Chapter 146: The Pack and the Truth

We came down the track at seven in the morning and the whole of the village was in the lane and the whole of the lane was full and the green door of the hall was open.

The Court of Alphas was already in it.

The nine of them were behind the long table and the gallery was full and the woman with black hair had a paper in front of her and a cup of tea and she looked up when we came in.

"There is a thing about this morning," she said. "The court has been in this hall since six o'clock and it has read the whole of the file and the whole of the list and the whole of the book out of the box under the slip. And there is a thing about the whole of it that the court is going to say before any wolf in this hall says another word. The court has heard that the woman Mairéad resigned the seat at dawn on the high ground in front of the whole of the pack and that the resignation is in the hand of a wolf of this court and that it is dated. The seat is vacant. The heir of Maeve is declared and she is Mary Flannery of Killybegs. And there is a thing about a vacant seat and a declared heir who has been in a pack for a week. The co-op is going to have to choose a wolf to hold the seat until the heir is ready and the whole of that choice is going to be in this hall this morning with the whole of the file read out loud."

The whole of the hall was silent.

I came down the floor with the whole of the pack behind me and I put the box on the table.

"There is a thing about this morning," I said, "that the whole of this hall is going to hear and then the whole of it is going to be in a file in Galway before the evening. The whole of it has been in a safe and a cellar and a shawl and a box and a boot. And there is a thing about a boot. It is the only thing in the whole of it that is not a paper. It is a boot that came off a child in 1979 and it was in a box under a slip with a book and a list and it is on this table this morning in front of the whole of the co-op and the whole of the nine." I opened the box. "This is the boot. This is the book of the children. This is the list. And there is a thing about the whole of it that the whole of this hall is going to hear before it votes on anything. The woman in the good coat has said the whole of it to a wolf in a cap and a notebook in a barracks in Galway and there is a statement and it has a date on it and it is going to be in this hall before the evening."

The whole of the hall was silent.

And then Mairéad stood up in the gallery.

"There is a thing about the whole of it," she said, "that the whole of this hall is going to hear and then I am going to sit down and not say another word. I have resigned the seat and I have said the whole of it in this hall and on the high ground and there is not a wolf in this village who is going to be able to say I did not. But there is a thing about the box and the boot and the book that I am going to say and that I am going to say in front of the whole of the nine." She came down the gallery steps. "The whole of it is in the hand of a woman in a good coat and there is not a wolf in this hall who is going to be able to say that a word of it is in my hand. I did not take the children. I did not put the boot in the box. I signed the papers and I called the hunters and I put a woman in a boathouse and I have said the whole of it and I am going to say it again in a room in Galway." She put her hand on the table. "But there is a thing about the whole of it that I am not going to say. I am not going to say that I took a child out of this village and put a boot in a box."

The whole of the hall was silent.

"Then there is a thing I have to say," I said. "And I am going to say it and then the whole of this hall is going to hear the rest of it. The whole of it has been in a file and a court and a hall and a slip and a high ground and the whole of it has come down to a thing that no wolf in this hall has said out loud. There is a wolf in this village who was in that box and who is not in the ground and who has been in this hall every day since June. Her name is Maire and she was seventeen years old in 1961 and she went up that hill after the fire and she took the ring out of the ash and she has been carrying it in a shawl for thirty six years." I put the ring on the table. "And there is a thing about a woman who carries a ring in a shawl for thirty six years and who says the whole of it on a shore at six o'clock in the morning. She is not a witness. She is the wolf who kept the whole of it alive."

The whole of the hall was silent.

And then Mairéad came round the table at a run.

She did not go for me. She went for the box. She got her hand on the lid and she pulled it off the table and the whole of it went onto the floor and the boot and the book and the list went across the flagstones and the whole of the hall went up.

And then the whole of the pack was on her.

It was Tom and Hannah and Arthur and the fireman and Owen and the woman with the grey plait and the whole of the eleven and the whole of the twenty and the whole of it was forty wolves on the floor of the hall and the whole of it was the sound of a wolf in a black coat being held down on the flagstones.

The woman with black hair was on her feet with her hand up.

"Stop," she said. "The whole of you. Let her up and stand back."

The whole of the pack let her up and stood back.

Mairéad sat up on the flagstones with her silver hair down and her black coat torn and her lip bleeding and she looked at the whole of the hall and she laughed. It was a small dry sound and it was not a happy one.

"There is a thing about a box," she said. "It has a boot in it and a book and a list and there is not a wolf in this hall who is going to be able to say I did not put a hand on it." She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "And there is a thing about the whole of it that I have been trying to say since the pier at Dun Laoghaire and that I am going to say now on this floor in front of the whole of the nine. I did not take the children and I did not put a boot in a box. But I knew. I have known since 1979 and I have been in that chair since 1983 and there is not a night in the whole of it when I did not know that there was a house on a hill in Killybegs with children in it." She put her hand on the flagstones. "And there is a thing about a wolf who knows and who sits in a chair and signs the papers. She is not a wolf who did it. She is a wolf who let it be done."

The whole of the hall was silent.

And then Declan came down the floor and knelt down on the flagstones in front of her.

"There is a thing about the whole of it," he said, "that I have to say and that I have been trying to say since 1994. I am not going to say it for you and I am not going to say it to the court. I am going to say it to the whole of this hall and it is the thing that the whole of it has been about since the first night. The whole of it was not a woman in a black coat and it was not a woman in a good coat and it was not a man in Galway. It was a village that was frightened and that did what it was told and that did not ask a question." He put his hand on the flagstones. "And there is a thing about a village that has done that. It is a village that is going to have to say it out loud in this hall this morning before it votes on anything."

The whole of the hall was silent.

And then Tom came down the floor and knelt down on the flagstones.

And then Hannah.

And then Arthur with his stick.

And then the whole of the eleven and the whole of the twenty and the whole of the nine.

The whole of it went on until there was not a wolf in that hall standing except the nine of the Court and me.

And then the woman with black hair said, "There is a thing about this morning that the court is going to say before it does another thing. The court has been in session since six o'clock and it has heard the whole of the file and the whole of the list and the whole of the book. It has heard the whole of the co-op on its knees on the flagstones of its own hall. And there is a thing about a co-op on its knees. It is not a co-op that is going to be in a file in Galway. It is a co-op that is going to be a pack." She put her hand on the table. "The court is going to hear the claim. Not on the fourteenth. Now. This morning. With the whole of the file read out loud and the whole of the co-op in the room."