Working on the outline, so not up for posting...just sharing something I'd already written. This is Fall, 1968. Danny's a long-time friend of Brendan's, very troubled and running with a new crowd...
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As we left the city’s edge, the fog all but vanished. There was no moon out but it was still a bright enough night to see across the parcels of land and beyond the clumps of trees, and because the silence was cut only by the sound of our shoes on the road, it seemed as if we’d been taken to a new and amazing world of peace and tolerance. I don't know where it came from, but for the first time I got the urge to just keep walking till I could walk no more.
Finally, we cut down this road that curled around and up a hill, and after a bit I could make out a round shape at the top of it, to our right. There wasn’t a tree near it and the wind was brisk and bit at my cheeks. I had my Anorak on tight, then, but Danny was in just a jacket and seemed untouched by the chill.
“Is that it?” I asked, my voice sudden and sharp against the quiet.
“Yeah,” said Danny. “I think it was a fort, once. It’s got walkways going up, inside.”
“How long you been coming here?”
“A year.”
“Bloody hell, Danny, you keep your own counsel, don’t you?”
“I like being alone.”
“Then why’d you show it to your mates?”
“I didn’t,” he said with a sigh. “It’s not like it’s a secret. They found me there, one night. We hit it off.”
Then I heard an odd swishing sound and turned just as a Schwinn bicycle raced up the gravel road and whipped past us, its pilot laughing. Another boy was on the handlebars. A moment behind them was a Huffy Penguin, with a second lad seated on the rear of the banana seat. They stopped a bit ahead of us and jumped off their bikes, waving at Danny.
“Hey, Danny-boy, who’s the lad!” shouted the one who’d piloted the Penguin.
“It’s Brendan,” he called back. “I told you of him!”
They came down the hill a bit to meet us, one tall, two my height, one smaller than Maeve, all dark and slim and looking a lot like brothers. It was the same group who’d been chased by the peelers. Their clothes were flashy and neat, something I hadn’t noticed when they ran past, and their faces were all grins as the tall one grabbed my hand, saying, “So you’re the famous fix-anything lad.”
“Can you work on the gears on me bike? They rattle something awful,” said one my size, who was the darkest. The other one my size was fairer and freckled.
I shrugged and said, “Won’t know till I see it.”
“I’m Tommy,” said the tall one, “and this is Aiden.” He pointed to the one with the Schwinn then to his mate in size, who’d piloted the Huffy. “That’s Sean. And last is Brian.”
“Boru to yous,” said the smallest lad, whose pants were actually a few inches too short for him and whose boots made his feet look comical in size.
“And Saint Brendan to you,” said I, in return. "I've an uncle named Sean."
"Who doesn't?" Sean shot back.
They laughed and we cut through what I think was heather up the last of the hill to the fort. Whatever it was, it was thick and grabbed at my trousers.
“I think I know your brother, Eamonn,” Said Tommy. “He’s at Queen's, inn’t he?”
“First term,” I said, nodding, suddenly remembering what I’d seen in the window. “He -- he’s home, for the weekend. I -- I don’t recall you being around.”
“I met him on the march to Dungiven. He’s a passionate one. When things threatened to get hard between us and the RUC, he helped convince us to back down.”
“You should’ve torn those bloody peelers apart,” snapped Brian.
“Plenty of time for that.”
“Um -- Eamonn thinks O’Neill will work with us,” I said.
“Give the country over?” laughed Sean.
“That bastard, Paisley, wouldn’t let him,” said Aiden.
“Not after Antrim,” said Tommy.
“Were you there?” I asked.
“Torched one of the RUC’s tenders,” he said, proudly. “News crews snapped photos of it for the papers.”
“He’s got a bloody scrapbook,” said Brian.
“For history, me lad!”
We reached the base of the fort and circled around to a tiny opening covered with a grate. Tommy undid a couple of bolts and pulled it partway off, then held it aside as we scampered through this cave-like passageway to the middle of the circle.
