One Hundred Names (37 page)

‘No need to thank me, it was a pleasure for your company.’

‘I didn’t mean for the trip, though I am thankful of that, and Archie said you paid for our room and that was very nice of you.’ She looked down at her fingers, thin delicate fingers that looked like they belonged to a doll. ‘But I meant thank you for helping Archie. He said you have done a lot for him. That it was you who told him to talk to me.’

‘I don’t think he needed much persuading,’ Kitty smiled. ‘He had his eye on you every time I spoke.’

She blushed at that.

‘Well, because of you helping him, he has helped me, so for that I’m truly grateful.’

‘He told you about his … ability?’ Kitty couldn’t think of any word for it because in truth she wasn’t sure if it was a gift or a curse. If it had helped him meet Regina and if it led to his happiness then she was sure it was a gift but she didn’t envy him for it.

‘Yes, he did. I heard his entire story and he’s a very special man, that much I’m sure of,’ she said firmly, implying she wasn’t sure if she believed the rest.

‘He’s been through a lot,’ Kitty agreed. ‘Can I ask a personal question? You don’t have to tell me your personal story but … I’m interested to know, was he right about you?’

‘About my prayers?’

‘Yes. He said that you would sit there saying “please”.’

‘I wasn’t conscious of it.’ She looked down at her fingers again. ‘But I suppose that is what I was thinking.’

Kitty nodded, dying to hear more but not wanting to push it. Archie was her story, not Regina, but her interest in people was in her blood, at least that’s what Constance had always told her.

‘I was in a relationship,’ Regina said out of the blue when Kitty hadn’t been expecting any further explanation. ‘For a very long time.’ She had that haunted look again that Kitty recognised from seeing her in the café. ‘But he no longer wanted to be in the relationship. All of a sudden. Just one day. He didn’t give much of a reason. He said it didn’t matter but …’ she shrugged. ‘I found it hard to let go. He moved out, changed his number, changed his job. It was like he vanished off the face of the earth. But then I saw him in there one day, at that time in the morning, when I was passing, and I got such a fright that I couldn’t go to him. I wasn’t ready to say what I wanted to say. I walked on, turned the corner, changed my mind and went back but he was gone. It’s the only place I had ever seen him. People we knew had no contact with him. I think he had an episode of some kind; he just dropped his life and made a new one. He wanted to disappear, but I found him in there. I just didn’t have the nerve to go inside. I thought that maybe he’d go back, that that was somewhere he went to regularly, so I started going. He never turned up but I couldn’t miss a day. I kept thinking: what if today is the day he comes back? And then I couldn’t stop going. And the months went by and I still couldn’t stop going. Even when I tried to go elsewhere it was as if he was pulling me back. I would always end up there. I know it’s odd behaviour.’ She looked at Kitty nervously. ‘My family, they were worried about me. I know it wasn’t normal but I couldn’t stop. It was the only new link I had to him. So I kept going, hoping. I always believed in fate. And destiny. And all of those things that I know most people don’t believe in. I thought it was a sign, that I saw him there once and I would see him there again. But now I don’t really understand the point of it all. I never saw him again. It’s been a year,’ she said, almost ashamed with herself for keeping up that behaviour.

‘You met Archie there,’ Kitty said, fascinated with this woman, with this story. ‘That was the point. Your old love brought you back there but maybe it wasn’t to find him, maybe it was so you could meet Archie. If ever there was a sign or fate or destiny, surely that’s it,’ Kitty said, truly believing her words just then, despite the fact she didn’t believe in any of those things.

It was as though the thought occurred to Regina for the very first time. Her eyes lit up. ‘Do you think so?’

‘Well, I mean, I don’t know for sure, but it sounds like it to me. If you hadn’t been brought there by your ex, well then, you never would have met Archie, would you?’

Regina smiled at that and her shoulders relaxed as she accepted the idea. ‘You know, this morning was the very first morning in a year that I didn’t go to the café,’ she admitted quietly.

‘And, how do you feel about it?’

She thought about it, looked as if she was going to say something, then backed down.

‘Your honest answer,’ Kitty warned her, and she smiled.

‘Well, honestly, I think that today is the day that he was there. In the café.’

This response took Kitty by surprise.

‘What do you think?’ she asked Kitty.

