Getting a lift was going to be harder than she thought. They’d been dropped off at twenty past ten and they’d been here nearly an hour.
“My mouth is like the bottom of a birdcage,” moaned Kathy. “My head’s going to explode any minute now. Literally explode. Do either of you have an aspirin, a bullet would do…” She was slumped over her rucksack. “I’m dying here, and no one seems to notice.”
They noticed alright. It was pretty hard not to.
“You’re not going to be like this the whole way to Ennis, are you?” asked Sarah. “And no, I don’t have any aspirin. You finished the packet last night, remember?”
“I don’t remember anything,” she groaned. “Please, just leave me here to die.”
It was tempting, thought Ruth. Sorely tempting. She looked up and down the deserted road.
“Where the hell is everyone?” whined Kathy.
Incredibly, not a single car had passed. Nothing on the lonely road but them.
“I guess the weekenders went home last night.” Ruth was willing herself to be patient. “It’s early enough. We’re bound to get a delivery truck or something passing through.”
“Wouldn’t hold my breath,” said Kathy.
“I wish you bloody would,” Sarah muttered.
In the lay-by was a mound of road-work gravel. Sarah parked herself on top and was flagging down imaginary traffic with her homemade placard.
“For pity’s sake, someone rescue us!” she cried. “Take pity on our miserable souls.”
“Nugent been smoking some funny stuff?” Kathy asked, looking at Ruth.
“It’s not roll-ups anyway. Look at her ear.”
Tucked on Sarah’s ear was a cigarette.
“Thought you said your cigarettes were all gone?” Ruth shouted at her.
“They are,” Sarah said, staking her placard in the stones. “I got this from Milo. I’d forgotten all about it.” She sat down. “I’m saving it for the train.”
“He seemed into you,” said Ruth.
“Come on,” Sarah scoffed. “You having a laugh? I only entertained the guy ’cause I didn’t want to be rude.”
“Ah, now Nugent, don’t go making excuses,” said Kathy, brightening up. “I’m with Ruth – you two clicked. And you must admit you like the outdoor type.”
“Get lost!” said Sarah “You don’t really think I was interested in him, do you? He was a lunk. I set my sights a little higher,” she said.
Ruth was amused. Did Sarah really think Luke the fisherman such a catch? The thought was quite ridiculous.
“Milo wasn’t that bad,” Kathy joined in the needling. She was showing signs of forgetting her hangover at last.
“I’m not listening,” said Sarah. “Anyhow, my taste in men might surprise you.” She smiled slyly.
She was definitely up to something, thought Ruth.
“Seriously though, you’ve got to admit caving’s pretty cool,” Kathy said, getting into her stride. “It’s kind of creepy too. I mean, who in their right mind would climb through tiny tunnels filled with water? I feel claustrophobic even thinking about it.”
“Those guys were complete rednecks,” said Sarah. “You know what they do for fun – when they’re not caving that is?”
“Go on,” said Ruth.
“They shoot rats. They shoot rats for fun. Can you believe it?” said Sarah. “They drive up to their local rubbish tip, turn on the headlamps, and shoot at rats. I hate the things but to shoot at them for fun…” Sarah shook her head. “And I figure that’s not all they shoot at either –”
“What do you mean by that?” Ruth asked, sharply.
“Oh, nothing, it doesn’t matter…” Once again, Sarah looked like she was hiding something.
“You can’t not tell, that’s unfair,” said Kathy.
“Oh, alright,” said Sarah. “It’s just some of the stuff Sean was saying in the pub last night before we left,” she paused. “I got a feeling those guys were involved in stuff.”
“Stuff? What kind of stuff?” asked Kathy. She was sprawled out like Lady Muck using the rucksack as a pillow.
“I don’t know for sure. But Sean kept banging on about ‘the Brits’ and the ‘movement.’” Sarah raised her eyebrows.
Ruth thought back over the previous evening. “So you think they were republicans?” She was doubtful.
