Chapter 31
There was a splash. ‘Jules’s gone,’ said Ellie, as we turned and peered into the darkness, and there he was, his face appearing out of the water, his bare chest visible under the surface.
‘Who else is coming in?’
And then Ellie was wriggling out of her shorts and T-shirt and was running for the sea, disappearing into the darkness. Then we heard a splash. She emerged moments later, laughing. ‘Oh my God! It’s freezing!’
And then Henry was up, flicking off his flip-flops, dropping his shorts and ripping off his T-shirt and there was a splash as he too was gone.
‘Oh God,’ I said to Lucy. ‘We’re going to have to join them, aren’t we?’
‘I will if you will,’ said Lucy.
‘Do you want to? Because we could just stay here. Have some more whiskey?’
She was smiling. ‘I think we should,’ she said. ‘We could go in together!’
‘But I’m scared,’ I said. ‘Like, really scared. What’s down there? Monsters? Sea creatures who will drag us down to the bottom of the sea?’
‘Or maybe there are just beautiful things who want us to be happy,’ she said. ‘Maybe the universe is on our side. Maybe we are meant to joyful and free and we’ve both been trapped by things not in our control and we don’t know how to be happy any more.’
‘But…’ I stopped. ‘I can’t be happy because of Caitlin. It’s not fair.’
She nodded. ‘What would Caitlin want?’
‘She’d want me to be happy.’
‘Exactly. And I’ve been trapped because of what happened at the regatta last year. But look, we’re both still here. And don’t you think we owe it to the universe to make the most of this beautiful life we’ve been gifted?’
I nodded, slowly. ‘But does it have to involve swimming at night?’
Lucy grinned. ‘It seems as though it does.’ And she stood up, took off her fleece and then T-shirt and then shorts. ‘And you’re coming in with me.’
‘I was hoping we’d forget about the swimming,’ I said, as I slipped off my T-shirt and shorts.
Lucy grabbed my hand and we ran, in the light of the moon, straight into the sea, splashing through the shallows until she plunged in, and I followed, into the deep and dark, the world turning from known to unknown, from bright to dark and to everything I didn’t want to face.
When I surfaced, I looked up at the sky, glittering with stars and the orange flickering from the fire on the beach, and it all felt so simple.
I swam out to join the others, and there was no fear about what was below me.
Happiness was something I had felt guilty about, because of Caitlin.
But I would be doing her a disservice not to make as happy a life as possible.
And then I noticed the colours, the shimmering of lights in the sea, like watery Northern Lights.
‘Phosphorescence,’ said Lucy, and she held out her hand for me, and then Henry took my other one, and then all of us held hands in a circle, bobbing in the lights, marvelling at the world and the universe.
Cormac suggested a swimming race, where we all began in a line about twenty yards from the boats and then, on a count of three, we all had to power along.
And for a group of nice, well-brought-up and kind adults – who were so physically and psychologically far from the Boston corporate world I was used to – it became surprisingly competitive.
Jules was first to fall away, but it came down to a head to head between Ellie and Cormac, who both sliced through the water like Michael Phelps in the Rio Olympics.
Ellie was the first to touch the side of Maeve, and we all cheered and she pulled herself up onto the boat, her legs slithering out of the water like a goddess from a Hollywood film.
Cormac was close behind and the two of them shook hands before he raised her hand in victory.
‘All hail, to Sandycove’s night-time swimming champion,’ he said. ‘This is now an annual event. We all meet right here, same time, same place, for the rematch!’
But I won’t be here, I thought, despite how much I wished I could be.
Soon, I would be back in my old world, doing the same things.
Yes, maybe a few things would be different as I was sure I would retain something from this trip, but like all good experiences, they would fade and Ireland would be just a distant memory and I would be forever homesick for Sandycove.
I dipped the back of my head into the water, so my hair was soaked and my brain and any residual effects of a little too much alcohol were exorcised.
Henry was pulling himself onto the boat, his strong brown arms easily lifting out of the water, flicking around so he sat on the edge, his legs dangling down.
‘I’m setting him up with someone,’ Ellie went on. ‘He’s resisted my Cupid tendencies, but I think I have a talent for finding the right people.’