Kitty thought about it. Thought about Murphy’s Law and the odds in life and she finally couldn’t lie. ‘I think you’re probably right.’

Regina nodded once, then again as she accepted it. She looked across the row to Archie, who was giving Achar and Jedrek tips on breathing. ‘But I’m glad I’m here,’ she said.

Kitty smiled. ‘I’m glad you’re here too, Regina.’

‘We’re here,’ Molly announced, and everybody started stamping their feet on the ground in a big build-up for Achar and Jedrek, who were beginning to look decidedly nervous.

‘Don’t worry, lads, we have an hour,’ Archie said, noticing their panic, speaking as if he was now part of the team. ‘Even if the adjudicator doesn’t come, we can still do this.’

The plan was for them all to take a walk around Kinsale Harbour on the beautifully sunny May day, as Jedrek and Achar prepared for their record attempt, but then the bride and groom had an alternative idea when they saw Eva.

‘Bring your guests in with you,’ George’s sister, the bride, announced as she greeted Eva and Kitty at the door to the wedding reception. They had finished the meal and the speeches, much to Kitty’s relief, and they were sitting down to eat the freshly cut cake. But this didn’t allow Eva and Kitty much time to get back to Dublin. They needed to be on the road by 3 p.m.

‘Oh, no, I couldn’t possibly do that,’ Eva said. ‘There are so many of them and they’re really not expecting to be invited.’

‘How many are there?’

‘Fourteen people, so we really don’t expect—’

‘Yoohoo!’ she sang to a sweaty member of staff holding three cameras in his hand and taking a group photo of a dozen happy family members. ‘Can we set up an extra table in the banquet room, please?’ she said breezily as if there wasn’t a care in the world.

George Webb’s Kinsale home was a stunning waterside house on the Bandon River estuary right on Kinsale Harbour. It had a long lawn, which led to the river at the bottom of the garden where a sizeable yacht was sitting in the water.

Kitty and her unlikely crew stepped off the bus and joined the wedding reception, all feeling underdressed for such an event. All but Eva, that was, who was a vision in her dress and whom everybody had wolf-whistled at when she climbed aboard the bus. As soon as George Webb saw her he left his conversation and went to her. Kitty looked around for a sign of his girlfriend and couldn’t see her.

As they dug into the delicious chocolate biscuit cake, Kitty realised why Eva had come with very few bags: the kind of gifts Kitty had so far witnessed Eva give to people weren’t the type to be hidden in bags and just as she had this thought, a song began to play from the back of the room. Conversation took a while to end as word spread and finally you could hear a pin drop. The song was ‘My Wild Irish Rose’ and the singers were two old men, one wearing a red waistcoat with a red and white striped shirt underneath, the other with corresponding yellow and white. They wore white trousers and straw hats with their matching colour ribbon around the rim. Assuming it was part of the wedding musical entertainment everybody stopped eating and turned to watch and listen, but there was one man who knew differently and who slowly rose from his place at the head table, body trembling, eyes shining as he watched the remaining members of his barber shop band, Sweet Harmony, with whom he’d toured the country with fifty years ago. Kitty put their ages at around eighty, like George’s grandfather, Seamus, and guessed their fourth member had not been as lucky as they to make it to this stage of his life. As soon as they had everybody’s attention, they began weaving their way around the circular tables, eyes bright, big smiles on their faces, entertaining and endearing, voices no doubt more tired than they used to be and missing two crucial harmonies to their song, shoulders hunched and hands arthritic, but they eventually reached the head table where people expected them to address the bride and groom. Instead they went to Seamus, the man standing with his hand on his heart, the affection clearly on his face, his eyes filled with tears. He joined in for the last few lines of the song and as soon as they’d finished, the two men broke into singing ‘Happy Birthday to You’.

When the applause had ended everybody’s eyes remained fixed on Seamus, waiting for an explanation, waiting for something more. Seamus was locked in an embrace with the two men, and all were emotional, heads together, showing a bond between them which would make even the kindest of people envious.

Seamus finally looked up to the crowd. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, bride and groom,’ he addressed his granddaughter, who was wiping a tear from her eye, ‘I know we’re finished with the speeches but I couldn’t let this moment go by without saying a few words, if I may.’

