Chapter 134: The Pack in the Firelight

We went down the ridge and along the quay and the whole of the nine were at the bottom of the steps with their coats round them and the whole of the eleven were on the quay and Arthur was sitting on a bollard with his boots in his hand.

He had heard. The whole of the quay had heard.

"There is a thing about a woman in a room in Dublin," he said, "that I have been expecting since the gangway at Dun Laoghaire. She is a woman who has been running a village for thirty six years and she is not going to go into a room and sit down. She is going to put a paper in front of a lawyer and the paper is going to have a name on it and the name is going to be mine." He put his boots on the stones. "And there is a thing about a wolf of ninety one years old who is named in a paper in a room in Dublin. He is not going to be in Galway on the fourteenth and he is going to be in a court in Dublin and there is not a wolf in the west of Ireland who is going to be able to say he was not warned."

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 in front of the whole of this quay and then we are going to go up to that building and put a paper in front of the court. She has named you because a wolf of ninety one years old is a wolf who is going to be in a court in Dublin and not in a room in Galway. And there is a thing about a wolf who is in a court in Dublin. He is a wolf who has been banished from Dún Aonghasa since 1959 and who carried a can of paraffin in 1961 and who has been in the north for thirty eight years." I put my hand on the bollard. "But there is a thing about the whole of it that she has not thought of. A wolf who is in a court in Dublin is a wolf who is going to say the whole of it in front of a judge and a jury and a newspaper and there is not a woman in a house on a road who is going to be able to stop him."

Arthur looked at me.

"There is a thing about a court in Dublin," he said. "It is not a Court of Alphas. It is a court of men and it has a judge in a wig and it has a jury of twelve and it has a newspaper in the gallery. And there is a thing about a wolf of ninety one years old who has been in the north for thirty eight years and who is going to stand in front of a jury of twelve men and say the whole of it. He is going to say it and there is not a wolf in this city who is going to be able to stop him and there is not a woman in a room in Dublin who is going to be able to stop him." He stood up. "So I am going to go to Dublin. Not on the fourteenth. Now. On the morning bus. And there is a thing about a wolf who is going to Dublin on the morning bus. He is going to be in a court in Dublin before the fourteenth and he is going to say the whole of it and there is not a thing in the file in Galway that is going to be able to say he did not."

The whole of the quay was silent.

"Then there is a thing we have to do before the morning bus," I said. "And it is a thing that is not going to be in a court and it is not going to be in a file. It is going to be in a room in this city tonight with a fire in it and the whole of the pack in it." I turned round. "Ahern. Is there a room in that building with a fire in it and a door that shuts?"

"There is a room on the first floor," Ahern said. "It has a fire and a table and a door and it is where the court has been sitting since Friday."

"Then there is a thing I have to ask the court," I said. "And I am going to ask it now. Give us the room tonight. Not for a hearing and not for a vote. For a pack."

The woman with black hair came down the steps with the eight of the court behind her.

"There is a thing about a room in this building," she said, "that the court has been in since Friday. It has heard the whole of the file and the whole of the motion and the whole of the co-op and it has not heard a pack. And there is a thing about a court that has not heard a pack. It has been in a building for a week and it has not heard the thing that the whole of it has been about." She put her hand out. "The room is yours until the morning."

We went up the stairs at nine o'clock and the room was the room with the long table and the nine chairs and the gallery and there was a fire in the grate and a lamp on the table.

And the whole of the pack came into it.

There were the eleven off the Kathleen and the twenty off the shore and the nine off the boat from the cove and the woman with the grey plait and Arthur and the fireman and Owen with his bag and Nora and the woman from the post office and Tom and Hannah with the baby. There were forty of them and they stood along the walls and sat on the floor and crowded the gallery and the whole of it was the smell of wet wool and the sea and the fire.

And then Cormac came in with Mary beside him.

He stopped in the middle of the floor.

"There is a thing about this room," he said, "that I have been thinking about since the shop. It is a room with a long table and nine chairs and a gallery and a fire. And there is a thing about a room like that. It is not a hall in Dún Aonghasa and it is not a headland and it is not a boathouse. It is a room in Galway and the whole of the pack is in it and there is not a wolf in this building who is going to be able to say afterwards that he was not in it." He put his hand out. "And there is a thing about me that the whole of the pack is going to hear before any wolf in this room says another word. I was in the hall on the Thursday night in March and I heard the Alpha say this was ordered and I did not say a word. I was in the boathouse and I brought a woman water for three days and I sat with her at night and I cut the line when my father told me to cut it and I stood on the rocks and watched her go into the water." He put his hand down. "And there is a thing about a boy who has done that. He is not a boy who is going to be in a room in Galway on the fourteenth and say that the whole of it was the Alpha's. It was mine. I did it and I did not say a word and I am going to say it now in front of the whole of the pack."

