‘I don’t, no.’
She squinches her nose at me. ‘One moment,’ she says and tiptoes to the office door. She knocks very softly, then opens the door a crack.
‘God’s sake, Zara, I said no interruptions!’ Cathal yells.
‘There’s someone to see you.’
‘WHO?’
Zara turns to me.
‘Julie Quinn,’ I tell her.
‘Julie Quinn,’ she says through the door jamb.
‘Well, show her in,’ Cathal says under his breath.
Zara steps aside and ushers me into the small, draughty office. It’s done up in a fusty safari motif, skins and heads leering from the shadowed corners. Cathal pretends to be studying the rash of paperwork on his desk.
‘Julie, didn’t hear you come in. Just going over a few suits.’ He flashes me a catfish smile.
‘Any of them about St. Enda’s?’ I ask.
‘What? No,’ Cathal says, rising. ‘But everything’s grand. I was just about to call you. The registrar’s opened your file, and in a couple weeks the factory will be in your name. Oh, and the notary’s set to be released from the hospital tomorrow. He’ll be back to Inishmore Thursday and available at your first convenience. A few more forms, and you can offload the factory as you like.’
I sit down on the edge of a red leather wingback. ‘What if I don’t want to offload it?’
Cathal sits back down and makes a big show of lounging into his oversized exec’s chair. ‘Well. Since you’ve already committed to selling--you signed the contract--you’d have to give Mrs. O’Mahony her money back.’
‘Ten thousand euro?’
‘Actually, double. Indemnity,’ he shrugs. ‘Are you thinking of staying?’ he purrs.
A stuffed bison stares at the back of Cathal’s head. Its face is squashed on one side as if it’d been kicked.
‘Is that real?’
‘Fake. I’m no vet,’ he says through his nose, ‘but I’m all for animal rights.’ I shoot up and back toward the door. What am I doing here?
‘I’ve got to go,’ I blurt.
‘Do you want me to put in for a recession of sale?’
‘No. No. Don’t do anything. Forget I said anything.’ He pouts at me from his chair. ‘I’ll be in touch,’ I say and slip out.
As soon as I’m on the street, my phone rings.
Please don’t be Kate!
It’s a local number. ‘Hello?’
‘Julie? Julie?!’ The connection crackles hollow.
‘Aoife?’
‘Oh, thank Christ!’
‘What’s happened?’ I scurry to the top of the hill, juggling the phone from ear to ear.
‘It’s Bridie. She’s collapsed!’
‘She what?!’ I screech.
‘They’ve taken her to the hospital.’
I break into a jog. ‘Where is that?’
‘Last left, bottom of the hill,’ she says.
‘On my way.’
I scramble through the village, dodging tourists and children, all of them sucking at ice creams, and stumble into the emergency ward. I charge the admissions desk, choking for breath.
Please God let me not be too late.
‘I’m here for--’ I hold up a finger and suck in a deep breath.
‘Take your time,’ the nurse says.
‘Bridie,’ I heave. ‘Is she alright?’
‘Bridie who, love?’
I don’t know!
‘That’d be Bridie Sweeney,’ a second nurse says. ‘She’s just gone in.’
‘Is she alright?’ I ask.
‘I don’t know. She’s only just gone in. You can wait there.’ The nurse jerks her chin at a row of sticky looking vinyl chairs, ‘and we’ll let you know.’ I tap at the desk, impatient, heart-sore. ‘Just over there,’ the nurse says.
I drag my feet all the way to the first chair and sit down heavily. The constant coursing of starched coats and clipboards, gurneys and lost looking families set my skin crawling. I close my eyes and see myself in this exact chair but sixteen. My arm is in a sling, and I’ve an ugly scrape on my face. I’ve been waiting a very long time, but no one has come for me. No one…
‘Julie?’
Don’t tell me they’re gone. Not yet.
‘Julie!’
I open my eyes.
Michael reaches out to me, his face strained with worry. I press myself into his arms. ‘I’m sorry you had to be here. Alone,’ he says and kisses the top of my head.
