Maeve Binchy - Circle of Friends

"It's true, and it might be some comfort to her," John Foley said mildly.

The older Garda sergeant had a different view. "You never know, Doctor, many a mother might like to think their son had time to whisper an Act of contrition."

John Foley turned his head away lest his annoyance be seen.

"And it wasn't his fault, be sure to tell her that," he tried.

"I'm afraid my men can.. ." the sergeant began. "I know, I know."

The doctor sounded weary.

The nurse said of course they could use the phone, but they should have themselves looked at first. Then they'd be in a position to tell their parents what had happened. It made a lot of sense.

The news was good: minor cuts, nothing deep, antitetanus injections just in case, mild sedative for shock. Eve was a different matter.

Cracked ribs and mild concussion. Several stitches at the edge of her eye, and a broken wrist. She would be in hospital for some days, possibly a week. They wanted to know who to inform. "Give me a minute," Benny said.

"Well, you must know who it is, you're her friend." The almoner was puzzled.

"Yes, but it's not that easy. "Well, what about her wallet?"

"There's nothing in it, no next of kin or anything. Please let me think, I just want to work out what's best." Benny was also putting off telling her own parents about the accident, but she had to decide which of the two nuns to talk to on Eve's behalf.

Would Eve be furious if Mother Francis heard the whole story of the lies, the unhappiness' and the circumstances that had brought her to the other side of the city and now into a hospital bed?

Would Mother Clare be as bad as Eve had said? The woman was a nun after all, she must have some redeeming qualities if she were to keep her vows all her life.

Benny's head ached as she tried to work it all out. "Would it be any help to tell me?" Nan Mahon asked. They had cups of sweet milky tea and they sat at a table.

"It's like a Grimms' fairy tale," Benny said. "Tell it," Nan said.

So Benny told it, feeling slightly disloyal. Nan listened and asked questions.

"Ring Mother Francis," she said at the end. "Tell her that Eve was about to ring her today."

"But she wasn't."

"It'll make the nun feel better, and what does it matter what day she was going to ring?"

It made sense. It made a lot of sense. "But what about Mother Clare?"

"The baddy?"

"Yes, she sounds really awful and she'll crow over Mother Francis, the good one. It's awful to let her in for all this."

"It's much better than ringing the bad one and bringing all the torments of Hell down on yourself for nothing."

"I think you're right."

"Good. Will you go and tell that Sister there, she's beginning to think you have delayed concussion or something. And by the way, put someone medical on to tell her about Eve's injuries. You'll only frighten her to death."

"Why do you not want to tell your parents?"

"Because my mother works in a hotel shop where they don't really go a bundle on employing married women in the first place, so I don't want to get her all into a fluster for nothing. And my father.." Nan paused.

Benny waited.

"My father, that's different."

"You mean he wouldn't care?"

"No, I mean the very opposite, he'd care too much. He'd come in here ranting and raving and making an exhibition of himself, saying that his poor little girl was injured, scarred for life and who was to blame."

Benny smiled.

"I mean it. He's always been like that. It's good and bad. Good mainly because it means I can get what I want."

"And bad?"

"Oh, I don't know. Bad too." Nan shrugged. The confidences were over.

"Go on and ring the Good Sister before we have the starched apron in on us again."

Kit Hegarty was in the big front bedroom, the one she had let to the two brothers from Galway. Nice sensible boys, she thought, well brought up by their mother, hung their clothes up neatly, which made a nice change. They wouldn't be much trouble during the year, one doing agriculture, one studying for a B.Comm. No matter what they said, it was the farmers who had the money.

There were a good many farmers' sons going in the doors of University College today for the first time.

She thought of her own son amongst the crowd today. He would walk up those steps with a confidence he didn't feel, she knew that.

She had seen so many of the students set out from her door, awkward and anxious, and after a few weeks it was as if they had been studying there all their lives.

It would be easier for Frank because he knew Dublin already. He didn't have to get to know a new city like the boys from the country did.

She heard the front gate squeak open, and as she saw the two young Garda officers look up at the window and come slowly up her path, Kit Hegarty suddenly knew without any doubt what they were coming to tell her.

Jack Foley had met several fellows from school. Not necessarily close friends, but it was amazing how welcome they were in that sea of faces.

And they too seemed glad to see him.

There was an introductory lecture at twelve, but until then there wasn't much to do except get their bearings.

"It's like school without the teachers," said Aidan Lynch, who had paid very little attention to any teacher during his days at school with Jack Foley.

"This is what's meant to be forming our character, remember? Jack said. "It's like being on your honour to work all the time."

"Which means we don't have to work at all," Aidan said cheerfully.

"Will we go round the corner to Lesson Street? I saw armies of beautiful women all heading in that direction."

Aidan was a better authority on women than any of the rest of them so they followed him willingly.

At the corner they saw that there had been an accident. People still stood around talking about it. It was a student, they said, very badly hurt, possibly dead. The blanket was over his face when they carried him away.

He had been on that motorbike, which was in bits over beside the wall.

Someone said he was going to be doing engineering.

Aidan looked at the twisted wreck of steel and metal. "Jesus, I hope it wasn't that fellow who was canning peas in Peterborough with me during the summer. That's the bike he was getting. Frank Hegarty. He was going to do engineering."

"There could have been hundreds of people.." Jack Foley began, but then he saw the car that had been pulled away from the corner where it had crashed. There was blood and glass all over the road. The car had been moved in order to let the traffic get through. It was his father's car. "Was anyone else hurt?"

"A girl. A young girl. She looked very bad," said the man. The kind of man you always find at an accident, full of information and pessimism.

"And the man, the man driving the car?"

"Oh, he was all right.

Big fancy coat on him, with a bit of fur on the collar. You know the type. Walked out of the car, giving orders left, right and centre, just like a general."

"He's a doctor, he's meant to do that," Jack said defensively.

"How do you know that?" Aidan Lynch was astonished. "It's our car.

You go on and have coffee. I'm going into the hospital to see if he is all right."

He ran across the wet road and over to the hospital entrance before any of them could answer him.

"Come on," Aidan said. "The main thing with women is to be the first person they meet. They love that. It gives you a huge advantage.

It was much easier to tell Mother Francis than Benny had feared.

She had been calm and not at all put out about Eve having abandoned all the plans that had been so carefully thought out for her. She had also been very practical. "Tell me as simply and quickly as you can, Bernadette, Where does Mother Clare think that Eve is today?"