Eden Burning Read Online Free PDF Page B

the historic nature of this opening and closing of a shutter, this explosion of light snatching and preserving a moment in time.
    There was a second colour photograph in a shell frame. Paddy stood side by side with a smiling girl, with long brown hair, a psychedelic swirling print T-shirt and bell bottom Levi jeans. Paddy had short dark hair, a broad square face, almondshaped eyes with long dark eyelashes, a relaxed hypnotic smile – one of those smiles which when you met him face to face, seemed to take a long time to ebb into place. You found yourself falling into a deep state of peace as the smile spread across his face. Paddy held a cigarette in his right hand and squeezed the fourth finger on Molly’s hand with his left. He planned to marry Molly.
    The night before Molly’s thirtieth birthday on Friday 25th November 1971, they danced together in Ardoyne Hall to The Wandering Cowboys singing Frank Sinatra’s ‘And then I go and spoil it all by saying something stupid, like I love you’. Paddy stumbled over the Fox Trot and the Quick Step but when he held Molly for a Viennese Waltz, he moved with her like two waves in love on the sea.
    Paddy took Molly’s right hand as they sat together, the smoke settling into a comforting blanket around them, the lights dim against a gentle hum of voices.
    “Molly, your hand is empty. We’ll have to sort that out.”
    Molly smiled at him with her hazel green eyes. “What have you got in mind Mr Paddy? Are you going to get me a pair of woolly gloves for my birthday then? They’re freezing”.
    She held his right hand. Paddy felt the silky softness of her finger tips send shivers of joy right down to his toes. Paddy leant forward, to kiss her softly on the lips. With his eyes closed, Paddy felt the boundary of his lips meeting the boundary of Molly. A fizzy champagne sweetness spreads through him, leaving him not knowing where he ends and Molly begins. For a few seconds Paddy and Molly disappeared into the kiss, into the emptiness, into the place where there is no Paddy and no Molly. He opened his eyes as the Wandering Cowboys took a break and Frank Sinatra sang on tape.
    “ If I loved you, time and again, I would try to say, all I’d want you to know. If I loved you, words wouldn’t come in an easy way, round in circles, I’d go. Longing to tell you but afraid and shy. I’d let my golden chances pass me by. Soon you’d leave me. Off you would go in a mist of days never, never to know, how I love you, if I loved you .”
    Paddy whispered, “Tomorrow it’s your birthday. I’ve booked a table at The Crawfordsburn Inn.”
    “Paddy, you can’t afford it.”
    “I’m not taking no for an answer. I’ve booked a taxi to take us there and back. I’ll be there to collect you at seven.” It was Friday.
    Paddy helped Molly on with her coat in the porch of the Hall. They shouted goodbyes over their shoulders as Molly struggled to open Paddy’s umbrella, stepping from Ardoyne Hall into the lashing rain with its meteorite of solid crystal drops showering in front of the approaching car headlights. A black taxi approached from further up the Crumlin Road, Paddy pulled Molly back into the porch. His breathing quickening, his heart thumping as the rounded contour of the shiny black taxi rolled slowly past.
    “You know to be careful of the black taxis Molly? Always order one in advance and make sure you know the driver.”
    “Sure, how many times are you going to tell me that Paddy? I don’t plan to take a taxi – the bus does the job for me. It’s only the odd time when Mother has a hospital appointment; Brendan is as good as gold and he gives me a lift. Don’t worry yourself about me.”
    She caught his hand as they dashed across the Crumlin Road into Brompton Park, bumping against each other, laughing now as Paddy, holding the umbrella, fought with the wind to keep it from turning inside out.
    A six man foot patrol from the newly arrived Welsh Guardswalked down Brompton