to think of how he’d ended up, the cruel gap between this fresh-faced child and the wrecked, broken man he’d become.
Time slipped by as she sifted through the envelopes for more photographs, and she gasped when she glanced at her watch and saw that it was already time to meet Aidan and the children for lunch. She abandoned the letters where they were and raced out the door.
The restaurant across from the harbour was buzzing when she entered, but Aidan, Lou and Jack were already there, at a table by the window. ‘I already ordered for them,’ Aidan said, nodding to Jack and Bo, who were both eating sausage and chips. ‘They were starving. Hope that’s okay?’
‘Yeah, of course,’ Lou said as she took off her jacket.
She plopped into a seat opposite Aidan and picked up the menu. ‘So did you guys have a good time? Did you see lots of dolphins?’
‘It was so fun, Mum! We saw loads of dolphins. There was a whole pod of them!’
‘We saw two first,’ Bo told her, ‘and then we saw six all together.’
‘And we got really close and one swam along by the boat the whole time.’
They were babbling enthusiastically, talking over each other as Lou scanned the menu distractedly.
‘You have to order up at the counter,’ Aidan told her. ‘I waited for you, but I’m having the beef in Guinness pie.’
