Chapter 132: The Handwriting in the Fog

The fog came in off the sea at nine o'clock and the whole of the harbor went white and the whole of the pier was a grey line in it and the whole of the co-op was still standing on it.

Mairéad had gone up the shore road with her paper and her black coat and the whole of the pier had let her go and there was not a wolf on it who had said a word.

And then the fog got into the church.

It was not the fog. It was the smoke of a fire that had been lit in the vestry and put out with a bucket and the whole of it was a heap of charred paper on the vestry floor and Father Byrne standing over it with a bucket in his hand and his face grey.

"There is a thing about this morning," he said, when I came in. "I was at the altar at seven and there was a wolf in the vestry and there was a can on the floor and the whole of the parish chest was on the floor and the whole of it was burning. And there is a thing about a wolf who lights a fire in a vestry at seven in the morning. He is not a wolf who is going to be caught. He is a wolf who has been told to burn the one thing in this village that has the whole of the parish records in it."

I knelt down on the flagstones.

The chest was on its side and the lid was open and the whole of the inside was charred. There was a corner of the red ledger that had not burned and there was a page of the parish record that had gone brown at the edges and there was a bundle of papers that had been tied with string and that was a heap of ash.

"The second charter," I said.

"The second charter is not in the chest," Father Byrne said. "It is in a case in a court in Galway and it has been there since Friday and there is not a wolf in Galway who has been able to get at it." He put the bucket down. "But there is a thing about the parish chest that no wolf in this village has looked at since 1961. It has the whole of the parish records in it and the whole of the parish records is not a book. It is a bundle of papers and a chest and a hundred years of a priest's handwriting."

I picked up the page that had gone brown at the edges.

It was a page of the parish record for 1961 and it had the names of the nine wolves who had been in the hall on the night of the fire and it had the note in the priest's hand that said the four wolves from the north had set the fire. And there was a corner of it that had not burned and there was writing on the corner and the writing was not the priest's.

It was my mother's hand.

I held it up to the lamp and the whole of it was four words and a date.

"Ask the healer's book. 1961."

The whole vestry was silent.

"Ronan's book," I said. "The book of the healer of Dún Aonghasa. It goes back to 1901 and the whole of it is in the case in the court and the whole of it has been read out loud and there is not a wolf in Galway who has read the whole of it." I stood up. "Father. The healer's book has every birth and every death and every first shift since 1901 and the whole of it is in my grandfather's hand and my father's hand and Ronan's hand. And there is a thing about a book that has every birth in it. It has a page for 1961 and there is not a wolf in Galway who has read it."

The fog was in the church and the whole of it was white and cold and the candles on the altar were the only warm thing in it.

"Then there is a thing I have to do," I said, "and I am going to do it and I am going to do it now. The case is in a court in Galway and there is a wolf on the door and the whole of it has been in a press since Friday. But there is a thing about a book that has been read out loud in a court. It has been read out loud and it has not been copied and there is not a wolf in this village who has a copy of it." I put the page in my coat. "So I am going to Galway. Not on the fourteenth. Now. On the morning tide. And I am going to sit in that room with that book and I am going to read the page for 1961."

Declan was at the door of the vestry with his coat on and his face grey.

"There is a thing about the fog," he said. "It is in the harbor and it is on the road and it is going to be on the water until the afternoon. There is not a boat in this harbor that is going to get to Galway before the evening."

"Then there is a thing about the evening," I said. "It is three days before the fourteenth and the whole of it is in a case in a court in Galway and the whole of it is going to be read out loud again on the fourteenth with the whole of the co-op in the room. And there is a thing about a page in a book that has been read out loud once and that no wolf has looked at since. It is the page that is going to settle it."

We went down to the pier at ten and the whole of the harbor was white and the whole of the co-op was on the pier and the whole of the eleven were on it and the whole of the nine and the twenty.

And the Kathleen was at the wall with her engine going.

Tom's brother was on her deck with a rope in his hand.

"There is a thing about the fog," he said. "She is the fastest thing in this harbor and she has a compass and she has a man on her who has been going out of this harbor in fog since he was twelve. It is four hours to Galway in the fog and there is a tide at four and there is not a wolf in this village who is going to say we did not go."

I got on the boat.

And then Declan got on it after me and Cormac got on it after him and Mary got on it after Cormac and Arthur got on it with his boots in his hand and the woman with the grey plait got on it and the fireman and Owen with his bag.

The whole of the co-op stood on the pier in the fog and watched us go.

We came into Galway Bay at four in the afternoon and the fog was lifting and the whole of the city was grey and wet and the whole of the quay was quiet.

Ahern was at the top of the steps with his case in his hand and his face grey.

"There is a thing about this afternoon," he said, "that the whole of you are going to want to hear before you go into that building. The court has been in session since eleven o'clock this morning and it has been in session on a thing that is not the claim. It has been hearing a motion that was put in front of it at nine o'clock by a wolf in a black coat who is not in Galway and who has not been in Galway since Friday." He put his case down. "The motion is a motion to set aside the whole of the file. It says the file was got by a woman from Dublin who is not a wolf of that village and who has been in it for a month and who has been in a church and a cellar and a hold and who has been in a court in Dun Laoghaire. And there is a thing about a file that is got by a woman who is not a wolf of a village. It is a file that a court can set aside on the ground that the wolf who got it had no right to get it."

The whole of the quay was silent.

"Then there is a thing I have to say," I said, "and I am going to say it before I go up those steps. The whole of the file was got by a woman from Dublin and there is not a wolf in Galway who is going to say she had a right to get it. She was not a wolf of that village and she was not a claimant and she was not a Beta and she was not a healer. She was a woman who came to bury a sister and who found a village that had been lying to itself for thirty six years." I put my hand on the rail. "And there is a thing about a motion to set aside a file on the ground that the wolf who got it had no right to get it. It is a motion that is going to be heard by nine wolves who have been in that building since Friday and who have read the whole of it. And there is not a wolf among them who is going to set aside a file that has a photograph of a woman in a house on a road in it and a receipt with the name of the Keeper of the Rolls on it and a page in a healer's book that no wolf has read."