Walk the Blue Fields: Stories

If it is a stage when some believe that much of life is over, and assume that what’s left is a downhill slope to be lived within the restraints of choices made, for Deegan, it is otherwise. As they sit there, Leyden’s nostril flares. ‘Which one of ye dug up Elvis?’ ‘Lord God!’ Long Kearns cries, coming suddenly to life. ‘That would knock a blackbird off its pad.’ Leyden swallows half his pint. Although he was no longer young his near future was a certainty. Finally, he hears his son, the simpleton, shout, ‘Mammy had a boyfriend!’ Deegan’s feet carry him down the yard, his hand rises to switch on lights and somehow, one by one, he gets the cows into their stalls, finds the clusters, and milks them.