‘I’m so glad you came,’ I whisper.
He pulls me closer. ‘Have the doctors said anything?’
‘No.’ I look down the hall at the ominous swinging doors of the OR. ‘I shouldn’t have left her alone,’ I cry.
‘Hey,’ Michael grabs my shoulders and looks into my eyes, then clasps me to him again.
I peek over his shoulder. ‘We’re the only ones who came,’ I sigh.
‘She doesn’t have any family. Never married. Sisters emigrated. You know the way,’ Michael says.
A youngish doctor makes his way to us, hands in his pockets. I take this as a good sign.
‘Michael, hiya. You here for Bridie?’
‘We are, yes,’ Michael says and shakes his hand.
‘Had a bit of a scare, but she’s fine now.’
‘What was it?’ I ask him.
‘Heart attack. Mild one. She’s stabilized now, giving us hell.’
I clutch at my heart. I want to thank him, but I can hardly breathe. Michael grabs my hand and squeezes it.
‘Can we see her?’ he asks.
‘Not just yet. She’ll be grand, I assure you.’
Michael and I walk arm in arm to the top of the village, spent with worry.
‘I don’t understand,’ I say. ‘She was fine a few hours ago…a bit peeved when Clare showed up with that builder.’
‘What?’
‘She wants to convert St. Enda’s into a mill. Wool, I’d guess.’
‘Bridie wouldn’t like that, alright,’ Michael says, rubbing at his head with the flat of his hand.
‘No.’ My phone buzzes in my back pocket, and I squint in the dull light at it. Kate. ‘Shit.’
‘What is it?’
‘I’m sorry, Michael. Two minutes.’ I pace away to the corner and pick up. ‘Kate, hey!’
‘Don’t “hey” me! What the F is going on?! The bank is closed? For what? Oh no no no, I get it. It was closed. Load and clear, Jules.’
‘No, it was closed! I swear!’
Kate huffs into the receiver. ‘Whatever. Honestly, I don’t even care. I just called to tell you straight up. We’ve lost priority on the office. Thanks for wiring your half.’
‘Wait, Kate--’
‘I don’t know what is going on with you, Julie, but I’ve just about had it,’ she says.
‘I can explain. Just give me a day or two.’
She sighs into the receiver. ‘I’ve got to go.’
‘No! Kate!’
She hangs up.
‘Everything alright?’ Michael asks.
‘Never better,’ I cringe and toss the phone into my bag. ‘I’ve got to go to the factory.’
‘Okay,’ he says, searching my face. ‘You want me to come with you?’
I do. But I don’t.
‘It’s alright,’ I say.
‘You’re sure?’
‘I’m sure.’
He smiles at me like he knows something I don’t. ‘I’ll be in Galway overnight. Call me if you need anything.’
‘Yeah.’
He hugs me to him and heads back down toward the pier.
When I get to St. Enda’s, the girls are huddled together, working at half pace and whispering to one another.
‘You’re sure Julie hasn’t called?’ I hear Aoife asking Assumpta.
‘Not a word.’
‘I can’t handle it!’ Emer wails.
‘It’s strange alright,’ Assumpta says.
‘Clare was here, and the next thing Bridie
’s on the floor--’
‘Clare was here? Again?’ I ask as I approach.
‘Julie!’ They all rally to my side. ‘How is she?’ Assumpta and Teresa ask in unison.
‘She’s fine,’ I tell them. ‘What’s this about Clare?’
‘She was looking for you. Bridie was in talking to her. Then she left…’ Emer says.
I shake my head. ‘No. No she couldn’t have had anything to do with--she couldn’t have.’
‘I don’t know,’ Aoife says, eyeballing Emer.
‘Bridie was white as a sheet when Clare left,’ Emer says.
Teresa pushes her way to the center of the circle. ‘Standing here, clucking about it isn’t going to make one bit of difference.’