“I don’t know what the hell they were,” said Sarah. “But they were up to something. Milo got really annoyed and told Sean to shut the fuck up at one stage.”
Ruth had noticed a frosty exchange between the two men during the evening but she’d put it down to a difference of opinion about who should pay for the next round of drinks.
“And don’t you think it weird that they came all the way down here from the north of Ireland?” Sarah asked. “That guy Bundy seemed pretty fired up about this new cave that they’d found, didn’t he?” she asked. “But Milo, he didn’t want to tell us where it was – am I right?”
“What exactly are you driving at, Sarah?” asked Ruth. So what if those guys wanted to keep their new find a secret? That wasn’t a crime.
“I know what Sarah’s getting at,” said Kathy. “She thinks they’re using the caves for something…”
“I think it’s possible,” said Sarah softly.
Ruth felt a chill creep up her spine. “Ah c’mon, Sarah. You’re not being serious?” she said. “Arms you mean? Guns and ammunition?”
“Why not?” Sarah’s eyes were big as saucers. She loved a secret.
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Ruth. “You said yourself they were just a bunch of rednecks.” Now she felt uneasy. To think they may have been in the company of terrorists.
“Just wait til Luke hears about your terrorist lover, Sarah,” said Kathy, grinning.
“I couldn’t give a shit what you tell him,” said Sarah. She lunged down the mound and shoved a fistful of stones down Kathy’s jumper.
“Get off!” Kathy shouted. She bent down to grab a handful and aimed for Sarah’s legs. Sarah whooped as she ducked out of the way.
Ruth joined in as well.
As the three of them goofed around, they never noticed an ice-cream lorry coming in their direction. It whizzed right past them. Ruth screamed as she watched its rear, complete with smiling penguin, disappearing around the bend.
Sarah was running after it wailing, “Come back you idiot, come back!”
She walked back slowly out of breath. “I don’t bloody believe it,” she wheezed, sitting on her suitcase. Out came the inhaler from her jacket pocket. “What a bummer,” she said, inhaling.
Ruth was fit to cry. They’d been here for an hour and a half and the first vehicle to pass them, they hadn’t heard because of fooling around.
“There’s bound to be more,” said Sarah, hopefully.
“Really?” said Kathy. “Like a whole convoy of ice-cream trucks on their way out of North Clare. Like a mass exodus of trucks, is that what you mean, Sarah? Maybe a fucking ice-cream truck convention?”
“Hold on a minute, “said Sarah. “Don’t take this out on me. It’s as much your fault as it is mine.”
Ruth listened as the squabbling continued. Everyone was getting ratty. She left them and went to sit on the opposite side. From there she could watch the road in both directions. After a while the bickering stopped and Ruth watched as Kathy lit her second roll-up. Sarah was sulking.
An ominous sky replaced the crisp bright sunshine. It looked moody and grey. The landscape that had been so dramatic and beautiful now felt grim and foreboding. There was rain in the air. Ruth hoped they’d get a lift soon.
She thought about this time next year. This time next year, she wouldn’t find herself hitching on the side of the road. This time next year, she’d be a graduate. She’d have a job. She’d have money. She’d have a nice apartment, she might even have a car. Only one more year. The world was out there, ready for her to discover. All she had to do was pass the re-sits.
Suddenly she heard a rumbling sound. “Something’s coming…” Ruth ran into the road. “Something big – maybe a truck. Okay guys, get your stuff. This could be it…”
They lined up together. Out went Ruth’s thumb. She’d give a friendly smile. As the moving white blob drew close, they could see it was a van. Thankfully, it was slowing. Would it stop? It looked like it. She could make out the lettering now. Three cheers for the County Council and the mobile library.
“Any chance of a lift to Ennis?” Ruth asked the driver who looked her up and down through the open window. The woman’s arm wobbled as she bit into a sandwich.
“Just yourself?” the woman asked, her mouth full. She had a squinty eye.
“That’s right,” said Ruth. “Just me and my two friends.” Ruth pointed to the others across the road. “We’re going to the station in Ennis.”