I turned back to her. ‘Oh yes?’
‘I mean, none of them have turned into anything permanent, but I’m quite hopeful with this one. He’s agreed to go on a date with her tomorrow.’
‘Tomorrow? That’s a bit soon, isn’t it?’
She laughed. ‘It’s been organised for ages. She’s been on a retreat and is only back today. She’s a woman I know from work. Very nice. Into sailing. Likes nerdy men. She runs yoga and meditation workshops. We did the publicity for her book.’
‘She’s a writer?’
‘Well, not really a writer. It was a book about fasting for days and days. I know, but she claimed it brings greater clarity and all that. Medically dubious, but it sold very well. People love that nonsense. She says in the book that if you don’t eat for a whole weekend, you have a better Monday.’
‘And did you take her advice?’
‘God no. I like food too much.’
‘And she’s perfect for Henry? I think he likes eating as well.’
‘Well, she’s single, so is he. We can’t let a good man go to waste, can we?’
‘No. I don’t suppose we can.’
Eventually, we went back onto the beach and dried ourselves by the fire.
Lucy pulled on her fleece, but my cardigan was, as she’d predicted, wholly inadequate and I was resigned to perhaps dying of rising damp like a Dickensian heroine, my dreams of happiness tarnished so thoroughly and so swiftly, when Henry tossed over his sweater.
‘Put this on,’ he said, his T-shirt clinging to his wet body.
‘But you need it,’ I began, as he shook his head.
‘You need it more.’
‘It’s one of Gran’s,’ said Lucy, sitting across from me. ‘She made it especially for Henry. All his favourite colours. She always says he looks good in blue, his eyes, apparently.’
‘You know what grandmothers are like,’ said Henry, holding up his hand to refuse me returning his sweater. ‘Always think their grandchildren have special qualities. What about you?’
‘Oh, I only have Granny Annie left. My mother’s mother. Her husband died when my mom was a baby so she brought her up alone. We used to stay with her for the summer vacation at her beach house. She’s very Irish and we’d have proper tea and soda bread.’
‘She’s Irish? Where’s she from?’
‘A place called Trá Beag. I’d love to find it on a map and go there, bring her with me if possible. And Johnny. We could make the pilgrimage together.’
‘My uncle, now this is going back a few generations, was deported for theft,’ said Jules, proudly.
‘He was sent off to Australia. He had five children, they were all starving, and he stole a bag of flour – we consider him to be the family success story – and was sent to Tasmania, worked his socks off, became mayor or something and sent for his family to join him. When I was in Oz a few years ago, I went to Hobart and found a whole load of O’Learys who all have our nose.
Anyway, they are all incredibly successful and well off, with swimming pools, year-round tans and amazing mullets.
’ He brushed his hand over his scalp. ‘God, they were all so good-looking, unlike us O’Learys stuck here.
I need to get myself deported for theft. ’
I put on the jumper, and it was warm and soft, and smelled of Henry with a top note of boat varnish.
There was another shriek, and Jules had grabbed Lucy’s ankles. Her hands were on the sand, her body lifted up. ‘Wheelbarrow race!’ shouted Jules.
Cormac and Ellie were already jumping up, ready to join them.
I hadn’t done a wheelbarrow race since elementary school, but I was on some kind of high from being in the sea and I never turned down an opportunity to compete. Ask my brother Johnny.
Henry looked at me. ‘How are your arm muscles?’
I flexed a bicep and he raised an eyebrow.
‘Impressive.’
‘How are yours?’
It was his turn to flex his biceps.
‘More impressive,’ I said.
He smiled at me. ‘Shall we?’
And so I held on to Henry’s ankles, as Ellie called out, ‘One, two, THREEEEE!’ And off we went, Henry’s hands pounding on the sand, me running behind him, the two of us suddenly helpless with laughter, but still determined to win.
We had lost Jules and Lucy some way back, and it was just us against Cormac and Ellie, and then they collapsed in a heap, and it was just me and Henry in the lead, still laughing, still running together in this most ridiculous way, until he collapsed, me falling straight into him, and there we lay for a moment or two, crying with laughter.
That yoga teacher had better deserve him.