The Last of Thursday in PB

(This represents the last piece for Thursday in Port Brokeferry. The next will take us into Friday. So this is a kind of summary piece with a fair number of snatched glimpses of some of the stories.)

MAD MARTIN TELLS ATHOL ABOUT WHAT HE SAW AT THE FAIR

I saw Dugald with Sharon at the fair. He shot three ducks with a rifle. It made a noise when a duck fell over. Like a bell was ringing. Dugald won a blue bear with a yellow ribbon round its neck, or he could have had a yellow bear with an orange ribbon. He chose the blue and gave it to Sharon. Dugald hadn’t shaved. His face was grey. Sharon called him McVey and she held tight to the blue bear.

I saw Kyle making eyes at a woman with blond hair. He was grinning. Like a Cheshire cat my mum would have said. Do you know my mum? She’s gone into the ground now. Like a cat that has got the cream is what she’d say about Kyle’s grinning. If she wasn’t asleep. What you grinning at Kyle Downs? The woman wasn’t grinning. She was busy taking money from the people sitting in the small cars. She had a leather bag over her shoulder and it was heavy with all the money that she had collected.

I saw Mhairi without her paints. She told me the picture would be finished by Sunday. I asked her how many days that would be and she laughed. She held up three fingers. I counted them to make sure. There was blue paint under her fingernails.

Guthrie was there too. He was with a woman who is new. I asked her if she had seen Col. She looked at me funny. ‘Col?’ she said. I thought she was going to say that she had seen him. I was sure she was. I felt a bit dizzy then. Like butterflies were in my head. Guthrie leaned forward and he spoke for her. He said that no she hadn’t seen Col. He said it kindly and patted my shoulder. I believed him.

And Grace went into one of the trailers. The one with the blue door. Red curtains at the window. I think it was Grace. She was wearing a yellow dress and white shoes. She looked pretty. Then I counted to fifteen. Slowly. And someone else went into the same trailer. The dogs knew him and they did not bark. I went near and a dog started barking at me. Its name was Max. I asked Max if he was cross. He just kept barking.

A woman dressed in black and with bangles on her wrists, so many I could not count them, she came over and told Max to be quiet. She sounded cross, but she wasn’t really. She told me I should go away. She knew my name. I did not know who she was. She said I was upsetting the dog. I did not see how that could be. We were friends.

Then you came and Magnus smiled at us and Lachlan Davie was drunk and pee’d against a wall. Did you see that? And the music was hurting my ears and Evelyn was waiting for Lachlan to finish. After that we walked together around the green. Just watching. I asked you if you had seen Col. You said you hadn’t seen him in a very long time. I could see in your eyes that you were telling no lie.

Then you brought me home. I could still hear the music playing. Even with the door shut and the curtains closed and the kettle making a humming noise when the water boiled. The music was very loud.