“Is that so? Mmm…” another bite of the sandwich. “Sorry, lovey,” said the woman. “There’s no way I could fit three of you up front with me. Not a chance.” She suddenly looked inside the sandwich as if she’d eaten something unexpected.
Ruth’s heart sank.
“Not from around here, are ye?” asked the woman, picking something out of the bread.
“No, just here for the weekend,” said Ruth.
“I suppose you stayed back in the village in one of the B&Bs? My cousin, runs The Hawthorns, ye didn’t stay there, did ye?”
Perhaps all was not lost if she could engage the woman just a little further.
“No actually, we stayed up at the Blue Pool,” said Ruth.
The woman’s face darkened. “In one of the cabins?” she asked slowly. “A lot of foreigners go there. Some right strange folk too.” She appeared to think. “There’s a fellow by the name of Hanley owns one. Was out foreign in Africa for a long time, in some kind of cult so he was. You’re not one of those Hanleys, are you?” Her eyes narrowed.
“No, no, I’m not,” said Ruth. “We stayed at Cyril Moran’s place.”
The chewing became more ponderous. “No…nope, can’t say I ever came across anyone of that name.”
Shit.
“There isn’t any way we could go in the back of the van?” It was a last attempt.
Sandwich lady looked at her as if she was mad. “Jeepers, no lovey. That wouldn’t be regulations. Not regulations at all, at all. I’d be before a committee back at the council. You girls take care now.” And off she drove with her ham sandwich and her squinty eye.
“What the hell…?” Sarah said, throwing her arms in the air.
“What did you say to piss her off? What happened to our lift?” asked Kathy, peevishly.
“Thanks for that,” said Ruth, annoyed. “I tried. Not enough room for three of us, she said. Didn’t stop the nosy bat giving me the inquisition though.”
“I hope every single shitty book in her shitty library falls off her shitty shelves,” said Sarah.
Fifteen more minutes went by. So did an empty school bus and three more cars. Two of the cars were full with passengers. That didn’t stop them waving cheerily at the girls. The next car that came along was a white Mercedes with a trailer – its driver so busy excavating his nose he didn’t even see them as they jumped up and down and waved their placard.
“Okay that’s enough – we need a change of tack,” said Sarah.
Ruth and Kathy exchanged glances as Sarah went off to fill her pockets with stones.
What was she up to now? Ruth had to admire her spirit. She’d kept them amused for the last two hours. Not like Kathy who was now banging on about being hungry. Ruth had a Mars bar and an apple in her rucksack. But she wasn’t telling her. All she’d done was moan all morning.
Looking at her watch again, Ruth began to feel on edge. She’d relax if she knew they’d have a ride within an hour. The clouds were even more threatening and the sun had completely gone. Balls of low-hanging mist were floating across the fields like tumbleweed.
“Look!” Kathy shouted.
Sarah had crafted SOS in stones on the road. She’d hitched her skirt to her thighs, and fashioned her hair into pigtails. Her placard now read ‘TENNIS?’
“If you think that will work, you really are a nut-job,” said Ruth laughing.
“I’ll crack up if we don’t get a lift soon. If I’d known we’d have all this hassle for the sake of a few lousy beers –”
All three of them heard it.
The unmistakable sound of an exploding exhaust. All three looked at each other. Ruth could just about make out the white blob coming towards them.
“Shit. It’s them. The terrorists.”
Ruth scuffed out the stony writing destroying Sarah’s SOS. Next, she grabbed her rucksack from the ditch and the three students ran behind the mound of stones and crouched low, scarcely daring to breathe.
“This is ridiculous,” whispered Kathy. “They’re not bloody terrorists. You two are nuts.”
“Shut up and stay down,” ordered Ruth. “I don’t want anything more to do with those guys.”
“I don’t care what they are,” said Kathy. “I just want a lift.”
“So do we all,” hissed Ruth. “But we’re not getting into a car with those guys again, okay? I was wasted last night. That’s the only reason I did. They’re going the wrong way anyway.”
