Jan Karon - In the Company of Others

Back at the lodge, he rang Fletcher.

‘’Twas a hard night, Rev’rend, with th’ hematoma and havin’ but one side to turn her on. An’ Dr. Feeney wasn’t pleased with her urine production, so he puts her on th’ IV which keeps us on th’ hop. She’s quite exhausted, the old dear, an’ I’m ruined into th’ bargain, for Eileen’s away.’

‘Her spirits?’

‘Th’ same. But you can’t help but love ’er for all that.’

‘Does she want to be painted today?’

‘She does, but it’s her hair she’s fretting over. She’s very particular about her hair.’

‘She wants to be painted at her worst, she says.’

‘Aye, but she doesn’t mean it where her hair’s concerned. I’ve no idea what to do with it, as I can hardly manage my own poor thatch, an’ Seamus, I think he would try it if he could, he says ’t would help her feel herself.’

‘When do you think my wife should come?’

‘She’s napping now, and I must get a wink if I can. Let her have her bite of lunch, an’ come after. She wants you, too, Rev’rend, if you don’t mind. She says you can sit in th’ corner like last time; she likes you near, I think.’

It was a small, odd pleasure he felt.

Cynthia was at the chicken run, sketching the flock with pen and ink. ‘Isn’t this divine? I’ve wanted for weeks to do it.’

‘We can get chickens for you at home. The town allows hens, but no roosters.’

‘Who would want hens without roosters?’

‘If its eggs you’re after, you don’t need roosters.’

‘It’s the whole business I’m after-all the feathers and crowing and the lovely hens pecking.’

‘We go up after lunch,’ he said. ‘A hard night, but she asks that we come. She’s worried about her hair. Anything you could do?’

‘No, darling, as you’re aware, I’ve no skills in that department. I’m fretted about my own hair; ’tis a hay bale.’

He derived scant satisfaction from having next to none to worry about.

He went to Anna in the kitchen. ‘May I use the phone for a quick call to Sligo?’ His phone charges would, at the end, be accounted to his credit card.

‘Of course,’ she said. She was trying to pull up a scrap for him.

‘And would you give me the name of a car rental company?’

‘You’ll be seeing the sights, then?’

‘Finally.’

‘I know it’s humble, but we’d love you to take the Vauxhall. Unless you’re going a distance.’

‘No, not planning to do that. Just want to get around and enjoy this area.’

‘Do take the Vauxhall, then, if you would. We would like that. Please.’

‘Very generous, Anna. Will do, then. We’re grateful. May I ask if you’ve told him?’

‘This afternoon, I think-he’s working the sheep today. I don’t know; it’s very hard. I dread telling him before dinner, but then I don’t want to tell him at the end of a hard day, for he’ll be sleepless. The sentence for such a thing-who knows how many years it might be? I wish we could just bring the painting here and hang it in its rightful place and leave things alone.’

‘Would Liam be willing to do that?’

‘No. He will be cut to the quick and wanting justice done.’

With no idea of the effect it would trigger, he needed to push through to another of her apprehensions.

‘I have something to ask. Forgive me if I ask too much. Cynthia is painting Evelyn again today after lunch. Would you come with us and do up her hair for the portrait?’

She gazed out the window, through the scrim of curtain, and didn’t reply.

‘I’ve asked too much,’ he said.

‘No.’ She turned and gave him a steady look. ‘You haven’t. It’s always been coming to this. ’t is the right time, isn’t it?’

‘I believe so, yes.’

‘The Sweeneys are bringing family for dinner, and the author and niece were going to be in Sligo for a play this evening, but changed their minds.’ She bit her lip. ‘Nonetheless, I will do it. But Reverend…’

Her hands trembled; she clasped them together.

‘I’m frightened.’

He wanted to console her, to say he thought it could be a good thing, but he thanked her and said nothing more.

He helped his wife into the Vauxhall and took her to lunch at Jack Kennedy’s. It was the 21 Club, the Paris Ritz; she was dazzled.

‘Tomorrow,’ he said, ‘a holy well. And Innisfree, if you’d like. There’s an old fellow there with a boat to take us over-if we can find him at home.’

They ordered things they shouldn’t order, including fries. His penance, a Diet Coke; hers, a salad with vinegar and a mite of oil. There was a certain ease in the low murmur of the room, the occasional burst of laughter.

Jack Kennedy gave him the glad hand. ‘So you’ve stopped by with your lovely daughter, Rev’rend. Introduce us, if you please.’

On leaving, two elderly checker players doffed their caps to her.

‘I love this,’ she said, sitting on the stool beside him, the sun at their backs.

‘What don’t you love, Kav’na?’

‘Needless rules and regulations, foxglove seeding itself in our rose beds, age spots.’ She showed him the back of her hand, the small blemishes.

‘Freckles,’ he said.

He always said that; it was a tradition.

At Broughadoon, they got their jumble together-Cynthia’s hamper, his prayer book, Anna’s packet of hairpins. ‘She loses them all over the place,’ Anna said.

‘Ye’re goin’ up to her, then?’ asked William.

‘Shall we deliver your compliments?’

William looked aggrieved. ‘’t would be good to go with ye.’

He laughed. ‘No way. Too much ruckus with her calling down the Garda on our heads. I’m not getting in the middle of that.’

‘Ye owe me a checkers game, Rev’rend, I hope ye remember.’

‘I remember. Consider it done.’

‘An’ Anna girl,’ said William, ‘behave yourself-the oul’ woman’s in a desperate way.’

They went up in the Vauxhall. Seamus surprised at the sight of Anna; the two of them awkward in this setting.

‘Fletcher?’ he asked Seamus.

‘Nodding off in th’ kitchen a bit. She’s kept on th’ hop.’

‘Mrs. Conor?’

‘Sleeping when I looked in five minutes ago.’

Anna waited in the hall as he went in with Cynthia.

Evelyn Conor was sleeping, yes, but something wasn’t right.

He saw at once the bluish shadow around her mouth, the blue of her nail beds, the compromised breathing.

‘Get Fletcher!’

Don’t do this, he said to her without speaking. Don’t do this.

‘My God, I could kill myself.’

‘It happens,’ he said. A trite remark in view of circumstances, but it served. ‘No Eileen and too little sleep. Don’t punish yourself.’

Fletcher was clearly agonized. ‘She could have died. Joseph and Mary, I’ve never done such as that before.’

‘The way she came back was miraculous. Biblical!’ He knew what it meant to be gob-smacked.

‘The Narcan. Dr. Feeney left it just in case. He’s a very shrewd man, not every doctor thinks ahead like that. So yes, it happens, it definitely happens, an’ I’m tellin’ you, Rev’rend, I’m not th’ only one who ever gave an overdose.’

‘She came awake almost instantly.’ He was still marveling.

‘That’s how it works with that drug, even the point-four milligrams I gave. But some bounce into a pain crisis, she could have come awake in pain she couldn’t bear-it can go either way.’

‘And see there, Fletcher, now she’s having her hair done.’

They sat on stools at the kitchen island. Seamus set out a pot of tea and two mugs, poured for them.

‘Thank God I’m not a drinkin’ woman,’ said Fletcher. ‘’t would be a double whiskey I’m havin’.’