IRISH BLUE 2 THE SONG OF THE STONES A novel by Sheila Willar Copyright 2016 Sheila Willar ISBN 978-0-9867101-4-8 You are living stones, being built up into a spiritual house … 1 Peter 2:5
CHAPTER 4 ............................ THE SONG
Erin, Kelly and Matthew boarded the flight from Dublin to New York City early in the morning, and travelled against the clock to arrive just when the day on the other side of the Atlantic was starting. Kelly said that it gave her more time to shop.
When the three eager travellers arrived at Maggy and Peter’s new apartment, Kelly buzzed the intercom and Maggy screamed into the speaker, “Come on up!” The elevator took them directly to the top floor of the loft, where Maggy and Kelly hugged and jumped up and down together in excitement.
Maggy pointed them towards a closet to hang their coats, but before she offered to show them around, she first gave a warning.
“I have something to tell you,” whispered Maggy. “And promise not to be mad.”
“Out with it already,” urged Kelly.
Maggy searched for the right words to ease the tension that would soon become unavoidable, but she gave up and said, “Just go on in and see for yourselves.”
Kelly and Erin looked at each other and made faces that said, “I don’t know, do you?”
The girls walked into the main sitting area, where a heated argument was under way. There on a big “U” shaped sofa, sat Kelly’s mother, Mrs. Finola Clancy, who was Patrick Morgan’s older sister, from his adoptive family, and about ten feet away on the opposite side of the sofa, sat Erin’s mother, Mrs. Kerry McBride, who was Patrick’s estranged wife. Finola and Kerry were sister’s-in-law and Erin and Kelly were cousins.
The tension was strained to a breaking point, as Finola had just finished blaming Kerry for Patrick’s disappearance all those years ago. Kerry had come to New York to escape Patrick’s return, but she had unwittingly run directly into one of the biggest reminders of him and the past.
“Mother!” exclaimed Maggy, as she tried to calm things down.
Finola patted her skirt and addressed her youngest daughter, “Kelly! I hope you have a better excuse than Kerry for being here.”
Kerry explained, “I’ve come to buy material for my shop. Simple as that!”
“Huh!” gasped Finola.
“I’ll be going back home soon,” offered Erin who was shocked to see her mother in New York.
“Kerry isn’t eager to return home,” quipped Finola.
“Mother!” warned Maggy. “What has gotten into you?”
“What’s going on?” asked Kelly.
“Ask Kerry,” said Finola pointedly.
“Is it true?” Erin asked.
“Is what true?” asked Kerry nervously.
“Is my father back in Kinkerry? I’ve heard the rumours.”
“If that’s what you want to call him, then yes, he’s back but I don’t know for how long.”
Erin could see that the mention of Patrick was painful for Kerry. He had left when Erin was just a baby, and the father figure in her life had become her uncle, Father Michael. He had attended family meals and provided for them when they needed help. A far as both Erin and Kerry were concerned, there was no need to hurry back to meet Patrick.
There was a lot that needed to be said, but Maggy didn’t want to hear any of it, so she interrupted and offered her guests a cold drink.
Matthew was the first to respond with an eager, “Yes, please!”
They were relieved to have a break in the tension and Maggy used the opportunity to show them their rooms. Finola and Kelly in one, Kerry and Erin in the other, and Matthew would sleep on the sofa.
No one really wanted much to do with each other, so the next day they each went their own separate ways. Kerry visited fabric shops, Kelly happily showed Matthew around the city, and Erin went straight to Mrs. Mancinni’s and the chapel.
……………………………………………
Erin arrived at Mrs. Mancinni’s country estate which was already overrun with heavy equipment and transport trucks. The removal of the ancient chapel had begun, and she was eager to see it finished.
The last time that Erin visited the chapel in the meadow, it seemed to be nested peacefully amongst the tall grasses and oak trees. However, the once pastoral scene, had now been transformed into a full blown de-construction site. The bones of the chapel bristled against a background littered with cranes, tractors, scaffolding, crates, and dozens of people busily scurrying around the property.
Erin’s eyes widened as she realized that the roof and the doors of the chapel had already been removed. As she approached the front entrance, a horn sounded to announce a break for the workers. Erin walked through the open doorway and immediately felt a connection to the stones.
The string of musical notes that had danced around her for the past few months, left her side and melted back into the walls of the chapel. She was glad to be rid of them. However, just as they disappeared, a whole new set of notes emerged, one from each stone in the building. They gently swirled upwards into the wind above her head and danced amongst the limbs of the trees. She could hear the new song and was relieved that it was more light hearted than the other. There was an eagerness and anticipation to it.
Erin remembered the warm summer day when she had first seen the bright white light in the chapel, and heard the voice of God that said, “Look Up!” She walked towards the front and stood in the same place, and even though the roof was gone, it seemed even more beautiful than before. The living cathedral of branches above her head was awash with the delicate ping of notes that had come from the stones. They looked like white flower petals floating through the trees, and the leaves clapped in syncopation to create a “shusssssssssh” sound like that of a gentle rain.
Erin’s spirit stood at attention as the breeze blew her hair straight up. She turned into the wind and caught the warm rays of the sun on her face, and as she closed her eyes, she felt as if the whole of creation had entered her being, and that nothing would ever again be too hard to accomplish.
“Erin! I heard you were here!” shouted Mrs. Mancinni.