‘She’s right,’ I say and steady myself. ‘We’ve got loads to do if we’re going to make our orders. Gossiping about Clare isn’t going to help us or Bridie!’
‘That’s right, that’s right,’ Orla says, on her toes at the back.
‘So where are we?’ I ask. ‘What kind of a timeline are we looking at?’
‘With Bridie gone and the refrigeration kicking in and out,’ Aoife sighs, ‘it’ll be two days at least.’
‘Two? Can’t we bring in a few extra workers? Temporarily?’ I ask.
Aoife folds her arms across her chest. ‘We’re barely making wages as it is!’
‘That’s right,’ Orla says.
‘Right, so this is make or break time, ladies. We don’t pull together and make this work tonight, there won’t be a St. Enda’s come Monday. We can do this!’
The girls pull in close, shoulder to shoulder, and I look to each and every one of them, heart in my hands. ‘There are more than a few people on this island who think I have no business here. They tell me I’m meddling in a world I can’t understand. But they’re wrong. I’ve learned more about love and sacrifice in the few days I’ve been on Inishmore than I could in a lifetime on Madison Avenue.’
Teresa snuffles, happy tears welling behind her Coke bottle glasses.
‘You’ve all treated me with such overwhelming kindness,’ I say, looking to each of them. ‘You’ve treated me like a sister. All of you.’ I swipe away a tear. ‘In the space of a week, you’ve become the family I never had.’
‘Lord, you’ve got me going now,’ Aoife says and rubs at her eyes.
‘I know we can do this. If we all pull together, we can do it,’ I say resolutely. ‘We’ll send a message to the rest of the island that we can stand on our own two feet! We get this last round of orders out, we’ll have enough money to repair the old cooling system. We’ll be able to carry on, like Josephine and Bridie would want us to. And even expand!’
The girls nod at me determinedly and march off to their stations. I stand in for Bridie and, with Emer’s help, dip the mature curds into molds, fifty per batch, and then wheel each stack to the curing room. Orla’s done a stellar job of rearranging the shelving so we can triple stack the molds. The hours fly and, by nightfall, the secondary cooler is jammed full! We are a third of the way to our target!
I run back to the factory floor and scoop out another round of curd, my hands aching at the wrists.
‘Has Orla still got the cart?’ Emer asks.
‘Yeah, but I can carry them, no problem,’ I say. She loads me down with ten more wheels, and I haul them in my arms down the hall. You would not believe how heavy fresh cheese is! And one of the wheels is trying its damndest to slip out through the gap at my elbow. I shift the stack, wobbling around the corner, and slam smack into Michael!
‘Where did you come out of?!’ I smile.
‘Heard you needed some help,’ he says and catches up the tottering wheels of cheese.
‘You have no idea,’ I pant.
‘Good, ’cause I brought reinforcements.’
‘You what?’ I blink.
Dermot, Cormac, and Ava appear at the far end of the hall. ‘Put us to work, missus,’ Dermot laughs.
‘You all--thank you,’ I beam at them. ‘Michael, if you could take these down to Orla, and Dermot, I can set you up with Aoife and Teresa. Cormac and Ava, you can help me box up the orders that are set and cured.’
‘Brilliant,’ Cormac says.
Ava steps back to take a sweeping video of the girls, shoulder to shoulder at the top of the factory floor. Michael sidles past me and I grab his arm. There are a million things I’d like to say to him, but all I can manage at the moment is a smile. He cups my chin in his hands and kisses me sweetly on the mouth. My knees buckle.
‘Right, let’s get to it!’ Aoife says, and everyone scatters.
‘Wait now, wait!’ a voice calls from the loading door.
‘Mary?’ I call out. She totters over to us, a humongous bag of sandwiches over her arm and four flasks of tea in her hands.
‘Ye can’t work on empty stomachs!’ she says.
‘You’re a Godsend, Mary,’ I smile at her, my heart swelling.
‘I was thinking the same about you,’ she winks.
Mary and I dole out the sambos and, after a quick break, we all scatter back to our stations.
