Andrew Hurley - The Loney

Hanny was sitting on a chair with the doll on his knee. The box next to him was open and he reached inside and took out an old encyclopaedia. I told him to leave it alone.

‘It’s alright,’ said Else.

Hanny flipped through the pages, stopping now and then to show Else a picture that he liked. A matador. A mandarin duck. A magician.

The albino cat wandered in and jumped up onto Hanny’s lap. He stroked it gently and then picked it up and pressed it to his cheek. The cat licked his face and then hopped down to Else.

‘Thank you for bringing her back,’ she said. ‘She goes off for days sometimes, don’t you?’

She scolded the cat and then kissed Hanny, leaving a smudged half moon of red on his lips.

It took me more by surprise than it did Hanny. He smiled and looked back at the book.

‘Do you want to keep it?’ she said to him.

‘No, he doesn’t,’ I said.

‘It’s alright,’ said Else. ‘They’re just old books. He’s got hundreds of them. He never looks at them, but he won’t throw them out.’

‘Do you want the book?’ I said to Hanny.

He looked at me and I went over and put it in his satchel.

‘Take some more, if you like,’ said Else.

‘One’s enough.’

‘Please, she said. I want him to have them.’

‘He’d rather just have his watch back.’

‘Well, it’ll be here somewhere, if you’re sure Leonard picked it up.’

‘He did.’

She frowned and cocked her head to one side.

‘Are you really here on holiday?’ she said.

‘Yes,’ I replied.

‘Why?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean why come here? What is there to do?’

‘There’s the beach,’ I said.

‘Is that it?’

I shrugged.

‘It didn’t look much fun to me,’ she said.

‘Well it is.’

‘What do you do there, apart from hide in the grass?’

‘You wouldn’t understand.’

‘Wouldn’t I?’

‘No.’

‘Boys’ stuff is it?’

I said nothing. Her smile suddenly faded again and she gave a sudden sharp intake of breath and put her hands on her stomach. Exhaling slowly, she caught the expression of concern on Hanny’s face.

‘Oh, don’t worry, Andrew,’ she said, holding his hand. ‘It’s nothing. I’ve done this before. It gets easier the more you have.’

Hanny smiled and she touched his face and kissed him again. I reached into the box and took out a pile of other books and gave them to Hanny. He put them in his bag and went over to the desk to look at the sheep’s skull.

I heard Laura put down the phone and then she came into the room.

‘Well?’ she said.

‘It’s not here.’

‘Then I’m afraid you’ve had a bit of a wasted journey.’

‘Is there nowhere else it might be?’

Laura lit another cigarette and shook her head. ‘If it’s not in here, I wouldn’t like to say.’

‘But it’s my brother’s. He wants it back.’

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, and then holding the cigarette in her lips, she dipped into her pocket and brought out a purse. She thumbed open the catches and took out a five pound note.

‘Here. Buy him a new one,’ she said, holding the note out to me.

‘He doesn’t want a new one,’ I said.

Laura looked at me and then took out another note.

‘Buy one for yourself as well,’ she said, folding the two notes together and pressing them into my hand. ‘Alright?’

I held the notes back to her.

‘Isn’t your husband in?’

‘No.’

‘When will he be back?’

‘I’m afraid I don’t know.’

‘Will he be here tomorrow?’

‘Possibly. It’s hard to say. He’s very busy.’

‘We’ll come back tomorrow.’

‘I wouldn’t want you to waste your time again.’

‘It won’t be a waste if Hanny gets his watch.’

‘It’s alright,’ said Else pulling aside the net curtains. ‘He’s here.’

***

The rain was coming down in needles now and battering the roof of Leonard’s Daimler. Water washed under its tyres and seeped away into the bracken. He looked at us standing on the porch.

Laura flapped open an umbrella and went down the steps to the car. Leonard got out and said something to her that I couldn’t hear for the rain. She spoke back to him and then they both looked at us. Leonard hitched up the collar of his jacket and came stiffly up the steps to the house while Laura took a wicker basket from the back seat.

‘I’m told you’ve lost a watch,’ he said.

‘Yes.’

‘And that you think I’ve got it.’

‘You found it at the beach yesterday.’

‘Did I now?’

He lit up a stump of a cigar in his cupped hands.

‘What did it look like, this watch?’ he said blowing smoke out of the side of his mouth.

‘Just give it back, Leonard,’ Laura said quietly as she passed him. ‘Before the tide comes in,’ she added.

He clamped the cigar in his teeth and withdrew a handkerchief from his breast pocket. He looked at us as he shook it loose and then refolded it into a square pad. Another long suck on the cigar and then he tossed it away and held the hankie to Hanny’s face. Hanny drew back, but Leonard held him firmly by the shoulder.

‘She’s right, boys,’ he said wiping the lipstick off Hanny’s mouth. ‘The thing you have to remember about the tides here, is that no one can say they know them. Not really.’

He took hold of Hanny’s chin and moved his head left and right, inspecting it for any more traces of make-up.

‘I mean,’ he said, spitting on the hankie and moving over to Else, ‘Someone could tell you to set off now and before you know it you might be swimming home, or not swimming home, if you know what I mean.’

Leonard dabbed at Else’s lips, taking off the redness there, and then shoved the hankie into his pocket.

‘They say it’s the biggest graveyard in the north of England,’ he said, looking behind him at the sea and the sludge.

He took out a paper bag of mints and ate one. He noticed Hanny staring at them, and he smiled to himself and put them away. Laura banged on the window at him and after waving her away, Leonard looked at Hanny and me in turn and then pulled up his sleeve.

‘Is this it?’ he said, showing us the watch he was wearing.

‘Yes.’

He looked at us again and undid the buckle and handed it to me.

‘I should stay well away from here if I were you,’ he said. ‘Dangerous place. It’s very easy to misjudge things. You could get well out of your depth and end up in all sorts of trouble.’

Hanny put the watch back on his wrist.

‘Listen,’ said Leonard. ‘Hear that?’

A steady hiss was coming as the sea began to wash up against the rocks at the bottom of the cliff behind the house.

‘I should get a move on if I were you,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t want you to be stuck here all night.’

He looked at us again and went behind Else, turned her chair around and pushed her into the house.

We left Coldbarrow at the right time.

Looking back once we reached the pillbox, the sea was pounding the rocks by Thessaly, sending up spikes of foam that hung in the air before disintegrating back into the swell. The sands were gone.

Hanny was pleased to have his watch back and kept on showing it to me, wanting me to tell him the time.

‘We’re late, Hanny,’ I said. ‘That’s all that matters.’

When we got back to Moorings, Father Bernard was standing at the top of the lane, looking out for us.

‘Come on, you two,’ he said as we passed him. ‘You’d better get a move on before your mother has an aneurysm.’

Everyone was waiting on the bus with firm-set faces. Mummer pulled up her sleeve to reveal her watch and looked at me. That was all she needed to say.