Read War Children for Free Online Page B

call up when I get the time,’ Simon said to Statia when she was leaving, ‘and see if I can do anything for youse. And if there’s anything in the meantime, youse have only to let me know.’
    Then he leaned forward and, looking up into Statia’s face, said in a lower voice: ‘There was an Auxie patrol out on the roads this morning. If you see them coming …’
    â€˜I know, I know,’ Statia said. ‘Me Mammy have me warned about them.’
    â€˜And so she should,’ Simon Cafferty said. ‘You wouldn’tbe the first person they left dead on the roads behind them. They’re worse nor the Tans, them fellows.’ And he spat on the ground in disgust at the thought of the foreigners.
    Statia set out on the road home, glad to have the business end of things over with. By the time she got back her brothers would have started mooching around the house, wondering when their tea would be ready.
    â€˜Oh well,’ she said to the ass, ‘we had a bit of a day out anyhow. And the best bit is to come.’
    She’d decided from the first to save her visit to the river for the return journey. She’d been tempted, on the way, by the cool-looking water clucking over the smooth stones, but she’d known that the business of the corn would weigh on her mind. Now, with the sack safe in the bed of the cart, she could relax. It would give the ass a rest, too, before the long haul up the Drop. That would make it all the easier to persuade him up. As the summer sun beat down, Statia found herself nearly dozing on the cart. Once when she’d sat with her feet in the Rasheen – on a day much like this one, come to think of it – a trout had come and nibbled curiously at her toes. The river was sniving with them at this time of year. Maybe it would happen again today. Her brothers, if something like that happened, would have tried to catch the fish; but Statia wouldn’t dream of doing that, even though she loved a bit of fried trout. She’d often watched the fish stirring dreamily in the Rasheen, darting along or staying still with just the odd flip of their tails.She’d envied them sometimes, with all day to dream. She could dream for a while herself, now.
    She was coming up to the hump-backed bridge again when, above the rushing noise of the water, she heard the sound of approaching motors. She looked up towards the lip of Mulligan’s Drop. The cab of a lorry appeared over the brow of the hill. Then the rest of the lorry came into view, looming from a great cloud of dust. It was a police tender, the back full of Auxiliaries. There was a Lewis gun mounted on the top of the cab, and an Auxie stood behind it with the ribbons of his Glengarry cap fluttering.
    The tender came down the slope towards her, followed by another. They were both full of armed men. Statia’s heart dropped even quicker than the lorries coming down the hill. She felt a cold fear in her belly at the sight of the dark, dusty uniforms. Don’t look at them , she told herself. Get down off the cart this minute and don’t even look at them . But it was hard to tear her eyes away from the lorries. They bristled with gunbarrels, dark and dangerous. They were like big hunting animals completely out of place in this quiet countryside. And when Statia did finally look away, staring towards the river for some familiar, comforting sight, she was shocked to see there a man she didn’t know. He was standing up over his knees in the waters of the Rasheen near the bridge, and he was waving at her frantically . Statia, taken by surprise, stared at him. She frowned. The man waved both arms at her, as though hooshing herback the way she’d come. What was he at? She –
    The whole world dissolved in a big bang and a flash like the end of time. Statia was sure that she screamed, but she could hear nothing. She was flung, stunned, from the cart. She lay on her back in the dust of