As if in salute, as the butcher’s van drove by its exhaust exploded. Ruth allowed herself to breathe as it passed out of sight. Perhaps Kathy was right. They were being over-cautious. But after two hours on the road she was losing perspective. She was hungry too. Time for that Mars bar. As she tore off the wrapper, she could feel Kathy staring.
“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods,” she said, biting in.
“Aw, come on, can I just have a one tiny bite?” asked Kathy.
“Don’t you have anything of your own to eat?” asked Ruth. “Nothing at all?”
“I didn’t pack anything. I didn’t feel like eating earlier.”
“Oh go on then… just one bite,” Ruth relented, handing her the bar.
“Thanks…”
With one large bite at least half the bar disappeared. Ruth stared at her in disbelief.
“What?” Kathy said as she chewed.
“What!?” Ruth was apoplectic. “Are you for real? I said a bite and you’ve nearly taken the bloody lot.” Ruth grabbed what remained of the bar. Kathy had really done it now.
“It’s only a bit of bloody chocolate.”
“My bloody chocolate,” growled Ruth. She was livid.
“Shut up, you two,” Sarah interrupted. “There’s something coming. A milk lorry, it looks like. You guys stay there. My turn now. I’ll get it to stop – you wait and see,” and off she wiggled into the road with her placard.
They watched as sure enough Sarah got it to stop in a scrunch of brakes and gurgling diesel. Sarah walked to the far side of the lorry, and Ruth could just picture her purring at the cabin window. Something Ruth could never do. Seconds ticked by, the driver glanced in Ruth and Kathy’s direction, and back again to Sarah. Ruth held her breath. Fingers crossed. Next, the engine roared into action and the silver barreled lorry lumbered down the road.
Head bowed, Sarah traipsed across the road.
“Don’t tell me, he prefers badminton?” Kathy said.
“I’m really sorry,” said Sarah, looking ridiculous with her disheveled makeshift mini-skirt. “It’s the same old story – he’d take two of us but not three.”
By now the solution to their problem was staring them in the face. It was time to make a decision.
“Okay guys, It’s coming up to midday and we haven’t had one offer of a lift yet. It’s pretty obvious what we have to do,” said Ruth.
“Walk back to the cabin?” said Kathy.
She sometimes wondered about Kathy. Walk back to the cabin? To do what? How was that in any way the obvious thing to do? It didn’t even merit a reply.
“We’re going to have to split up.” Ruth said.
Kathy looked at her in alarm.
Silence.
After a moment, Sarah responded. “It’s looking that way,” she said flatly. “So, we hitch individually, is that what you’re suggesting?”
“No, I don’t think we each have to hitch on our own. Only one person needs to hitch alone – the other two can hitch together.”
“You’re volunteering to hitch on your own?” said Kathy, quick as you like.
“No, I’m not Kathy,” Ruth said curtly. That would suit Kathy just fine. Presumptuous article. “We’re going to toss a coin. It’s the fair thing to do.”
“I agree,” said Sarah.
“Okay,” said Ruth taking charge again. “Whoever loses the first toss is in the second toss. And whoever loses that toss is hitching on their own. I know it’s not ideal. None of us wants to hitch on our own, but if we don’t split up we’ll still be here tomorrow. Agreed?”
Kathy still didn’t look happy but she nodded.
“Here goes,” Ruth rummaged about her jeans for a coin. No luck. Then her jacket. Nothing. She didn’t have a single copper to her name.
“Either of you two have a coin?”
Sarah shook her head. “Spent the last of my coppers on crisps in the pub last night,” she said.
“How about you, Kathy?”
“Sorry, I’m totally cleaned out.”
This was ridiculous. Three adults. Twenty-one years of age. Not one brass penny between them. It was pathetic. Unlike Ruth, Sarah seemed to find the whole situation amusing. Picking up her placard she held it over her head and once again she sang “We’re on the road to nowhere.”