‘Put your heads down now, ladies!’ Aoife calls out. ‘There’s Kieran!’
I run out to meet him at the loading bay. He and Fionn unload another ten thousand liters onto the factory store.
‘Thanks a million, Kieran,’ I say as I sign for the shipment. ‘Thanks for getting it to us on such short notice.’
‘Now. We island folk,’ he nods, ‘got to stick together.’ He smiles over my shoulder, the factory humming at full tilt behind me. Aoife skips over to us with a printout of the latest orders. ‘My God,’ he gasps. ‘It’s a miracle! Could ya do that for the co-op?’
‘Em…maybe,’ I smile.
He shakes my hand, and he and Fionn head back to town to call the big brass at Fressen and set out a new set of by-laws.
I make my way to the factory floor, where Aoife is calling off the latest orders to Ava and Cormac, and Emer is dumping a fresh haul of milk into the vats. As fast as we crank out the orders, new ones are coming in!
When the sun breaks over the sea, Cormac slaps the label onto the last of the first round orders. ‘This one’s going to Vegas. Vegas like!’ he gushes.
‘That’s deadly,’ Ava says. ‘Alice Cooper could totally be chawing on this tomorrow!’
‘Or Celine Dion,’ Cormac says, pointing his fingers like pistols.
I hear the bleeping of the courier truck as it backs into the loading bay.
‘One last push, guys,’ I call out. In a breath, all hands are on deck to clear the boxes into the truck.
Aoife shoves the last one onto the tailgate and then slumps down on the stoop. ‘I’m getting too old for this,’ she pants through a humongous smile.
Everyone slogs outside, back-patting one another, giddy with exhaustion.
‘We did it!’ Assumpta hoorahs.
Michael gives me a sweet kiss on the cheek. ‘And all thanks to this woman here,’ he says.
‘Well, I couldn’t have done it without my amazing team,’ I smile and plant a shy peck on his cheek.
‘That’s it?!’ he kids. ‘I’ve been up all night!’
I lay it on him, a big, deep, open-mouther, and the girls erupt in a titter of cheers.
‘You dirty bird,’ he laughs and hefts his knapsack over his shoulder. We walk side by side to his jeep. ‘I’ve got to run to Colm’s, check on the herd,’ he says. He has one hand in his pocket, one on the door handle, when he spins back round to me and grabs me by the waist. ‘Come to dinner tonight. At mine.’
‘With your parents?’ I reel.
‘You don’t have to answer right now,’ he smiles and kisses me on the forehead, then peels out of the factory drive.
‘We’re heading, Julie. See you tomorrow,’ Orla calls.
‘Thanks a mil, guys. Take the day off!’ I wave to them.
‘You should get some rest yourself,’ Assumpta says.
‘I’m going to see Bridie, tell her
how proud she should be of you,’ I say.
‘Say hello for us! We’ll be up to her later.’
I pick a handful of white hydrangeas on the way--Bridie’s favorite--and down a shot of weak coffee from the Arms. I should be completely wrecked, head throbbing and body sapped, like I was after every M&A all-nighter, but I’ve never felt lighter. I actually have to check the impulse to skip to the hospital.
Bridie’s propped up by a mound of pillows, ranting along to Fair City. ‘You’re only a bollix, Keith!’ she hollers.
‘You’re looking well, Bridie,’ I say and hug her about the neck.
‘Oh jayzus, Julie. I’m going mad in here is what,’ she laughs. ‘And aren’t those lovely! You’re very kind.’ She tosses the straw out of a styrofoam cup and sets the flowers on the bedside table.
‘You’re ready to go home, then?’
‘Sure there’s nothing wrong with me!’ she says. ‘Got a little overexcited is all.’
I sit down on the edge of the bed and level my eyes at Bridie.
She waves a hand dismissively. ‘Oh, don’t look at me like that! I’m fine. Twas only the heart of an old woman stuttering.’
Made With Love: I Love You Forever Page 23
