Chapter 142: The Night He Didn't Run

The whole of the pack went out of the hall and down the shore road to the pier and the whole of it was lamps and the whole of it was wolves along the wall.

Eileen was at the top of the slip with her good dark coat and her white hair coming down out of its pins and there were two men with her and one of them had a boat at the wall.

Declan got to the slip before her.

"There is a thing about this slip," he said, "that I have been on since I was nine years old and that I am going to be on until the morning. You are not getting on that boat."

The two men with her came down the slip and the whole of the pack came down the slip after them and the whole of it was the sound of forty wolves on wet stone.

And then Cormac stepped out in front of his father.

"There is a thing about this slip," he said, "that I have been on since I was twelve and that I am going to say before the whole of the pack. The woman in the good coat has been taking children out of this village since 1961 and there is a boot in a box at the north cove and there is a child in a garden in Killybegs and there is not a wolf in this hall who is going to be able to say she did not know." He put his hand out. "So I am going to be the wolf on this slip. Not my father. Me. Because there is a thing about a boy who was taken out of this village in 1979 and given to a family in the north and brought back and given to Deirdre and given to Declan. He is the only wolf on this slip who is a thing that she made."

The whole of the slip was silent.

Eileen looked at him.

"There is a thing about you," she said, "that I have known since 1979. You were two years old and you were in the house on the hill and you were sick and I put you in a boat with a woman called Deirdre and I told her to take you to the west coast and give you to a wolf who would bring you up and never tell you where you came from." She put her hand out. "And there is a thing about a boy who was in a house on a hill for four months in 1979. He was not the only one. There was another boy who was three years old and who was in that house at the same time and he died and he is in the garden. And there is a thing about the two of them that I have been carrying for eighteen years. One of them lived and one of them did not and I do not know which of them was the luckier."

Cormac did not move.

"Say the name of the other boy," he said.

"I do not know his name. I did not know the names of half of them. They were taken out of a village and brought to a house on a hill and there was not a wolf in that house who called them by a name that was theirs." Eileen put her hand down. "And there is a thing about a woman who has been taking children for thirty six years and who does not know their names. She is not a woman. She is a thing that a woman in a good coat made and that a woman in a good coat used."

The whole of the slip was silent.

And then Declan said, "There is a thing about this slip that I have been trying to say since the pier at Dun Laoghaire and that I am going to say now in front of the whole of the pack. The whole of it has come down to a thing that a man has to choose. Not a seat and not a rank and not a file. A boy. My boy. And there is a thing about a man who has one thing in the world and who has been frightened of losing it since 1994. He has been a man who stood in doors and who did not say a word and who took five hundred pounds out of a co-op's account because a woman in a black coat told him to and because a man who says no is a man who loses his son." He put his hand on the wall. "And there is a thing about tonight. The whole of the pack is on this slip and the woman in the good coat is at the top of it and there is a boat at the wall. And there is not a wolf on this slip who is going to be able to say afterwards that he did not see what a man did when he was put in front of a choice."

The whole of the slip was silent.

"Declan," I said.

"There is a thing about a man who is frightened of losing his son," he said. "He does not lose him. He puts him in a boat and he sends him to a family in the north and he does not go with him. And there is a thing about a man who does that. He is not a father. He is a wolf who has been standing in a door for twenty two years." He turned round. "Cormac. I am not going to be the wolf on this slip. You are. Not because I am frightened. Because you are the only wolf on this shore who is a thing that she made and because there is not a wolf in this village who is going to be able to say afterwards that the boy was not the one who stood in front of her."

The whole of the slip was silent.

Cormac looked at his father for a long moment.

And then he put his hand out and took Eileen by the arm.

"There is a thing about this slip," he said, "that I have been on since I was twelve and that I am going to be on until the morning. You are not getting on that boat. Not because I am a wolf of this pack and not because I am the son of Declan and not because I am the son of Siobhan. Because there is a boot in a box at the north cove and there is a child in a garden in Killybegs and there is not a wolf in the world who is going to be able to say I stood on this slip and let you walk past me."

Eileen looked at him.

And then she did a thing I had not expected.

She sat down on the slip.

"There is a thing about a woman in a good coat," she said, "that I have been since 1961 and that I am not going to be for another hour. I am going to sit on this slip until the guards come and I am going to say the whole of it to a wolf in a cap and a notebook and I am not going to say a word to a lawyer." She put her hands in her lap. "And there is a thing about the whole of it that I have to say before they come. The boy in the garden in Killybegs. His name was Niall. I gave him that name and I gave him no other and there is not a wolf in the world who knows it but me and there is not a wolf in the world who is going to be able to say I did not say it out loud before the morning."

The whole of the slip was silent.

And then Cormac sat down on the slip beside her.

"There is a thing about a boy who was in a house on a hill in 1979," he said. "He was two years old and he was sick and he was put in a boat and given to a woman called Deirdre and he is sitting on this slip. And there is a thing about a boy who was three years old and who was in the same house and who is in a garden in Killybegs. He is not going to be in a file and he is not going to be in a court and he is not going to be in a newspaper. He is going to be in a box with a boot and a list and he is going to be in that room on the fourteenth with the whole of the co-op." He put his hand on the stones. "And there is a thing about the whole of it that I have to say and then I am going to sit here until the guards come. I am the son of Siobhan and the grandson of Fionn and I have been in the hand of the Alpha since I was fourteen and I cut a 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 on this slip until the morning and he is going to be in that room on the fourteenth and he is going to say the whole of it."

Declan stood at the top of the slip with his hands at his sides and did not go to his son.

And then he turned round and walked up the shore road to the hall.

I went after him.

He went into the hall and stood at the long table with his hands flat on the wood and the whole of the hall was empty and the lamp was low and the frame was on the wall.

"There is a thing about a man who does not run," he said. "He has been running since 1975 and he has been running in a door and in an office and in a drawer full of letters. And there is a thing about tonight. He did not run. He stood at the top of a slip and he let his son be the wolf who stood in front of a woman in a good coat." He turned round. "And there is a thing about a man who does that. He is not the Beta of this pack and he is not a wolf who is going to be in a room in Galway on the fourteenth as a Beta. He is going to be in it as a father."

I put my hand on his.

"There is a thing about the fourteenth," I said, "that I have been thinking about since the ridge. It is a full moon and the whole of the co-op is going to be in that hall and the seat is going to be vacant and the heir is going to be declared. And there is a thing about a woman who has been in that village for a month and who has been in every room in it and who is going to be in that chair on the fourteenth. She is going to be in it with a man beside her who is not the Beta and who has taken five hundred pounds out of the co-op's account and who has stood in a door and let a thing happen. And there is a thing about a man like that. He is the only wolf in that village who has been in every room in it and who has said the whole of it out loud."

Declan put his forehead against mine.

"Then there is a thing about the morning," he said. "It is three days to the fourteenth and there is a woman on a slip and a boy beside her and a box at the north cove and a file in Galway. And there is a thing about a pack that has chosen a wolf. It has chosen her and it has chosen her in a hall with a lamp and a long table and forty wolves. And there is a thing about a wolf who has been chosen. She is not going to be able to do it alone."