Chapter 131: The Boy Who Told the Truth

The Kathleen was not at the wall and she was not in the harbor and there was a man on the pier who had seen her go out at three o'clock with her lights off.

Cormac stood in the door of the shop with his coat half on and his face white.

"There is a thing about the Kathleen," he said. "She is Tom's brother's boat and she is the fastest thing in this harbor and she has been out since three o'clock and there is not a wolf in this village who is going to be able to catch her before the sun is up." He put his coat on. "But there is a thing about the eleven that I have known since I was fourteen and that no wolf in this shop has said out loud. They are not eleven wolves who went out on a boat at three o'clock because they are going to run. They are eleven wolves who went out on a boat at three o'clock because they have been told a thing by a woman in a black coat and they are going to be on the water when the sun comes up and they are going to be looking at a coast they have been in all their lives and they are going to be deciding what they are."

The whole shop was silent.

"Then there is a thing I have to say," I said, "and I am going to say it and then we are going to go down to the pier. The Kathleen is out and the eleven are on her and there is not a wolf in this shop who is going to catch her. But there is a thing about a boat that goes out at three o'clock with her lights off. It goes out and it comes back. And there is a thing about a boat that comes back at seven o'clock in the morning with eleven wolves on it who have been on the water all night. It comes back to a harbor where the whole of the co-op is standing on the pier."

The whole shop was silent.

We went down to the pier at seven and the whole of the village came with us and the whole of it was twenty and nine and the woman from the post office and Arthur with his stick and the fireman from Galway and Owen with his bag.

The sun came up over the headland and the harbor went from grey to gold and there was a boat coming round the point.

She came in slowly with her engine at half throttle and her lights on and the whole of the eleven were on her deck and Tom's brother was at the wheel.

She came alongside the wall and the whole of the eleven stood on the deck and did not get off.

Tom's brother came to the rail.

"There is a thing about this morning," he said, "that the whole of this pier is going to hear and then we are going to come off this boat and take whatever the co-op gives us. We went out at three o'clock and we have been on the water since and there is not a wolf on this deck who has slept. And there is a thing about eleven wolves on a boat in the dark. They talk. They have been talking since three o'clock and they have said the whole of it and there is not a wolf on this deck who has not said a thing he has been carrying since 1961."

The whole of the pier was silent.

"Say it," I said.

"There is a thing about the money," Tom's brother said. "It came out of the co-op's account every year and it went to a man in Galway and it came back to this village in the form of a boat and a mooring and a word in the ear. And there is not a wolf on this deck who did not know it and who did not take it and who did not tell himself that a wolf who keeps his head down keeps his family alive." He put his hand on the rail. "And there is a thing about a wolf who has been keeping his head down since 1961 and who has been on a boat in the dark all night. He has been thinking about the woman in the boathouse. Not the rope. The three days. She was in that boathouse for three days and there was not a wolf in this village who did not know she was in it and there was not a wolf in this village who went down that slip and opened that door."

The whole pier was silent.

"Then there is a thing I have to say," Cormac said, "and I am going to say it from this wall in front of the whole of the co-op and the whole of the eleven. I was in that boathouse. I brought her water and I brought her bread and I sat with her at night because she was frightened of the dark. And there is a thing about a boy who brought a woman water for three days and who cut the line when his father told him to cut it and who stood on the rocks and watched her go into the water and did nothing." He put his hand on the wall. "He is not a boy who is going to stand on a pier and tell the eleven that they are the only wolves in this village who did nothing. He is a boy who did something and who has been carrying it since March and who is going to say the whole of it in a room in Galway on the fourteenth."

The whole of the pier was silent.

And then Tom's brother said, "There is a thing about this boy that the whole of this pier is going to hear and then we are going to come off this boat. He has been in the hand of the Alpha since he was fourteen and he has been in every kitchen in this village and he has been in the hall and in the boat and in the boathouse. And there is a thing about a boy who has been in every room in a village and who stands on a wall and says the whole of it. He is the only wolf in this village who can say a thing to the eleven that the eleven are going to believe." He came down the gangway. "So I am going to say the thing that the eleven have been saying to each other since three o'clock. We are going to be in that room on the fourteenth. Not because a woman from Dublin asked us. Because a boy stood on a wall and told the truth."

The whole of the eleven came down the gangway.

The whole of the pier went up.

And then, from the top of the shore road, a woman's voice said, "There is a thing about a boy on a wall that the whole of this pier is going to hear before it does another thing."

The whole of the pier turned round.

Mairéad was standing at the top of the road with her silver hair down and her black coat on and her hands at her sides and there was not a wolf behind her.

She came down the road.

"There is a thing about the eleventh of July," she said. "It is three days before the fourteenth and the whole of the co-op is on this pier and the whole of the eleven have come off a boat and said the whole of it. And there is a thing about a co-op that has said the whole of it on a pier. It is a co-op that is not going to need a room in Galway." She stopped in front of me. "So I am going to do the thing that a wolf in a chair does when the co-op has said the whole of it. I am going to resign. Not in a hall and not in front of a court. Here. On this pier. In front of the whole of the co-op." She put her hand in her coat and took out a paper. "And there is a thing about a resignation that is signed on a pier. It is a paper and a paper can be torn. So I am not going to sign it. I am going to say it out loud and the whole of the co-op is going to hear it and the whole of it is going to be in a file in Galway before the evening."

The whole of the pier was silent.

"Say it," I said.

"I am Mairéad and I have been the Alpha of Dún Aonghasa since 1983 and I resign the seat. I resign it to the co-op and to the heir and to the woman from Dublin who has been in this village for a month and who has done the thing that no wolf in it could do." She put the paper back in her coat. "And there is a thing about a wolf who resigns a seat on a pier in front of a co-op. She is not a wolf who is going to be in a room in Galway on the fourteenth. She is a wolf who is going to be in a room in Dublin with a woman in a house on a road and a wolf of ninety one years old and a can of paraffin."

The whole of the pier was silent.

And then a wolf at the back of the pier said, "There is a thing about the fourteenth that no wolf on this pier has said out loud. It is a full moon and the seat is vacant and the heir is declared and the whole of the co-op is going to be in a room in Galway. And there is a thing about a co-op that is in a room on a full moon with a vacant seat. It is a co-op that is going to have to choose a wolf."

The whole of the pier was silent.

Mairéad looked at me.

"There is a thing about a wolf who resigns a seat on a pier," she said. "She is not a wolf who is going to be in that room. She is a wolf who is going to be in Dublin. And there is a thing about a room in Galway on the fourteenth with a vacant seat and a co-op in it and a woman from Dublin who has been in the village for a month." She put her hand out. "I am not going to be in that room to say the thing that has to be said. So I am going to say it now on this pier in front of the whole of the co-op. The wolf who is going to hold that seat is not the heir and it is not me. It is you."