Heart and Soul (28 page)

“Yeah, sure, we'd love that. But what
are you
going to do?”

“Well, we were thinking of asking someone to come in to help. You know, an artist or a writer—they could have quiet, peaceful surroundings all day, just give a bottle and change a nappy. Shouldn't be hard to find …”

“But wouldn't they be a bit unreliable, bohemian?” Aidan said, looking concerned.

“Doesn't have to be a poet or a painter. It could be a teacher, say, someone who had a few private lessons to give,” said Tony.

Aidan listened carefully.

“No, Tony,” he said.

“Hear me out. You'd be doing us a double favor, getting us out of two holes, in fact. We could go off to work with a clear mind if we thought you and signora were to be here.” Tony spoke right from the heart.

“I wouldn't have to tidy up especially for you,” Grania chipped in.

“There are lads in that school who need one-to-one tuition,” Tony said.

“I'll do it in the school. I'll stay as late as you like.”

“It won't work, Aidan. They're quiet kids, they're nervous of these gangs. They can't stay late. They go with the crowd for safety. It would really suit me to have a safe place to send them.”

“Good try, Tony, but no.”

“Dad, who would I feel safer with than you and Nora? It's a win-win setup. You get the money, you get to teach children who need it, our baby gets terrific people.”

“As I said, thanks, but no,” Aidan said.

“Signora, what do you think?” Tony asked.

“It's Aidan's call,” she said simply.

Tony looked at a loss. “I don't want to upset a family do by pressing something further. But, Kato, do you have any wisdom to give to this?”

Kato looked from one face to another. “Well, of course, the
father of a family must do what he thinks is right, and from respect, none of us would want to change his opinion,” he said.

Aidan gave him a look that said he could marry his daughter Brigid tomorrow morning if he wanted to.

“I suppose you wanted me to say yes to Tony,” Aidan said when he and Nora got home.

“I want you to do what you want to do,” Nora said calmly.

“But you think it's a good idea?”

“I think we owe those young people something. They would be happy if we helped them out. They have been good to us over the years. Tony gave me the job as an Italian teacher, he put you in charge of evening classes. Grania always welcomed me, she and Brigid have been great; many other girls would have resented me stepping in there. I'd love to be able to help them.”

“No, Nora, don't make me feel guilty about it. It's just a ploy It's just a scheme to find alternative work for me.”

“Oh, yes,” Nora said. “They knew in advance you were going to get a heart attack, so they arranged to be pregnant at an appropriate time!”

“No, I don't mean that. They used the circumstances, that's all.”

“Oh, Aidan, stop thinking the world is a big conspiracy. You're not paranoid. Anyway, I said I'm with you. Whatever you want to do, we do.”

“You'd
like
the two of us to look after that baby?”

“Well, we could be together there, we could get to know the baby, he or she would get to know us. Yes, there are ways in which I'd like it a lot.”

“Help me, Nora. I want to do the best.”

“Do the best for you, Aidan, not for me.” Nora went out into their little kitchen. “We won't want much to eat this evening after all that marvelous spread, will we? How about an egg on toast later?”

“Help me, Nora,” he said again.

“Every step of the way—but you have your mind made up to go
back there. Why should I add to your stress?” She was calm and peaceful.

“But you would prefer if I gave it up?”

“One of the reasons I love you so much is that you never tried to change me. You never asked me to dye my hair, or wear more conventional clothes, or anything. I'm not going to do that to you either.”

“I'm looking for guidance …”

“No, my love, you are not. You are looking for my total support, and you have it,” she said.

“I see Aidan Dunne in the waiting room,” Fiona said. “He hasn't an appointment today”

“No, but they might have come in for one of the demonstrations. Johnny and Lavender are doing their stuff this morning,” Barbara said.

“Right. Isn't Aidan's wife something else? She's a real character,” Fiona said.

“When we're old, will we be like that?” Barbara wondered.

“Well, if we had fellows who were as mad about us as Aidan Dunne is about her we'd be all right,” Fiona said.

