Gavin Corbett - This Is the Way

My mother pressed her hand up against my heart.

And when he took his hand out of Dan’s chest he had a lump of burning coal he was holding there. And that was the sin that Dan been carrying around in him all these years. But that was not the end of it, that was far from the end of it. If Dan thought that the Devil was finished with him he was wrong. The coal was just to show Dan what sin looked like. Dan still had his debt to pay. And when a man has a debt to pay he does not have much power. He is there to be used. The thing about the Devil childer is he is most of all a trickster. If the Devil can get something for himself out of his dealings with men then he will take these opportunities. Nothing is straight and forward. Sometimes he will forget about the debt that has to be paid if he can see a thing to gain. And the Devil saw such an opportunity there in Dan. The Devil asks Dan he says to Dan this.

Do you know of Saint Patrick’s Purgatory he says.

Dan said he didn’t know of this place. The Devil says to him it is only a day away from Melvin on foot. He says to Dan I will strike a bargain with you. He lifted the lump of coal still burning in his fist to his mouth and blew on it. The flame went out and left in his hand was a small smooth black stone with many glistering tiny blue eyes in it. Then he reached out his hand again and he put the stone back in Dan’s chest.

Poor Dan says Beggy.

There wasn’t nothing poor about him Kate, there wasn’t nothing poor about him. Listen to this. This stone will protect you in what I am about to ask you to do Dan says the Devil. I want you to travel to Saint Patrick’s Purgatory. When you get there I want you to tell the abbot of the monastery that you have been sent to enter the cave behind the altar where you must pay for your sins. Inside the cave you will be attacked by every sort of demon. But the stone now in front of your heart will give you a shield around you that will protect you from any attack. And the stone will light up and show you the way around the miles of tunnels. Let it guide you to the crystal cloisters Dan. There you will find a jewel casket. I want you to take the jewel casket. The stone in your heart will guide you out of the tunnels and back to the mouth of the cave. The abbot will be so shocked to see you again he will drop dead on the spot. Bring the jewels back to me. The Devil says to Dan if you bring me the jewels you might not be free of sin but you will have this I tell you. You will live for ever. God will not be able to touch you because of the stone I have put in your heart. And it is not only this you will enjoy. I will share with you the treasures in the jewel casket Dan. How does that sound to you.

Well Dan was gone before the Devil had even finished talking says my mother. And he got to Saint Patrick’s Purgatory a lot quicker than the day the Devil said it would take because he ran the whole way the thoughts of the jewels and of all the time he would have to be spending his wealth now in his head. Down in the tunnels the stone in Dan’s chest guided Dan just as the Devil told him it would, the blue eyes in it throwing a weird light about. And any demon that threw themself at Dan crashed and broke against him like an egg falling on the ground from a height. And the jewels was there exactly as the Devil said they would be, in the crystal cloisters. And the abbot got such a fright seeing Dan come back out the cave and appear behind the altar he fell over dead. And Dan was back home at the farm in Melvin on the shore the lake even quicker than the time it took him going the other way because he was anxious to see this deal done with the Devil.

Dan was there waiting by the bit of blackened wall in the back field by the shore the last place he seen the Devil anyhows childer my mother says. He could hear the water splashing gentle and the odd cow mooing and he says hear me Devil wherever you are I am back from my adventure and I have the jewel casket for you. And he seen the air change in front of him, he seen the Devil start to appear and the first part of the Devil he seen appear was the eyes. The Devil’s eyes was huge and green and fastened on them jewels with Dan. The next part of him to appear was his arms and his arms was swaying sort of, they was not quite joined at the hands but they was swaying like this childer, like they was rocking a babba. Dan now this point was feeling afeard, it did not feel right, but he swallowed hard anyhows and he says to the Devil’s eyes here is the jewel casket you asked for Devil. Why don’t we open it here and see what we have and divide up the jewels like you said Devil master he says. But this is what happened childer. The Devil’s arms that was swaying shot out all a sudden and they grabbed the jewel casket from Dan’s arms. The arms and the jewels disappeared into the air. Then the eyes turned up to face Dan and they went narrow and they was gone too.

Devil Devil where are you screamed Dan. Devil Devil you tricked me he says after realising the Devil was not coming back. Devil what about our bargain he shouting louder than he shouted in his life. What about our bargain he says now whining. He fell to his knees, he was depressed was the only way. But then he remembered the stone the Devil had left in his chest. The Devil being so quick to get away with the jewels forgot to take the stone back out of Dan and it lifted Dan to think that he had that, that he would live for ever. He thought he would test it to see was it true, to see would the stone protect him from dying just like it had when he was in the cave with the demons. So he took a length of bramble from the brambles creeping over the wall and he tied it in a noose. He climbed up with the twists of a buckled grey tree and he tied one end of the bramble to the tree and he put the noose around his neck. And he says here I go he says to himself and he jumped off toward the ground. But childer childer. He did not know one thing. He did not know that death by his own hand was the only death could get to him, that the stone would not protect him from. Because childer when a man kills himself it is the Devil’s work, it is the Devil doing the killing. And the Devil knew the stone in front of Dan’s heart, he knew to get around it. And Dan hung there from the tree and he had neither jewels now nor life. He hung there dead.

All this time the noise Dan been making made other people notice including God. His shouting had gone out across the water and all around the hills. It went to the nearest town and the town nearest that. It travelled right over the county and into the counties either side. It hit off every wall and it echoed up to Heaven. And do you think God was happy with Dan childer. Anthony do you think God was happy with Dan.

I think God was not happy with Dan I says.

God was not happy with Dan my mother says. What’s this about bargains with the Devil his voice comes booming. What is all this. And God looked down where the shouts was coming and he seen Dan there hanging and he knows Dan done the two worst things a man could do, he done a deal with the Devil and he killed himself. Well three things because he murdered his brother too. God was so angry he wanted to do something to Dan right that minute but he could not because Dan was dead. It is not often God gets in a blind rage but this is just what happened him with this greedy murdering sinning farmer. He looked about for ways to take his anger out on Dan, any way at all. The Blessed Mother was one side of him on her knees shaking violent saying please show mercy Lord but nothing could calm God. He looked about and then he seen Dan’s cows by the lake. So this is what he done childer. He seen Dan’s cows and he says I will make them cows suffer. They will feel the full power of my anger. He seen some of them was supping from the lake and he spun his hand and the water in the lake lowered and lowered. It went right down until the cows was staring at a puddle. And then the puddle disappeared through the mud in the bottom and the lake was gone and the cows was just as good as finished childer. But can you think what else was after happening.