The Stories
“Searching. I walked through Temple Bar, along the quays, twice around the Black Church. I examined the Casino at Marino and the Obelisk on Killiney Hill. Paced the piers, scouted the Liberties. Looked in crepuscular pubs and disused railway stations. Stoneybatter, Clondalkin, Dolphin’s Barn became as familiar to me as Merrion and Belfield. Thus I got to know my city. And her, not at all. Of her, there was no sign. All the graffiti I saw was gray.”
“The priest droned on and Janet tuned out. She tried to think of Emma in the white coffin, dead. She tried to think of what it meant to be dead and found that she couldn’t. The priest talked about heaven, and she couldn’t think about that either. “
“It had been years since I danced, but if it meant less time talking to my cousin, then I was happy to shuffle around for a while. As I twirled, a man grabbed Maria by the waist. He struggled to keep the same pace as my cousin, whose dancing was quick, hypnotic.”
“Susan brought me another academic, a mop-headed goat with round wooden glasses that slipped down the hook of his nose and caught on his nostrils. I’d never seen such insipid glasses in my life, and I distrusted him at once. “
