Now that the rain had stopped, Matthew leaned over and opened Declan’s window six inches. After a while, the fresh air began to revive him, and by the time they were near their destination, Declan felt a little better.
Otter Harbour was more than a harbor, it was an entire village. There was Sawchuk’s General Store, a service station, a couple of churches, a hotel, a post office, and a liquor store. There was a telephone booth outside the general store. A man waved at the truck as they went by. Matthew waved back.
The house was not far past the Catholic church of Our Lady of Sorrows. Matthew turned into a gravel driveway, stopped, switched off the engine and set the handbrake.
Although the effects of the drug had worn off, Declan felt exhausted. He was sleepily aware that the truck had finally stopped, and that there was a girl about his own age or a little younger standing at the back door with a young boy.
He climbed out of the truck and followed his uncle to the back of the house. By now, other people had come out to greet them. A tall slim woman, wiping her hands on her apron, walked down the wooden steps and threw her arms around him and pressed him to her breast. She had a blue smudge on her jaw, and smelled faintly of acrylic paint.
“Ah! It’s wonderful you’re here, Declan. I’m your Aunt Kate, but call me Kate.”
Declan stood, looking at her, his face expressionless. She had dark hair and blue eyes and a creased, smiling face, and wore a white shirt and dark skirt. She stood tall, with her shoulders back and her chin high, looking at him.
“Stand and let me take a look at you. Ah! It’s the feeding up you need, you’re as thin as a church mouse. Isn’t it terrible starved the boy is, Matthew?”
His uncle stood, his long arms dangling at his sides. “Terrible starved, right enough.”
“This is Ana,” said Kate. The girl stood, waiting. All Declan noticed was that she wore a huge pair of sunglasses.
“Hi,” she said, smiling.
Declan said nothing.
“And this is Thomas.” Kate pushed the boy forward.
Thomas’s way of welcoming Declan was to slap him several times lightly on the arm. He welcomed Declan like a puppy. “Hi, Declan,” he said in the voice of a five-year-old, though his age must have been nearer nine or ten, for he was heavy and almost as tall as Declan. He had brown eyes and hair and wore jeans and a white T-shirt with something written on it.
Declan stared at Thomas.
“Have ye no bag?” said Kate.
Declan did not answer.
“Ah! Then come on in. There’s dinner ready, and then you can rest. You must be destroyed for the want of sleep. It’s the long journey, so it is.”
Kate led the way back in to the house. Declan heard her say to his uncle in a low voice, “Is it just tired he is? Or is there something wrong with the boy?”
“They had to tranquilize him,” explained Matthew.
So that was why he felt so terrible! Declan felt a stir of anger.
“Is that the truth?” said Kate. “And the only clothes he has are the ones on his back?”
The girl, Ana, showed him where to wash, and then took him up the high stairs to a room in the top of the house. “You can have this room,” she said, “or you can take the room at the back, one floor down, same floor as me. Kate says it’s whichever one you like.”
The room was small with a sloped attic ceiling and had a window that looked out over the dark rocks and the ocean. The bed had an old-fashioned iron frame, and was covered with a blue eiderdown quilt. He fell onto it. He still wore his tattered sneakers. He felt Ana touch him on the shoulder. He did not move. He felt her slip off his shoes and dimly saw her place them together by the chest of drawers. He closed his eyes.
He did not get up for dinner, but slept right through.
Sometime in the early hours of the morning, he was visited by his nightmare, and awoke, crying out when the bomb exploded.
And Kate Doyle was suddenly there, her arms around his shoulders, clasping him tight, and crooning. “Ah! Hush now, everything is all right, it’s all right, so it is.”
But he pushed her away, wild, possessed by the devils of fear and frenzy. “Leave me alone!” And threw himself around and pulled the covers up over his head until she had gone away.
The wild ocean crashed on the jagged rocks, and from somewhere up on the hill came the lonely hoot of an owl.