Just then a patchwork blanket of winter clouds covered the sun, and the wind seemed to shake from it, a flurry of snowflakes that fell around them onto the chapel floor, where it melted into the stone. A strong current of air swept down from the sky and blew across the meadow, where workers ran to pick up their cups and plates that had been carried away.
“You’ve done a lot of work already,” commented Erin as she pulled her collar more tightly around her neck.
“Yes. John has extra workers and they plan to be done by tomorrow,” explained Astor who was dressed from head to toe in furs from the Arctic.
Erin and Mrs. Mancinni made small talk. Neither one wanted to address the fact that they had stirred up trouble, based on nothing more than “feelings”. They did not have a concrete reason for moving the chapel back to Ireland. Their’s was a simple understanding, that the chapel “had” to be moved and that it “must” be done quickly.
Mrs. Mancinni’s son, Alexander, was particularly furious, but his mother had final say. He had grown up with the chapel and wanted to keep it within the family. Not only was it going to be an emotional loss for him, but it was costing their company a small fortune.
Alexander dutifully welcomed Erin to the site but gave her a cold stare. He bluntly advised the ladies, “It will be ready to leave by tomorrow night.”
Erin was taken aback by the tone in his voice, and by the speed at which things had progressed. She expected the whole process to take a week or two, but it was clear that Mrs. Mancinni had conveyed a sense of urgency to her son.
Erin and Astor watched from a distance as the walls of the chapel were taken down and packed away. A team of scientists from Mancinni Corp. were using a special packaging material for “Thee Irish Blue” stones. Each one had to be wrapped in a breathable sleeve so as to allow air to move around its surface. It was understood that the priceless stones must to treated like living entities.
The two ladies spent the rest of the day examining the site map for the new location of the chapel in Ireland. As far as they could determine, it was the exact resting place for it.
“Did your dreams tell you this was the place?” asked Mrs. Mancinni.
“No.”
“Then how did you know?”
“The notes.”
“The notes?”
“The musical notes.”
“Did you see the stones on a ship?”
“I dreamt of a sea captain on a barge who told me to take the wheel.”
“Did you see the stones in the water?”
“In the water? You mean in the Atlantic?”
Mrs. Mancinni remained silent, and then rummaged around in her oversized purse.
“Here’s the itinerary. You should be at the dock by 5 pm,” said Mrs. Mancinni in a simple tone.
“The dock?” repeated Erin. “You want me to go with it? Across the ocean?”
“We all are dear,” explained Mrs. Mancinni. “Fenton the monk is coming too,” she added. “For good measure.”
“We’re going to cross the Atlantic Ocean by boat? In the winter?” asked Erin with some concern. “Why don’t we fly the stones back?”
“It’s not a ‘boat’ dear.” answered Mrs. Mancinni. “A car will pick you up tomorrow at 3.”
Erin left to catch a ride back to the city. She had never left Astor’s place without having a lot to think about, and this time would be no different. She thought that Astor must have gone mad to want to be tossed about on a barge in the middle of the Atlantic.
When Erin returned to Maggy’s, she rode up the elevator to the sound of the clunking gears, but as she neared the door to the apartment, she was met with the sounds of chaos. People were running everywhere, up the stairs and down the stairs, and there was a general feeling of excitement in the air. It felt a bit like Christmas.
No one even noticed that she had returned. They were all too busy. Suitcases and boxes were laying on the floors, all of them half packed. Kelly came to the edge of the second floor landing and yelled “Watch out!” as she threw a duvet and pillows over the railing. Matthew reached his hands upwards to catch it as it landed on his head.
“You’re back,” yelled Kelly to Erin.
“Yes. What’s going on?”
“We’re shipping some of Maggy’s things to Ireland.”
“On the barge?”
“What?”
“On Mrs. Mancinni’s boat?”
“That’s funny. We’re all going on the ‘boat’.”
“Everyone?”
“Yea. It’ll be a blast. You didn’t tell us this was such a big deal!” exclaimed Kelly as she hurried back to her room.
Erin’s mother came out of the office, dragging a box that she had filled with hats and fabric. “Hurry up dear,” she announced. “They will be here in no time at all.”
“Who will be here?” asked Erin, somewhat confused.
“The shippers. In a few minutes,” explained Kerry in a matter of fact tone.
Erin was surprised that they were looking forward to the difficult trip.
After the shippers had left, they all sat down on the big “U” shaped sofa, exhausted.
“You can fly home you know,” Erin whispered to Kerry.
“Fly home?” Kerry repeated loudly. “Why would I fly home?”
The others tried to ignore the rift.
“It could be a rough crossing, that’s all! And it might not be that comfortable,” explained Erin as her face flushed.
There was an awkward silence.
“You already have a return airline ticket,” jabbed Finola.
“So do you,” added Kerry.
“I’m going to bed,” said Erin. She knew that there would be no more talk of anyone flying home, and no matter how curious she was, there would be no more talk of Patrick.
The next morning was a flurry of activity until Kelly yelled, “The cab is here!”
The seven of them huddled into the oversized elevator and Matthew held the doors as they left the building.
“Ladies,” he said as the women took their seats on the bus.
Everyone but Erin was excited about the trip. She couldn’t imagine a week in a confined space with bickering relatives, sea-sick on an oversized barge crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
“I made sandwiches,” announced Erin. She hoped that the mention of backup food would make them feel more at ease, but instead they just stared at her as if she had lost her mind.