Danny wasn’t kidding; it did used to be a fort, with stone steps leading up to three levels of walkways. The uppermost one was only a few feet under the top so it looked as if you could lean on its walls and look out over the whole of Ireland. It was only later I learned we were in Grianán Aileach.
Before I could say a word, Tommy’d slipped a stone away from the base of a wall to let Brian dive into it, and moments later, out popped a bottle of whiskey and a fat bag of tobacco. “Still here,” he said, happily.
Brian vanished back inside the hole and brought out another bottle and laughed, “Irish!”
“Have a care, lads,” said Danny. “If too much is gone, it’ll be noticed and then it’ll all vanish.”
“Danny,” I said, “this isn’t your stash?”
He shook his head.
Tommy finished taking a swig of the whiskey and offered us the bottle, saying, “Finders keepers, you know.”
Danny downed some then handed it to me. I didn’t want anyone to think I wasn’t as much a man as them, so I took a swallow...and near choked on the sudden sharpness of it.
Brian smirked at me. “Can’t hold his liquor.”
“I’m holding it fine,” I snapped back. “I just -- I don’t drink out of a bottle.”
Tommy winked at me and said, “You’ll learn.”
I noticed Aiden and Sean were busy rolling fags, so I took the moment to ask Danny, “What is this?”
He shrugged. “I was up here lying on the top circle, just looking at the stars, and some men snuck in. I kept hid and watched them pull that stone away. After they left, I looked into it. They’d hollowed out part of the wall and used it to hide things in. I guess it’s stuff they’re smuggling into Derry. Not paying taxes on it. Making a fortune.”
“But all this way, so far from everything. It doesn’t make sense.” I looked around the rocks, the whiskey building a nice warmth in my belly. “This place is kept up, Danny. Eventually someone’s gonna find that loose rock and brick it over.”
Danny shrugged in answer.
Brian fired up a fag and inhaled, but the didn’t exhale. Tommy did the same thing, after him, then he offered it to me. It didn’t smell like any cigarette I’d ever had, but I still took a puff and Tommy laughed at me.
“His first drink and his first smoke,” he chuckled.
“I’ve smoked before,” I said, irritated.
Danny took the fag, saying, “Like this, Bren.” Then he inhaled and held his breath ... and held it and held it until I thought he’d pass out before he exhaled and choked out, “Here,” as he handed it back to me.
I took the smoke in and held it as long as I could, handing the fag off to Tommy, who carted it over to Sean. When I finally let it explode from my lungs, I was starting to feel dizzy.
“It’s best to lie back, Bren,” said Danny. “Look at the stars. You’ll never see the like of them, again.”
I lay on the grass and gazed upwards, and he was right; suddenly, it was as if the heavens were fresh and new...bright, gleaming little diamonds captured in the black, black sky and so glorious brilliant. A billion of them, it must be. Then they moved...and I had to hold onto the earth as it spun.
“Christ, Danny,” I whispered, “what is this?”
“Something to make the world a better place,” he whispered back, and I’d say he was only half talking to me.
The bottle came my way, again, so I sat up and sipped more carefully, this time. It was a smoother sort of whiskey, more flavorful. I offered it up to Danny but he waved me off, opting instead for another drag on the fag. I giggled at the rhyme, and then couldn’t stop giggling.
Tommy sat beside me and took the bottle then offered me a fresh ciggie as he looked at the label.
“Bourbon,” he said as I inhaled. His tone became too-properly-British as he continued with, “A good Protestant drink, I’d say.”
“Naw, it’s Scotch that is,” snapped Brian.
“Don’t like Scotch,” said Aiden.
“Da says you have to build a taste for it,” added Sean. “But why? If you don’t like it to start off with, why make yourself drink it?”
“’Cause you’re an eejit,” laughed Tommy.
“Bloody right about that,” snapped an angry voice.