Kathy was staring dumbly down the front of her T-shirt and was rearranging her breasts. And then Ruth saw. She’d been staring without really seeing. Around Kathy’s neck was her St Christopher’s medal. They didn’t need a coin – that would do the job.
“Your medal, Kathy. Could you give me your medal?”
“My medal…what for?”
“We’ll toss it instead of a coin,” said Ruth. “The two sides are different, I assume. It’s not the same on both sides, is it?”
“No,” Kathy looked a little startled. “Lawrence’s name is on the other side.”
“Do you mind?” she said as gently as she could. She knew it was a sentimental talisman.
“I suppose… okay.” Sliding the medal off the fine silver chain, Kathy handed it over.
“How about you and I go first, Kath,” said Ruth. “Heads or tails? Christopher or…?” she trailed off. It seemed irreverent to invoke Kathy’s dead brother in the coin-tossing exercise.
“I’ll go for Lawrence,” said Kathy.
“I’ll have St Christopher,” said Ruth.
Ruth tossed the medal, caught it on the back of her hand, and covered it with the other. She held her breath. St Christopher face-up, meant Ruth hitching to Ennis with a partner. Lawrence face-up, meant Ruth going forward into the second toss.
In those split seconds as Ruth felt the metal warm in her palm, there was never a plan to deceive. Never a conscious decision to cheat. There was no forethought. No malice. Ruth simply reacted. Perhaps it was the subconscious result of all the frustrations, irritations, and her bewilderment at Kathy over the year. As Ruth looked at the medal, she heard herself say, “Sorry, Kath – St Christopher wins.”
It was a lie.
Kathy shrugged and pursed her lips. “Second time lucky,” she said.
Ruth felt a dart of adrenaline. Why had she lied? She didn’t know. She could just as easily have told the truth. Lawrence was face-up. The words that came out of her mouth were almost involuntary. She hadn’t planned to say them. They just fell out.
“Lawrence won’t let me down again,” said Kathy, choosing him for the second time.
“St Christopher for me,” said Sarah.
For the second time, Ruth tossed the medal smacking it down on the back of her hand.
“Sorry, Kath,” said Ruth. “It’s St Christopher again.” Kathy was hitching on her own.
Kathy burst into tears. Ruth shouldn’t feel so heartless but her store of sympathy had been raided too often throughout the year. Her reserves were running low. And she knew how easily Kathy could dissolve into tears.
“Don’t mind me,” blubbed Kathy. “It’s just the exams and Lawrence and everything.”
“I know, I know,” said Sarah putting an arm around her.
“I’ve never hitched on my own,” she sniveled.
“Don’t worry. You don’t have to,” Sarah said.
Ruth gritted her teeth. What was Sarah suggesting? She had won, fair and square.
“Listen. You head off with Ruth,” she said, ignoring Ruth’s dagger looks. “I’ll hitch on my own. It’ll be an adventure. My mother would have a fit if she knew. It’s worth it for that alone.”
Ruth was furious. How could Sarah be so soft? She’d won the toss and now the silly cow was giving in to Kathy’s silly theatrics. Kathy was playing her for a fool.
“Are you sure?” Kathy looked at her with big doe eyes.
“Of course, no problem. You go with Ruth.”
Ruth was disgusted at this spectacle. Disgusted at the way things had unfolded. She was the one who’d have to suffer Kathy’s company to Ennis.
“Okay. Decision made.” Sarah clapped her hands. “You two get your asses over the other side of the road. Make yourselves look sexy because the sooner you’re out of here, the sooner I’ll be able to get a lift on my own.”
Ruth’s plan worked. Within minutes of her and Kathy standing on the roadside, a green post office van came to a halt and offered them a lift. Sarah had hidden herself behind the mound of stones to give them every chance. For the first time that day they were in luck. The driver offered them a lift the whole way to Ennis.
Squashing into the van beside Kathy, Ruth felt a niggle of anxiety. It was too late to change things now. As the van pulled off, Ruth took one last look in the wing mirror.
Sarah was standing on the mound.
She was waving.