Read If You Could See Me Now for Free Online

Granddad.”
    Pause.
    “No, I don’t think you can grow them on the farm.”
    Pause.
    “O-L-I-V-E-S,” he spelled it out slowly.
    Pause.
    “Hold on, Granddad, my friend Ivan is telling me something.” Luke held the phone to his chest and looked into thin air, concentrating hard. Finally, he lifted the phone back to his ear. “Ivan said that the olive is a small, oily fruit that contains a pit. It’s grown for its fruit and oil in subtropical zones.” He looked away and appeared to be listening. “There are lots of types of olives.” He stopped talking, looked into the distance, and then back to the phone. “Underripe olives are always green but ripe olives are either green or black.” He looked away and listened to the silence again. “Most tree-ripened olives are used for oil, the rest are brine-or salt-cured and are packed in olive oil or a brine or vinegar solution.” He looked into the distance. “Ivan, what’s brine?” There was silence, then he nodded. “Oh.”
    Elizabeth raised her eyebrows and laughed nervously to herself. Since when had Luke become an expert on olives? He must have learned about them at school, he had a good memory for things like that. Luke paused and listened to the other end. “Well, Ivan can’t wait to meet you too.”
    Elizabeth rolled her eyes and dashed toward Luke for the phone in case he said any more. Her father was confused enough as it was at times, without having to explain the existence, or lack thereof, of an invisible boy.
    “Hello,” Elizabeth said, grabbing the phone.
    “Elizabeth,” said the stern formal voice, thick with a Kerry lilt. Luke dragged his feet back to the kitchen. Irritation at the noise reared itself within Elizabeth again. “I just returned to find your sister lying on my kitchen floor. I gave her a boot, but I can’t figure out whether she’s dead or not.”
    Elizabeth sighed. “That’s not funny and my sister is your daughter, you know.” “Oh, don’t give me that,” he said dismissively. “I want to know what you’re going to do about it. She can’t stay here. The last time she did, she
    released the chickens from the coop and I spent all day getting them back
    in. And with my back and my hip, I can’t be doing that anymore.”
    “I know, but she can’t stay here either. She upsets Luke.”
    “That child doesn’t know enough about her to be upset. Half the time she forgets she’s given birth to him. You can’t have him all to yourself, you know.”
    Elizabeth bit her tongue in rage. “She can’t come here,” she said more patiently than she felt. “She was around earlier and took the car again. Colm just brought it back a few minutes ago. It’s really serious this time.” She took a deep breath. “They arrested her.”
    Her father was silent for a while and then he tutted. “And rightly so, the experience will do her the world of good.” He quickly changed the subject. “Why weren’t you at work today? Our lord only intended us to rest on a Sunday.”
    “Well, that’s the whole point. Today was a really important day for me at wor—”
    “Well, your sister’s come back to the land of the living and is outside trying to push the cows over. Tell young Luke to come around with this new friend on Monday. We’ll show him the farm.”
    There was a click and the line went dead. Hello and good-bye were not her father’s speciality; he still thought that mobile phones were some sort of futuristic alien technology designed to confuse the human race.
    She hung up the phone and made her way back to the kitchen. Luke sat alone at the table, holding his stomach and laughing hysterically. She took her seat and continued eating her salad. She wasn’t one of those people who was interested in eating food; she only did it because she had to. Evenings spent over long dinners bored her and she never had much of an appetite, she was always too busy worrying about something or too hyper to be able to sit still and eat. She