The whole room was silent.

And then Mary put her hand on his arm.

"There is a thing about this room," she said, "that I have been thinking about since the shop. I have been in Killybegs all my life and I have never been in a pack and I have never been in a room with the whole of one. And there is a thing about a room with a fire in it and forty wolves along the walls. It is a room that is going to have to be a pack. Not a co-op. Not a village. A pack." She put her hand on the table. "And there is a thing about me that the whole of this room is going to hear. I am the heir of Maeve and I have shifted once in my life on a stone floor with a wolf on the door and I do not know what a pack is. But there is a thing about a woman who has been in a room in Galway for a week and who has been told the whole of it. She is going to be the heir and she is going to be in that room on the fourteenth and she is not going to be in it alone."

The whole room was silent.

"Then there is a thing I have to say," I said, "and I am going to say it in front of the fire and the whole of the pack and then we are going to do the thing that has not been done in a hall in that village since 1901. The whole of it has been in a file and a court and a pier. And there is a thing about a file that is read out loud in a room in Galway. It is a good thing and it is a true thing and it is not a pack. A pack is forty wolves in a room with a fire in it and a whole of it said out loud." I put my hand on the table. "So I am going to ask the whole of you a thing and I am going to ask it now. Not a vote. Not a claim. A vow. The thing that a pack says to itself when it is in a room and there is not a wolf in the world who is going to be able to say it did not."

The whole room was silent.

And then Tom said, "Say it."

"There is a thing about a pack that has been lied to for thirty six years," I said. "It is going to have to say the whole of it out loud and it is going to have to say it to each other and not to a court. And there is a thing about a wolf who has been in that village all his life and who has been taking the money and the boats and the quiet nights. He is going to have to say it in front of the wolf beside him." I put my hand out. "So I am going to go first. My name is Niamh and I came to that village to bury a sister and I found a pack and I have been in it for a month. I did not take the money and I did not know about the boathouse. But I stood in a hall and I heard a woman say this was ordered and I did not say a word. And there is a thing about a wolf who stands in a hall and does not say a word. She is a wolf who is going to have to say it now."

The firelight was on the whole of the room and the whole of the room was quiet.

And then Declan said, "My name is Declan and I have been the Beta of that pack for twenty years and I have taken five hundred pounds out of the co-op's account and I have stood in a door and let a thing happen and I have let a woman grieve for four months." He put his hand out. "And there is a thing about the whole of it that I am going to say in front of the whole of this pack. I am not fit to be the Beta and I am not going to be the Beta. I am going to be a wolf in that pack and I am going to say the whole of it on the fourteenth and I am going to stand beside the woman from Dublin and take whatever the co-op gives me."

The whole room was silent.

And then Cormac said, "My name is Cormac and I am twenty two years old and I was in the hand of the Alpha since I was fourteen. I cut the line and I stood on the rocks and I did nothing. And there is a thing about a boy who has done that. He is not going to be able to make it right. But he is going to be in that room on the fourteenth and he is going to say the whole of it out loud."

The whole room went up.

And then the whole of it came in a wave. Tom and Hannah and Arthur and the woman with the grey plait and the fireman and Owen and Nora and the woman from the post office and the eleven and the twenty and the nine. The whole of it, one after another, the whole of it in a room with a fire and a table and a lamp and forty wolves saying the thing they had been carrying since 1961.

It took until one in the morning.

And when it was done there was not a wolf in that room who was standing along the wall. They were all in the middle of it, and the whole of it was a pack in the firelight, and the smell of it went out through the door and down the stairs and into the corridor and there was a wolf on the door at the bottom of the stairs who lifted his head and did not move.

And then, from the corridor, there was a sound.

It was a door and it was a boot and it was a voice I had not heard since the quay at Dun Laoghaire.

"There is a thing about a room in this building," Korkut said, "that I have been trying to get into since Monday morning and that there is not a wolf in Galway who is going to keep me out of."