The bride and groom enthusiastically encouraged him to speak.

‘I haven’t seen these men for fifty years,’ he said, grabbing them again, and they stood together, side by side, arm in arm. ‘We used to be in a group named Sweet Harmony. We toured the country up and down, left and right, didn’t we, boys?’

The two men, far from boys, nodded and reminisced.

‘These are the two Bobbys: this is Bobby Owens and this is Robert Malone. Sadly we’re missing dear Frankie.’ He looked to the other two for confirmation and they nodded sadly. Seamus took a moment at that, mourning the loss of a man he hadn’t seen for fifty years, because the friendship now seemed as new and fresh as it had been then. Even more so, because it brought with it the excitement and sentimentality of reunion, of reminiscing, of all things positive and everything dark forgotten and under the bridge. ‘There’s only one man who could have done this,’ he said suddenly, wagging his finger in the air. ‘Only one man who takes care of me like this and that’s my grandson George. Am I right, George?’ he looked to the head table and George looked at Eva. Eva nodded hastily.

‘Get up here beside me, George,’ Seamus called, emotion in his voice again.

George, embarrassed by both the attention and presumably by the fact he had very little to do with the choice of gift, slowly stood up to polite applause.

‘Get over here,’ Seamus called again.

‘As long as you don’t make me sing,’ George said, and everyone laughed. He was beautiful – even better turned out than in his office suits – he was charming and dapper, and had old Hollywood star good looks.

‘This man is an angel,’ Seamus said, his voice breaking again. ‘I love all my grandchildren, you know that,’ he looked out to the crowd, ‘but this man is my angel. We don’t see him enough, and he works too hard, but I love him and we appreciate everything he does for us.’ He grabbed him then into a tight hug and there was a collective appreciative sound from the crowd.

‘Happy birthday, Gramps,’ George said.

‘Thank you, son, thank you,’ Seamus said, battling with his tears again.

Kitty even spotted Nigel, appearing moved among a table of old people and children at the back of the room. Before Kitty had time to pick Eva’s brains, the bride and groom, who had been making their rounds of the tables, finally made their way to theirs.

‘Eva, thank you so much for our gift,’ George’s sister, Gemma, said with a catch in her voice. ‘It is the most thoughtful gift anyone has ever given us.’

Eva seemed embarrassed. ‘I’m so glad you like it, but really, it’s not from me. It’s George’s gift to you.’

‘Oh, you can’t fool us. I love George with all my heart but I know he didn’t have the brains to pull that one off himself.’

‘Honestly, Eva, if you’re ever in North Carolina, please come and visit us. You are always welcome in our home. It was the kindest, most thoughtful gift we’ve ever received. No offence, you guys.’

There was none taken, as nobody else at the table had brought a gift, hadn’t even known they’d be attending a wedding. A few people mumbled a few incoherent embarrassed responses to that effect but it didn’t matter, the groom wasn’t listening. Tears had gathered in his eyes.

‘And we’re so glad Philipa is gone,’ Gemma added in a hushed voice.

Eva blushed.

‘My father and my grandfather, if they were still alive, would have been so proud,’ the groom said in his strong Carolina accent, nostrils flaring and lip quivering to beat the tears.

‘Oh, baby,’ Gemma said, kissing her husband on the lips.

‘Jesus, what did you get them?’ Mary-Rose asked as soon as they’d left the table, the groom rubbing his eyes roughly with a handkerchief.

‘I designed a new family crest for them. I took things from both sides of the family and also items representing their own life, all stemming from a grapevine because they’re a wine region family and live on a vineyard. He was so desperate to find out more about his family name but I couldn’t come up with anything so I designed a family crest and had it hand-stitched and printed onto some items: linen, stationery, that kind of thing,’ Eva said almost embarrassed. ‘I had been trying to find some family members for him but there was no one.’

‘That’s because there’s no such thing as the name O’Logan,’ Molly hissed quietly, and for the first time she saw Eva laugh, though she looked a little guilty for it.

‘Molly, stop.’

‘What? I don’t think it’s occurred to him that his great-
grandfather was a con artist who changed his name as soon as he landed in America, was probably running from the law and just made up some bullshit name to start his new life.’

Edward started laughing loudly.

Kitty thought it was the first time she’d seen his serious face soften so much.