I jolted around to see -- it was Colm standing by the passageway, and he looked so angry I had to laugh, “Howya, Colm, come to join the party?”
-------
As we left the city’s edge, the fog all but vanished. There was no moon out but it was still a bright enough night to see across the parcels of land and beyond the clumps of trees, and because the silence was cut only by the sound of our shoes on the road, it seemed as if we’d been taken to a new and amazing world of peace and tolerance. I don't know where it came from, but for the first time I got the urge to just keep walking till I could walk no more.
Finally, we cut down this road that curled around and up a hill, and after a bit I could make out a round shape at the top of it, to our right. There wasn’t a tree near it and the wind was brisk and bit at my cheeks. I had my Anorak on tight, then, but Danny was in just a jacket and seemed untouched by the chill.
“Is that it?” I asked, my voice sudden and sharp against the quiet.
“Yeah,” said Danny. “I think it was a fort, once. It’s got walkways going up, inside.”
“How long you been coming here?”
“A year.”
“Bloody hell, Danny, you keep your own counsel, don’t you?”
“I like being alone.”
“Then why’d you show it to your mates?”
“I didn’t,” he said with a sigh. “It’s not like it’s a secret. They found me there, one night. We hit it off.”
Then I heard an odd swishing sound and turned just as a Schwinn bicycle raced up the gravel road and whipped past us, its pilot laughing. Another boy was on the handlebars. A moment behind them was a Huffy Penguin, with a second lad seated on the rear of the banana seat. They stopped a bit ahead of us and jumped off their bikes, waving at Danny.
“Hey, Danny-boy, who’s the lad!” shouted the one who’d piloted the Penguin.
“It’s Brendan,” he called back. “I told you of him!”
They came down the hill a bit to meet us, one tall, two my height, one smaller than Maeve, all dark and slim and looking a lot like brothers. It was the same group who’d been chased by the peelers. Their clothes were flashy and neat, something I hadn’t noticed when they ran past, and their faces were all grins as the tall one grabbed my hand, saying, “So you’re the famous fix-anything lad.”
“Can you work on the gears on me bike? They rattle something awful,” said one my size, who was the darkest. The other one my size was fairer and freckled.
I shrugged and said, “Won’t know till I see it.”
“I’m Tommy,” said the tall one, “and this is Aiden.” He pointed to the one with the Schwinn then to his mate in size, who’d piloted the Huffy. “That’s Sean. And last is Brian.”
“Boru to yous,” said the smallest lad, whose pants were actually a few inches too short for him and whose boots made his feet look comical in size.
“And Saint Brendan to you,” said I, in return. "I've an uncle named Sean."
"Who doesn't?" Sean shot back.
They laughed and we cut through what I think was heather up the last of the hill to the fort. Whatever it was, it was thick and grabbed at my trousers.
“I think I know your brother, Eamonn,” Said Tommy. “He’s at Queen's, inn’t he?”
“First term,” I said, nodding, suddenly remembering what I’d seen in the window. “He -- he’s home, for the weekend. I -- I don’t recall you being around.”
“I met him on the march to Dungiven. He’s a passionate one. When things threatened to get hard between us and the RUC, he helped convince us to back down.”
“You should’ve torn those bloody peelers apart,” snapped Brian.
“Plenty of time for that.”
“Um -- Eamonn thinks O’Neill will work with us,” I said.
“Give the country over?” laughed Sean.
“That bastard, Paisley, wouldn’t let him,” said Aiden.
“Not after Antrim,” said Tommy.
“Were you there?” I asked.
“Torched one of the RUC’s tenders,” he said, proudly. “News crews snapped photos of it for the papers.”
“He’s got a bloody scrapbook,” said Brian.
“For history, me lad!”
We reached the base of the fort and circled around to a tiny opening covered with a grate. Tommy undid a couple of bolts and pulled it partway off, then held it aside as we scampered through this cave-like passageway to the middle of the circle.
