Four Kids, Three Cats, Two Cows, One Witch (Maybe)

by Siobhán Parkinson

  Beverley and Kevin left the others to their packing and wandered along the sand-strewn tarmac in the direction of Kevin’s mother’s shop.

  ‘What did you mean by before, Kevin?’ Beverley asked.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Your dad. On the island you said he was a fisherman, but that was before. Before what?’

  ‘Oh, that before,’ said Kevin with a shrug. He didn’t say any more for a while. Then he looked out to sea, to Lady Island, lying innocently in the bay, and said, ‘Before he left. Before he went away. Before he emigrated, you could say.’ And he shrugged again and kicked a stone with the side of his foot.

  ‘You mean, he left you?’ said Beverley softly.

  ‘Yes, me, my mother, my brothers and sisters.’ Kevin didn’t look at her as he said this. ‘I mean, he sends us birthday cards and he comes to visit sometimes, but he’s got a new life now, beyond in England.’

  ‘That story about the mermaids,’ Beverley went on. ‘It was really your own story, then, just like Gerard said we all told our own stories?’

  ‘Sort of, I suppose so,’ said Kevin, kicking the stone again, this time more savagely. ‘We all told our own story, didn’t we?’

  ‘Mmm, yes, I think you’re right. Except Elizabeth. Not so much anyway. That story was for us all, wasn’t it?’

  ‘Yes, well, I suppose stories are like that, aren’t they? Wherever they come from, they’re for us all really, once you tell them.’

  ‘Once you tell them. Twice you don’t,’ said Beverley, cryptically.

  ‘Well, twice upon a time would never do, would it?’ said Kevin.

  ‘No, I suppose not,’ said Beverley, and she knew that three weeks ago she could never have had such a peculiar conversation, but that was before … before everything, well, just before.

  About the Author

  Siobhán Parkinson is one of the most highly acclaimed children’s writers in Ireland. She has won numerous awards and her books have been translated into several languages, including French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Danish. Siobhán lives in Dublin with her husband, Roger, a woodturner, and their son Matthew.

  OTHER BOOKS BY SIOBHÁN PARKINSON

  Amelia

  No Peace for Amelia

  Sisters … No Way!

  The Moon King

  Call of the Whales

  Kate

  For younger readers:

  The Leprechaun Who Wished He Wasn’t

  Copyright

  This eBook edition first published 2012 by The O’Brien Press Ltd,

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  First published 1997

  eBook ISBN: 978–1–84717–399–7

  Copyright for text © Siobhán Parkinson

  Copyright for editing, typesetting, layout, design © The O’Brien Press Ltd.

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  British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

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  Typesetting, editing, layout, design: The O’Brien Press Ltd