“You
do
have someone like that…” Barbara was glum. “The rest of us forgot to get thin, so we don't.”

“Fiona, do you think I could have an examination today? I know it's not my regular day,” Aidan asked diffidently.

“Isn't that what we're here for?” Fiona was cheerful. She brought Adan into the cubicle and sat him up on the bed.

“I'll take your blood pressure first,” she said.

“Is it okay?” he asked anxiously.

“It's a bit up on last week. Jump up on the scales here for me,” Fiona continued, relaxed and soothing.

“No, your weight hasn't changed, no sign of fluids here. Any stress or anything in the last day or two?”

“No—I learned I'm going to be a grandfather, but that's all good.”

“You bet it is. Congratulations. Nothing to raise the blood pressure there.” Fiona was delighted for him.

“So I wonder why I don't feel so great,” he said.

“Is your wife here with you, Aidan?”

“You know Nora—she's always here with me. She's gone to talk to Lavender while I'm with you.”

“Suppose I ask Declan to have a quick look at you?” Fiona suggested.

“Great,” said Aidan.

Declan was calm also. “BP is certainly a lot raised,” he said. “Let's work out why that is.”

“Am I going to have another heart attack?” Aidan asked.

“I doubt it very much. It could be medication—or is anything else worrying you?”

“I
am
worried about something, but it's not enough to raise my blood pressure,” Aidan said.

“Could you tell me what it is and we'll decide whether that's right or not.”

Declan was frank and honest with him. But Aidan could not talk to this boy who was the same age as his children. He needed someone nearer his own age.

“Could I talk to Clara about it, Declan? It's a sort of middle-aged thing.”

“Of course—but you know Clara. That's not exactly the way to put it to her.”

“I'll be more tactful,” Aidan promised.

“Do you want Nora there?” Declan asked.

“Not really, if it's possible.”

“Leave it to me,” Declan said.

Clara took one of the consulting rooms and sat down with Aidan. Declan had meanwhile spirited Nora Dunne away to talk to Hilary.
They needed good pictures on the walls to lend some extra vision to the place. Could Nora help them about getting prints or posters?

“But Aidan?” she said.

“Is having his checkup,” Declan said very firmly.

“What is it about, Aidan?” Clara asked.

“How old are you, Dr. Casey?”

“Aidan, I have asked you to call me Clara and you usually do and I am in my very early fifties, so I presume this is going somewhere?”

“I didn't feel at ease talking to Declan. He's too …well, young.”

“He's very good, Aidan.”

“Yes, of course. But he wouldn't understand about whether I should give up work or not…”

“Tell me about it,” Clara said.

She was a good listener; she nodded and encouraged and in the end the whole anxiety had been laid out. He
was
afraid of some of those thugs who had changed the face of the school where he had been so happy. He did get anxious and lose his self-confidence when they mocked him publicly. Yet he could not give up his career because of a heart problem.

He could not leave Nora without anything to live on.

He couldn't let a bunch of underprivileged sixteen-year-olds cut off his whole life. He would not accept charity and have his son-in-law wheeling and dealing, taking money from one pocket and putting it in another.

Clara listened with a sympathetic face but offered no solution. This was something that Aidan Dunne would have to sort out for himself. He needed something to happen that would help him make up his mind.

Rescue comes in the most unexpected way.

Frank Ennis had chosen this very moment to make an unexpected tour of the heart clinic to show it to fellow board member Chester Kovac. Clara gritted her teeth in annoyance. How typical of him to barge in at the wrong moment. Not for him the courtesy of a
phone call or the making of an appointment. Oh, no indeed. Frank regarded the heart clinic as a minor and unimportant part of his great empire. What could he want, bringing this philanthropist round to inspect the premises now, of all times?

Mr. Kovac was a very charming man. He was full of praise for everything. He shook Aidan Dunne's hand and apologized for interrupting a consultation. Frank Ennis wouldn't have noticed that he was interrupting anything. Chester Kovac also spoke to Ania in Polish; his father was from the old country, he said. He said he had just met a most interesting lady called Nora and discussed pictures with her. He was going to take some of her ideas back to his own health center in Rossmore.

