

I don’t want to hold on, and I feel like telling him so. Oh, please no, good Lord, not my Joyce, don’t take my Joyce. There’s a noise in the room, and I feel a presence. But close your eyes and stare into the darkness now, like Mummy is doing, and we’ll find our way together. I’ll tell it: I’m sorry, sweetheart, I’m sorry I ruined your chances, my chance-our chance of a life together. He or she so young who it was to become, still a question. If my child is gone, and I suspect this is so, I’ll join it there. I could have taken all the time in the world on each of those steps. I could have taken my time and answered it now. The phone rings again, and I acknowledge the irony.

Need to have left here five minutes ago, need to be there now. Never have enough time here, always trying to make our way there. But it’s all leaving my body as quickly as it’s sent forming a deep black ocean of its own around me where I’ve fallen. It fights to pump the blood around to heal, to replace what I’m losing. It’s the only part of me that cares, the only part that ever cared. My heart beats quicker now, the lone fighter left standing in the ring, a red boxing glove pumping victoriously into the air, refusing to give up. None that I can feel, from where I lie at the bottom of the staircase. I rebel, and I squeeze my eyelids together tighter to block out the grains of light, mere distractions that keep us awake, but a sign that there’s life beyond.īut there’s no life in me. Flashes of red and amber, yellow and white, speckle my darkness. It taunts me, dares me to open my eyes and lose sleep. I know now, as I knew as that little girl fighting sleep, that behind the gauzed screen of shut-eye lies color. Down I go, falling, then floating, and, falling again, I wait for the land of my life. I take one last look at my fingers wrapped around the light and let go. Though I lie still on the ground, I feel perched at the highest point I could possibly be clutching at a star in the night sky with my legs dangling above cold black nothingness. I’m staring into that immeasurable blackness that stretches far beyond my closed eyelids. He wouldn’t want me to do that now, but I’ve set my mind to the task regardless. My father’s advice when I couldn’t sleep as a little girl. NEXT TIME WE SHOULD TAKE the car, Gracie,” Dad says… JUSTIN FINISHES EXPLAINING THE STORY of his disastrous weekend to… I RUN DOWN THE HOSPITAL corridors, examining each door, trying… I STEP OUT OF THE taxi at Stephen’s Green and… WHAT THE HELL DID YOU do that for, Doris?” Justin… HE WANTS TO MEET ME,” I tell Kate nervously as…
#Thanks for the memories cecelia ahern driver#
SO HOW DID IT GO?” Thomas the driver asks as…

JUSTIN WALKS THROUGH ARRIVALS AT Dublin Airport on Tuesday morning… WHERE ON EARTH HAVE YOU been? What happened to you,… I LIE IN THE TRASH bin, breathless, my heart beating…ĪT SEVEN FIFTEEN THE NEXT morning, just before Justin leaves… JUSTIN LOOKS TO HIS BROTHER in panic and searches quickly… JUSTIN POWER-WALKS THROUGH THE HALLS of the National Gallery, part… OKAY, I’VE GATHERED US ALL here today because-” I SUCCEED IN HAILING A black cab, and I send…ĭAD BREATHES HEAVILY BESIDE ME and links my arm tightly…ĭURING THE STANDING OVATION, JUSTIN spies Joyce’s father helping her…īACK IN OUR HOTEL ROOM it’s lights-out for Dad, who… I HALF WALK, HALF RUN behind the girl with the…ĪCTUALLY, THAT’S NOT A BAD idea.” Justin stops following the… WELL, I MUST SAY, THAT was absolutely marvelous. MY EARS IMMEDIATELY SIZZLE AS soon as I enter the…ĭRIVING BACK TO DAD’S, I try not to glance at…ĪS I MAKE MY WAY downstairs the following morning, I…ĪFTER FIFTEEN MINUTES OF SITTING alone in the sparse interrogation… GOOD AFTERNOON, EVERYBODY, I’M OLAF the White, and welcome aboard… SO, DAD, WHAT ARE YOUR plans for the day? Are… I’M ON VACATION, BRO, WHY are you dragging me to… WHAT DO YOU THINK-WILL BETTY be a millionaire by the… I CAN’T FIND ANY FOOD in the apartment we’re going…Ī GRAND CHIME WELCOMES ME to my father’s humble home. GET A HAIRCUT! JUSTIN BLOWS the mop out of his…ĪS THE TAXI GETS CLOSER to my home in Phisboro,… I WATCH THE THREE CHILDREN playing together on the floor… IN A BLOOD DRIVE BESIDE Trinity College’s rugby field, Justin… FIELDS APPROACHES Justin, who is arranging his… Olive and Raphael Kelly and Julia and Con Ahern,īLOOD TRANSFUSION,” DR. Dedicated, with love, to my grandparents,
