12

Kitty’s Castle

‘We’re going to do so many amazing things,’ Kitty declared as we made our way back up the hill in the sunshine. She started counting them off on her fingers: ‘Swim in the sea, go canoeing on the lake – oh, we need to build a boat first – find amethyst stones and become billionaires, ride on the back of a shark, climb to the top of the big cliff … I was joking about the shark.’

I wasn’t so interested in some of these things, but I didn’t want to interrupt.

‘Wait, how long are you here? You’re probably back to school on the first of September, like me, so two weeks?’

She had answered her own question, so I just nodded. I’d only said one word since we’d met, a mumbled hello.

‘I’m so sorry about yesterday,’ she went on. ‘I just saw the sheep on the road and thought it’d be, you know, funny. But I should’ve known you’d be tired after your journey and, I mean, it was a very full-on thing to do to someone you’ve never met. But I hope we can still be friends? I promise I won’t do anything like that again. Unless you want me to. Unless you’re like, Kitty, please put twelve sheep in my room – though I don’t know why you’d ask me to do that. Maybe if you were cold. Or maybe if you couldn’t sleep and you’d tried counting them in your head and wanted to, you know, take it up a notch …’

This made me laugh.

Today Kitty was wearing a white T-shirt with Summer written over a picture of a rainbow. At first, I thought a rainbow was a strange image for summer. I mean, a beach maybe, or a bucket and spade, or a parasol. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that a rainbow was the perfect image for summer in Achill.

‘OK, it’s time,’ she said, like we’d known each other for ages and it had all been building up to this. ‘I’m going to show you some things.’ Then she opened a gate into a field across the road from Derm’s radiator fence.

Now, as you will have realized, I am quite a cautious person, and by quite cautious I mean terrified of pretty much everything. And this was close to where I’d encountered the horrific beast-monster earlier. But something about Kitty made me want to follow her. She had a confidence, a strut – she seemed to know what she was doing. Also, I had too many questions I wanted to ask. So, when she gestured for me to come too, I stepped into the field and closed the gate behind me.

‘First we have this,’ she said. As we walked down towards the sea, the field stopped abruptly and gave way to a gentle cliff – no, cliff was too strong a word. It was a steep hill with a small golden beach, completely hidden from the road, at the bottom. ‘This is Duncan’s beach.’

‘Wow!’ I said. ‘Does anybody else know about it?’

‘Your uncle goes down there for a walk each morning. Only locals know about it. Oh, and Duncan.’

‘Who’s Duncan?’ I asked.

‘This is Duncan,’ said Kitty, nodding up towards the road.

I turned round to see, trotting towards us, the beast-monster. Now I could see that it wasn’t a hippo or a buffalo or whatever I’d thought it was. It was a donkey. Called Duncan.

‘Are we safe?’ I moved behind Kitty, which made her laugh.

‘Oh, we are SO safe.’ As Duncan reached us, Kitty put her hand out and rubbed his nose. ‘He lives in that bush by the fence. He loves it when you rub his nose.’

‘EEEE-EEEE-EEEE-AWWW,’ said Duncan, as he danced with delight.

‘Oh, he likes you,’ said Kitty. Duncan was nodding excitedly in my direction.

‘Touch him here.’ Kitty took my hand and placed it on Duncan’s snout, or whatever the long part of a donkey’s face with his nose at the end is called.

I went to pull away, but then … it actually felt quite nice. Like the bit at the back of your head when you’ve just had a short haircut. Duncan moved his nose back and forth so now I was stroking him.

‘We’ll bring you carrots next time,’ said Kitty. ‘Everyone loves your uncle’s carrots.’

‘EEEE-AWWW EEEE-AWWW,’ agreed Duncan.

‘My dad says you should talk to Duncan if you’re ever down in the dumps. He always cheers you up.’

Ah! This was my chance to ask her about him. ‘I met your dad this morning actually,’ I said.

‘Did he drop anything or almost fall over? I love him but he’s very clumsy.’

‘Eh, yes to both of those things,’ I said. ‘It was very weird because he and Derm had let off a purple smoke bomb and there was a snorkel and a drawer …’

‘Maybe they were rehearsing a play. That’s what it sounds like to me.’

‘Really?’ I said. I knew my uncle was interested in a lot of things, but I didn’t know he liked theatre. ‘But why would a play have thick purple smoke? The audience wouldn’t be able to see what’s going on.’

Kitty shrugged her shoulders. And, before I could ask another question, she was off. ‘You won’t believe the next thing!’ she yelled while sprinting back up the field. Duncan and I looked at each other for a moment and then ran after her.

After a couple of hundred metres, Kitty stopped. For a moment she was standing beside what looked like a big hole in the middle of the grass, about as wide as I was tall. As I got closer, I could see that one side was a steep grassy bank leading down to stones and gravel at the bottom.

‘Come on!’ said Kitty. She was already halfway down and her voice echoed like she was in a great hall. I knew what my mum would have said – that I should go home, sit quietly in a chair and read a book. But Mum wasn’t here.

‘OK,’ I said, ‘I’m coming.’ It was too steep for Duncan, so he waited at the top while I followed Kitty. I spent a long time finding a safe place for each foot and hand, but soon I was descending into the hole.

‘Now turn round,’ said Kitty when my feet eventually touched the bottom.

‘Wow!’

The hole was like a giant light bulb that lit a huge underground cavern. A gravel beach led to a pool of perfectly still water that ran out to the sea through a cave. Through the mouth of it I could see blue sky and hear distant crashing waves.

‘Welcome to my castle!’ said Kitty. ‘I’m basically the new Grace O’Malley.’

‘Who’s she?’ I asked.

‘Who is she?’ Kitty shook her head. She couldn’t believe I didn’t know. ‘She’s the Pirate Queen of Achill! Plundering ships that passed and giving the loot to the islanders. Some people say she used to count her money in here after a day of pirating.’

‘Do they?’

‘Well, I do,’ she said. ‘And I’m some people.’

Kitty had already begun pulling off her clothes. Underneath, she was wearing a black swimsuit with a yellow lightning bolt across the front. ‘Let’s get in!’

‘I don’t have my swimming stuff,’ I said, which was technically true.

‘Swim in your undies!’

I felt like I should be honest, so I said it: ‘Oh, I don’t.’

‘You don’t what?’

‘I don’t swim.’

‘Really?’ Now she was in the water up to her waist. ‘But it’s one of the best things.’

I shrugged my shoulders.

‘There’s a tube from an old car wheel over there. It’s like a giant rubber ring and you could float on it.’

‘No thanks,’ I said.

She shook her head and dipped underwater.

For a moment, she was gone and the water went flat again. I felt a rising sense of panic, until she popped up at the opposite end of the pool.

‘Rex!’ she called out. ‘We’re going to be great friends and one day you’re going to come swimming with me.’

I knew she was right about one of those things.