“Well, you’d never make a nun!” Sister Michael’s eyes met Hanna’s in the mirror of the ladies’ restroom. Hanna winced. The one thing that she didn’t need now was a lecture on the virtues of discipline. Having spent the last ten minutes dealing with an increasingly frantic Conor, she was more than aware of her sad lack of it.
As soon as the meeting had ended she’d dragged Conor into a corner. And as soon as they got there he turned on her.
“Are they really planning to shut down Lissbeg Library?”
“Well, yes. I mean it’s clear that it’s part of their proposal. But we don’t know that it’ll happen.”
“You did know it was planned, though. And you never told me.”
Cursing herself for having spoken without thinking, Hanna explained that she hadn’t been sure.
“I’d heard it said. But I didn’t know. And I didn’t want to worry you. I’m sorry, Conor, that was no way for you to hear about it. It was just that I lost my temper in there when I saw how that fellow was treating you.”
She could see indignation warring with gratitude in Conor’s face, and, despite her genuine regret for what she’d done, she almost found herself laughing. He was so fair-minded and so eager to forgive her. With an effort she controlled her own face and told him again that she was sorry.
“And you mustn’t worry. Nothing’s been decided.”
“But we know now, don’t we? It is part of their plan?”
“Yes, I think we do know. And we’ll talk about it tomorrow. Look, we can’t leave the others hanging round all night. You give Aideen a lift home and I’ll deal with Sister Michael.”
But now, meeting the nun’s blue eyes, she felt she was the one being dealt with.
Turning away from the mirror, Sister Michael observed her mildly. “We were supposed to be here just to check out the lay of the land.”
“I know, I’m sorry.”
Hanna cursed herself inwardly again and Sister Michael shrugged on her anorak.
“Well, I suppose there’s no point in crying over spilt milk. And I’ve got the measure of your Tim Slattery anyway.”
As they’d left the meeting, they’d encountered Tim on the threshold. He was wearing a three-piece suit with a gold watch chain slung across his waistcoat and long, turned-back shirt cuffs reminiscent of Oscar Wilde. Ignoring the others, he had paused, looked Hanna full in the face, and then, coming within an inch of jostling her, stalked by without a word. Distracted by Conor’s distress, Hanna had hardly noticed. But the old nun had watched him as he’d strode off down the corridor.
“And I’ll tell you who he reminds me of, and that’s Father Mc-Glynn from Knockmore.” Sister Michael shook her head in quiet disapproval. “Small minds and big egos, the pair of them!”
Now she looked shrewdly at Hanna.
“And you’d want to get a grip on yourself, Miss Casey. Battles aren’t won by going at things like a class of a bull at a gate.”
Hanna nodded meekly. For a moment they stood there side by side, fixing their hair. Then Sister Michael’s wrinkled face set into folds of decision.
“I’ll tell you what, though, Hanna. Life on this peninsula’s getting more and more unbalanced. It’s not healthy. It’s not fair on anyone. And it’s time you and I put a stop to it.”
“You and I?”
“Didn’t you hear yourself that what we need to do is to organize a submission? And you can see we’ve a hard row to hoe.”
The trouble was, she said, that people were fed up with filling out forms and reading letters and giving feedback. And hadn’t they enough going on in their own lives without having to go to meetings? But while they were all focused on their personal problems they were losing their sense of community.
“Look at you now, with your mind on your house and your job. It’s more than Lissbeg Library that’s threatened. Didn’t you say it yourself in there when you got up and spoke?”
“Yes, but you’re right. No one’s going to rush out and join a revolution. They’ve got enough on their plates just trying to make ends meet.”
“That’s why we have to start slow and let things take their course.” Sister Michael zipped up her anorak. “Seventy years I’ve spent inside in that convent and I’ve learned nothing more in there than I learned on my father’s farm. Everything in life has its own time to happen. A time to plant, a time to grow, and a time to harvest. And if you take things steady you’ll bring your harvest home.”