*
After Mass had been said in Killelea, Tim carried the vestments and the
old wood and patina Crucifix across the Channel. Canon Hanrahan and Michelene
joined him. This had been the first time that Patrick could remember the old
Priest crossing over. After battling high, crested waves, he assured Patrick
that the contents of his belly would rebel if he had to do it again at anytime
soon. Patrick assured the Canon that the Channel was at its choppiest. Indeed,
the water washing the shore ran up the strand nearly to the beginning of the
cement pathway.
Patrick nodded at Wee Sean Darcy and Jeremiah Corrigan, who were waiting
for their families. They carried the craft up and off the strand, and set it on
the embankment. Enough boats had floated away in the last few weeks. No more.
Not long after the first boat, another beached with Deirdre, Maureen,
Eamonn and the rest of the Darcy family. A moment or so later Connor, his
mother and brothers arrived.
*
Brendan put aside his anger and gave into his loneliness. He joined those
who helped to beach the boats coming in from Killelea, and he followed the last
to arrive to the old Churchyard.
*
A lone violinist played ‘Faith of Our Father’s.’ That signaled altar
boys, Tim and Daniel Darcy, to begin their journey from the old well to the
table Father Patrick had borrowed again from the dun. They had placed it in
front of the mossy, knobby trunk and beneath the leafy branches of the tree.
Father Patrick had spread a sheet over the altar. The ragged old Crucifix was
then nestled tightly in the branches so when Father Patrick raised the Host in
preparation of the Eucharist, he raised it up before the image of Jesus.
Wee Sean Darcy took his daughter by the arm and escorted her. She wore
her best, a fresh white and blue dress, and carried in one hand a lose bouquet
of spring flowers. Canon Hanrahan followed them. He would help with Bible
readings and Communion. Father Patrick would say Mass. He brought up the rear.
When the group made it to stand before the makeshift altar, Wee Sean and
Deirdre genuflected and moved in to stand beside Maureen and the rest of the
family. Connor and his family awaited on the opposite side of an ill defined
aisle.
*
Brendan stood, with hat in hand, in the middle of the cemetery. To one
side of him rested the shells that had once housed the souls that were Bridey and
Liam. To the other were their parents. Living friends and family gave him space, avoiding the graves all together, while crowding in to see Father Patrick uniting the couple. That gave Bridey more than enough room to be near her brother one more time.
When Bridey died, her mother acted as her guide, first to face her maker
and her transgressions, and then to Liam on the other side. Sadly, her mother
left on her journey to begin a new life before Bridey could talk with her. She
hoped that when that time came when her brother passed from one life to
another, she would have the opportunity to act as his guide.
She joined Brendan to watch this wedding now. The pain in his expression
threatened to break her heart into tiny pieces.
*
He damned himself as he watched the others in prayer. Instead of
fashioning that marker he considered earlier, he used his time to ruin his relations
with the living who mattered to him the most. He crossed himself and prayed
with the whole of his heart for forgiveness. Not just from God Himself, but
from Enid, Patrick and the others. Before he realized it, a cry of delight
arose from the assembled. He had missed the entire ceremony.
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