A heavy, gloomy silence fell on the campsite. Not one of the families would want to change places with Kathleen Connors and her brood. And they had brought bad luck to this place.
Auntie Brigid tried to be cheerful. ‘A good strong cup of tea with plenty of sugar,’ she announced.
Mam seemed to be in a trance. Auntie Brigid was fussing around them like a mother hen, trying to lead them towards her trailer. The rest of the travellers began to disperse back to their own vans. All had offered to help if they could.
It was agreed that Katie and Hannah and Mam and Davey would go to Auntie Brigid’s trailer for the night.
Katie looked down at herself. A green sweatshirt with a cat on it and a T-shirt, her denim skirt and her two soaked shoes, that and her underwear were all she had in the world now. Just what she stood up in. She hadn’t even a brush for her hair. The enormity of what had happened began to hit her.
‘Come on, Kathleen, sit down, you poor thing, you’re all done in. Girls, grab a place there beside your mother.’ Auntie Brigid was trying to see if there was any water left in the place to make a cup of tea.
‘Mam! Mammy! What will Da say when he sees the place?’ asked Hannah.
Kathleen Connors did not reply. She just stared at the sugar bowl on the table as if it was a crystal ball and would show her what to do.
Katie knew that when her father appeared and saw the burnt-out caravan he would go crazy. This was the third trailer they’d had in the last few years. One was too small and another had rotted to bits after a very hard winter in a field that was as bad as a swamp. All winter long the rats had gnawed at the wood until you could hardly put a foot to the floor for fear you’d go through it. Saucepans caught the rain dropping from the leaking roof. Their last penny had gone to get this one … Katie stopped herself. It was gone now – gone. Out of the blue her mother suddenly began to talk, talk, talk – non-stop.
‘Everything is gone … we’re destroyed. We’ve nothing left, not a brass farthing … we’re ruined.’
‘Hush, Kathleen, Kathleen.’
No matter what their aunt said Mam kept on talking. She began to list off everything that was gone, every piece of furniture, of ware, cooking stuff, clothes, family mementoes, getting more and more hysterical as she went on. ‘And my wooden horse, the one my Granddaddy made – maybe it survived. You remember how long I have it, Brigid.’
Katie didn’t have the heart to say she knew it was gone too, but was glad of the excuse to get away for a minute or two from the singsong voice, so strange and remote.
‘Will I have a look for it, Mam?’ Barely waiting for the reply she was outside.
The wooden pole had broken in three and lay blackened on the ground. The horse was definitely gone. Pools of water lay all around. Her cousins, the Faheys, were combing the debris to see if they could salvage anything. She hadn’t the heart to join them. She spotted something vaguely familiar in one of the pools.
The horse! Quick as a wink Katie bent down. The wood had expanded and felt warm and all the paint had blistered off it – but if you knew it was meant to be a horse you might just recognise it.
‘Oh horse, poor old horse.’ She lifted it up and carried it into the other trailer to her mother.
‘What’s that bit of old wood you’ve got there?’ demanded Auntie Brigid.
Her mother took it; she was left wordless now and her tears began to fall. The horse lay blackened and destroyed in front of her.
‘Let her cry, girls, she needs to cry and get it out. I’ll see to Davey. You sit there with your Mam.’
Hannah was scared and Katie had to admit that she was too. Mam just held their hands and cried and cried.
Before going to bed Tom and the twins came in to Mam and hugged her then left again quickly. A time like this and they couldn’t even stay together as a family, thought Katie sadly. Where was Da?
Mam was exhausted and dozed off at last, with Hannah leaning against her. Uncle Mike kept coming in and out. He had been up to the town twice looking for his brother-in-law. All the cousins had been well warned to be good, and with the odd smack as a reminder, had gone to bed quietly. Everyone was waiting for Ned Connors to return. Finally the silence of the night was broken by the sound of a car as it bumped over the grass and came to a halt. Its lights lit up the spot where their trailer had once stood.
Katie heard an outburst of cursing outside, then the car door banged. In an instant her father was at the trailer door.
‘God in heaven, Brigid! Where’s Kathleen? Where’s my kids?’ he roared.
From her sleeping bag on the floor, Katie could see the telltale redness of his cheeks and smell the mixture of whiskey and cigarettes that explained his absence. Uncle Mike was talking to him and putting on the lights.
‘Where’s my wife? Is she all right?’
Mam stirred and rubbed her eyes, easing Hannah off her lap. Dad ran over and hugged her.
‘Oh Kathleen, girl, thank God you’re all right.’
‘’Tis all right, Ned. We’ve lost everything, but the family are all safe. Hannah and Katie and Davey are here and the boys are next door.’
‘I’m fine, Da,’ Katie murmured. He stepped over the others on the floor and hugged her too.
‘God is good,’ was all he said.
Relieved that her father was back, Katie at last felt that maybe it was safe to sleep.
He sat down beside Mam and she started to tell him the whole story of the fire over and over again.
Over and over again.
Over and over again it ran in Katie’s mind too as she tried to sleep.