We are days from publication of
A TRIO OF IRISH TALES II . . . and here is one more preview, this time of the final story.
Two
Houses (Preview)
By Judith Cullen
© 2015
“Mark, the top
has to be here somewhere!”
Mark Murphy
glanced at the tourist map one more time, but it might as well have been
written in Greek for all the sense it made to him. “I know, we both saw it.” He paused, lowering his voice, “I should have
asked for directions, I’ll admit it.”
Cate turned to
him indulgently, “I’ll take that admission, and I won’t abuse you with it. Not much, anyhow.” Then she laughed and threw her head back in
that way he loved.
This was part
of why he had married her – life was just that much brighter, that much “more”
when Cate was around. Like now, when
they were lost in Ireland
on their honeymoon, looking for a hilltop they had both seen clearly from the
front lawn Rathmore House. It had seemed
like such a natural thing to spend their honeymoon exploring their mutual Irish
heritage. They were inexperienced as world travelers, at best, and they really
should have done more homework than they had.
Still and all adversity can lead to adventure, and so far they had
shared that in abundance.
“Look
here! This lane seems to go up. This could be promising. Let’s try it and see
where it goes.” She was pointing towards
a disheveled gate and a scraggly lane of trees leading uphill. What waited at
the end of the lane was not clearly in view.
“You call this
‘promising’?” He eyed the gate and the
road that left the main track and disappeared to God only knew where. It was a single metal gate between two square
stone pillars. They might have been
nicely finished once, with an outer coating of sandstone or something to dress
them. The metal had a few vestiges of
ornamentation left – tiny metal swirls and flourishes. But one of the pillars was almost entirely
crumbled away, and the gate hung from the remaining pillar by a single hinge. Squinting his eyes, Mark wasn’t even sure of
that. He had the feeling that the gate
was held there by habit alone, not by any actual constructive attachment.
I'll be reading "Two Houses" from A Trio of Irish Tales II this week, live online, Tuesday April 9th from 7-8:30pm pacific time. It is one of the most complicated short stories I have ever written - in many ways a climax of an emotional four year journey that preceded it.
