A Swift Pure Cry Read Online Free PDF

forlornly into another world, a world to which Mam had gone and the living could not follow.

Seven

    She fled to her own room, the one she shared with Jimmy and Trix on the far side of the kitchen. She shut the door behind her and stood against it, panting, regaining her breath. Her father didn't follow. There was no sound of him. After a moment she tore off the pink dress and hid it under her bed. She changed into her old dungaree jeans and T-shirt.
    She crept through the kitchen, into the hall. Dad's door was shut. Please God, he's gone to bed , she thought.
    She went out into the dusk to fetch in Trix and Jimmy. It was the time when the blackbirds stop singing and the bats come out.
    'Quick,' she called to Trix, who'd gone into hiding. 'Or the bats will land in your hair, and we'll have to chop it off to get them out again.'
    Trix screamed and ran from behind the dilapidated log shed. Jimmy blew up the bubblegum he'd saved from the morning. It burst.
    'They don't do that,' he said coolly. ''Cos they have sonic vision.'
    'Never you mind,' Shell said. 'Off to bed. Dad'll have the washing line down to you if he catches you still up.'
    They did as they were told and went to bed.
    The house went quiet, with no sound from Dad's room. She walked out into the back field. The bats skimmed up close. She stretched out her arms and fingers and made a high-pitched whine, hoping one might land. But the sonic vision worked too well and they wouldn't. The air was soft and smooth to the feel. The moon rose like half a silver coin from behind the mountains. She climbed the gate and crept around Duggans' new-ploughed field to the copse above. A barbed wire fence was around it, but she squeezed between the lower and upper rungs without getting caught.
    In the copse, the wild things of the night had started. A scuffle, then a flap. A zzzz, a rustle, a tap. A tree moaned like a rusty hinge. 'Jesus,' she intoned aloud. 'I am no angel. But hear my prayer. Please take my mad father to your holy bosom, even as you took my own dear mam. For his life is a torment to him and to all of us.' An owl hooted. Shell listened. It hooted again, nearer, then again, further off. She frowned, trying to catch its meaning. It hooted again, a little nearer. But however hard she strained to hear, the message escaped her. The wood grew quiet. A fifth hoot came from almost overhead. She jumped. Then she knew.
    Wa-ai-ai-t , the owl had said.
    Jesus was telling her to wait. So wait she would.

Eight

    The next day, Shell put on the winter uniform even though the sun shone.
    She got to school to find the place alive with maggots. All the girls had come in their shifts of shapeless green. They'd taken a leaf from her yesterday, while she'd switched back. She stuck out again like a sore thumb.
    Bridie was nowhere to be seen on the playground. Shell walked around the perimeter fence, her eyes half shut. She was with Jesus and the other Apostles, heading into Jerusalem. Crowds were gathering. Palm leaves were appearing. There was a bustle around her, a sense of growing expectation. Jesus turned to her and beckoned. 'Shell,' he said, smiling. 'Would you ever run ahead and fetch me a donkey?'
    Declan grabbed her by the ankle as she walked past his smoking post behind the hut. He sat there, hunched up on the ground like a gnome. He'd a new poem for her.
     
' Shell smells
    of flea balls
    on the dirt floor ,'
     
    he chanted.
    She smiled at him, thinking, Here, Lord, I have found you your donkey .
    He wouldn't let her ankle go. The road to Jerusalem dissolved from her head.
    'Sit down, Shell,' Declan coaxed. 'Sit here and have a drag of my fag.'
    She sat down. He inched up close and handed her the fag. She inhaled, then coughed.
    'These are wicked strong,' she said.
    'They're my gran's. I pinched some last night when she was over. They're high-tar, non-tipped. The ones with the sailor's face on the pack.'
    She took another drag. 'Jakes!' She gave it back. He took three long