Danny wasn’t kidding; it did used to be a fort, with stone steps leading up to three levels of walkways. The uppermost one was only a few feet under the top so it looked as if you could lean on its walls and look out over the whole of Ireland. It was only later I learned we were in Grianán Aileach.
Before I could say a word, Tommy’d slipped a stone away from the base of a wall to let Brian dive into it, and moments later, out popped a bottle of whiskey and a fat bag of tobacco. “Still here,” he said, happily.
Brian vanished back inside the hole and brought out another bottle and laughed, “Irish!”
“Have a care, lads,” said Danny. “If too much is gone, it’ll be noticed and then it’ll all vanish.”
“Danny,” I said, “this isn’t your stash?”
He shook his head.
Tommy finished taking a swig of the whiskey and offered us the bottle, saying, “Finders keepers, you know.”
Danny downed some then handed it to me. I didn’t want anyone to think I wasn’t as much a man as them, so I took a swallow...and near choked on the sudden sharpness of it.
Brian smirked at me. “Can’t hold his liquor.”
“I’m holding it fine,” I snapped back. “I just -- I don’t drink out of a bottle.”
Tommy winked at me and said, “You’ll learn.”
I noticed Aiden and Sean were busy rolling fags, so I took the moment to ask Danny, “What is this?”
He shrugged. “I was up here lying on the top circle, just looking at the stars, and some men snuck in. I kept hid and watched them pull that stone away. After they left, I looked into it. They’d hollowed out part of the wall and used it to hide things in. I guess it’s stuff they’re smuggling into Derry. Not paying taxes on it. Making a fortune.”
“But all this way, so far from everything. It doesn’t make sense.” I looked around the rocks, the whiskey building a nice warmth in my belly. “This place is kept up, Danny. Eventually someone’s gonna find that loose rock and brick it over.”
Danny shrugged in answer.
Brian fired up a fag and inhaled, but the didn’t exhale. Tommy did the same thing, after him, then he offered it to me. It didn’t smell like any cigarette I’d ever had, but I still took a puff and Tommy laughed at me.
“His first drink and his first smoke,” he chuckled.
“I’ve smoked before,” I said, irritated.
Danny took the fag, saying, “Like this, Bren.” Then he inhaled and held his breath ... and held it and held it until I thought he’d pass out before he exhaled and choked out, “Here,” as he handed it back to me.
I took the smoke in and held it as long as I could, handing the fag off to Tommy, who carted it over to Sean. When I finally let it explode from my lungs, I was starting to feel dizzy.
“It’s best to lie back, Bren,” said Danny. “Look at the stars. You’ll never see the like of them, again.”
I lay on the grass and gazed upwards, and he was right; suddenly, it was as if the heavens were fresh and new...bright, gleaming little diamonds captured in the black, black sky and so glorious brilliant. A billion of them, it must be. Then they moved...and I had to hold onto the earth as it spun.
“Christ, Danny,” I whispered, “what is this?”
“Something to make the world a better place,” he whispered back, and I’d say he was only half talking to me.
The bottle came my way, again, so I sat up and sipped more carefully, this time. It was a smoother sort of whiskey, more flavorful. I offered it up to Danny but he waved me off, opting instead for another drag on the fag. I giggled at the rhyme, and then couldn’t stop giggling.
Tommy sat beside me and took the bottle then offered me a fresh ciggie as he looked at the label.
“Bourbon,” he said as I inhaled. His tone became too-properly-British as he continued with, “A good Protestant drink, I’d say.”
“Naw, it’s Scotch that is,” snapped Brian.
“Don’t like Scotch,” said Aiden.
“Da says you have to build a taste for it,” added Sean. “But why? If you don’t like it to start off with, why make yourself drink it?”
“’Cause you’re an eejit,” laughed Tommy.
“Bloody right about that,” snapped an angry voice.
I jolted around to see -- it was Colm standing by the passageway, and he looked so angry I had to laugh, “Howya, Colm, come to join the party?”
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