“That's my wife,” Aidan said proudly.

“Really? And have you been long married? Do you have children?”

“No, we met late in life, we are not very long married, but very happily married,” Aidan said simply.

“Then we share something, Mr. Dunne. We are both lucky men. I too married late in life and have a wonderful wife called Hannah. And has this clinic helped you, Mr. Dunne?”

“I can't begin to tell you how much. Everyone here has been terrific. It's such a reassurance.”

“I see that in the reports. In fact, I'm thinking of having something very similar in my own place in the country. It's not just city folk who have strain and stress, you know …”

“No, but it can be tougher in the city, with the traffic, the gangs and the hooligans.”

“Don't I know? Why do you think I left New York? I only come to Dublin once a month for these board meetings in St. Brigid's. Sometimes Hannah comes too and we go to a theater and stay overnight, but it's nice and peaceful to be home again.”

“Have you sort of retired, Mr. Kovac?” Aidan Dunne asked.

“Yes, I think I have, but I'm busier than ever. We had a great bit of good luck, two years back. My wife's niece Orla had a baby sort of unexpectedly, and there was a problem about raising her. So we gave her a room in the house and during the day Hannah and I look after
the child while Orla goes to her classes in Rossmore. Then she comes home and takes her away.”

Clara looked very carefully at the floor. Across the room she could see the stocky figure of Father Brian Flynn, who had come to collect his friend Johnny. She felt a great urge to go over to him and tell him that she was coming straight back to the Church this minute. There was a personal God and that personal God had intervened just at the right time.

Chester Kovac was talking about how he and Hannah and their dog, Zloty would go for walks in the Whitethorn Woods wheeling the pram, and now that the little girl was old enough to toddle along with them it was better still.

“When you have so much happiness yourself it seems mean-spirited not to share it,” he said. Then something in Aidan's face made him stop. “Here I am, prattling on about things that aren't relevant to your life at all. Forgive me,” he began.

“No, please. It could be relevant. It could be very relevant. My daughter is going to have a baby, you see. She and her husband want us to look after it, but I didn't think …” His voice trailed away.

“I know—I was the same way before little Emer was born. I thought it would be all little red puckered faces and screaming and nappies. But it's not—it's fascinating!”

“I was afraid we'd be too old …”

“So were we,” Chester said. “But it makes us feel young.”

“I thought it was charity, finding us a job, channeling money at us.” Aidan had told Chester everything now.

“Believe me, it's you who will be doing the charitable thing, a member of the family giving love and care to a new baby”

Aidan saw Hilary and Nora coming toward them. When she saw Adan's face Nora knew at once that a decision had been reached. And that he was happy with it.

There were a lot of good-byes, exchanging addresses and shaking hands with Chester, and heavy promising to go to Rossmore one
day so that they could see for themselves. Nora had no idea what they were going to see, but she managed to sound enthusiastic.

Declan came out just as Nora and Aidan were leaving. “Hey someone should take Aidan's blood pressure,” he said.

“No need, Declan,” Clara said. “I'd say it's perfectly fine now.”

“So we're into just guessing these days?” He laughed.

“Listen—if you'd witnessed what I just did, you'd be down on your knees thanking the Almighty for keeping an eye on us,” Clara said.

“I knew this place was too good to be true,” Declan said. “It's been a religious cult all along and no one ever told me.”

In the shopping precinct Aidan and Nora sat at the sandwich bar. They held hands and their coffee got cold as they talked excitedly about the years ahead. The child that would know them from the word
go
. The days free to teach children who really did want to learn Latin. A suitable place for signora to give little conversation lessons in Italian for executives. Grania and Tony could go out to work with guilt-free hearts every day.

Life couldn't get much better.

For the first time in their careful, frugal lives, Nora and Aidan left unfinished coffee behind them. They were anxious to get the bus and go and share their great news with the baby's parents. They were impatient for the child to be born. How could they all wait until September?