KERRY’S FREE PASS
The afternoon was no better than the morning, the sea all whipped up and the sky smudged grey. Nevertheless, Kerry took herself down to the harbour and ‘The Silver Herring’ with its sign saying there’d be no sailings today on account of the weather.
‘Have you seen Col? Have you seen him today?’
Mad Martin was pretending to be one of the stone fishermen, his hand to his brow flat like a salute, shading his eyes as though it was sunny or bright and looking out to sea.
Kerry shook her head and said that she was sorry but she had not seen Col.
‘There’s no sailings today, Kerry. That’s what Finn says. No sailings. Finn is brave but the passengers would not pay to be sick.’
Kerry thanked Mad Martin and made her way towards the boat and its rising and falling walkway. Bran was there polishing the brass fittings. It was one of the jobs that needed doing since the boat could not go out. He stopped what he was about when he saw Kerry, and he took her outstretched hand to help bring her aboard.
‘No sailings today,’ he said. ‘Seals will have to manage without us for once.’
Kerry smiled at him. ‘Yes, Bran, they will,’ she said.
‘Is it Edwin you’re after?’ Bran said. ‘He’s down in the engine room. Something about shafts and pins and oil. I’ll take you down if you like.’
Kerry pushed her windblown hair back from her face. ‘Thank you, Bran, but I know where the engine room is. I’ll not keep you from making ‘The Silver Herring’ shine again.’
Edwin was black like the day when she found him stripped to his vest and smeared with oily fingermarks on his arms and his face. The only thing bright about him was his smile and even that slipped a little when he saw it was Kerry.
‘Sorry about your Ward,’ he said. ‘Helen told me. I knew something was up, you not being with us to visit the seals several days in a row. That’s what I said to Helen, something’s up. But I never reckoned on that. I’m sorry, Kerry, for the loss I mean.’
Kerry did not nod or smile or speak. Not for several minutes. Like they were observing a respectful silence on account of Ward’s passing. Edwin, too, kept his peace, waiting for her to say why she was there.
The boat, even in the shelter of the harbour, moved awkwardly about them, the floor seeming to ripple, the walls titling towards them and then away from them again, a little.
‘That’s what brings me here really, Edwin. Only things will be different now that he’s gone from this world. Not so easy for me as it has been. All he had and all that he was belongs to someone else. So I am after looking for some work. Just to pay my way, you understand, the small bills that look bigger and bigger when there’s no money coming in. And I was thinking then about what I could do. And I thought maybe there was some help I could be here on ‘The Silver Herring’.
Edwin sucked in air, his lips pursed like he was drinking through a straw. Times were hard and he’d taken on Bran when he could least afford it. He scratched at his head like it was a real puzzle that Kerry had set him.
‘To be honest, there’s not much money in boat trips these days, not unless the sun makes a summer for us. Not much at all. And next to nothing when the season is over. I can’t see that I could give you much to do, Kerry.’
She said she understood.
Then a thought occurred to him, appearing out of nowhere it seemed, appearing as thoughts can do, suddenly and a surprise to Edwin. Magnus had been at him again about his books. Receipts needed filing and figures written down and made to balance. He said to Magnus that he’d get round to it, but truth was he was not much one for paperwork.
‘The books need seeing to,’ he said. ‘Wouldn’t pay enough to feed a pup, but if it might help? And I can throw in a free pass for trips out to The Snag, a whole year of free trips, seeing as how you have been such a regular of mine. The work’s mostly filing and making figures add up. Magnus at the bank does the final balancing. When that’s done we can see how things are. Just if you like.’
‘Have you seen Col, today?’ Mad Martin called to her as she walked away from the harbour. ‘Have you seen him?’
Kerry waved and laughed, and her laughter was blown ahead of her into the street.
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