Uchenna was glad to finish the homework and put it away, shut the computer off and curl up under the covers in bed with a book, trying to read herself to sleep. But it took a while, and the thought of the horse sacrifices she was finding particularly creepy now. Once upon a time, last week maybe, she wouldn’t have cared one way or another: it was a long time ago. But now she once again felt those bristly lips touch her hand as the Mammy Horse took the apple from her, and she saw the big brown eye look at her, placid, interested, and somehow alien, but not scary. The thought of somebody taking a knife and—
Uchenna shook her head and pushed the thought away from her. Creepy. Well, at least whatever happens to the Mammy, nobody’s going to do that to her!
Yet the thought and the image troubled her sleep. She woke much earlier than she had to, long before the alarm, and decided not to try to get to sleep, but to go out with apples one last time. She dressed hurriedly and went downstairs to the kitchen for a bowl of cereal, turning over in her mind as she ate just what she and the others would want to say to the Headmaster when they went to see him. Despite what Jimmy had said, Mr. Mallon wasn’t really one of those hide-in-the-office types who never let you see him except when you were in trouble. He was always willing to listen to kids who had a problem: this was the time to make use of him—
Her Mam came down the stairs in her white coat. She was usually away early on Monday mornings: Dad didn’t have to go into the office at all on Mondays—it was a work at home day for him. Uchenna’s Mam went straight into the kitchen, poured coffee, poured it half full of milk as usual, and drank half of it. Then she sighed and put the mug down. “Uchenna…” she said.
Uh oh, Uchenna thought, for she knew that tone of voice. She finished the last bite of cereal, put the spoon down. “What, Mam?”
“I had some phone calls last night…” she said.
Here it comes…
“A couple of the neighbors were telling me something about your… friend. Jimmy.”
“He’s a Traveller,” Uchenna said, “is that the problem? Mam, it’s not fair, he doesn’t even want to be one. He’s a good kid.” At least she thought he was: she knew that for Emer the jury was still out.
“All the same,” her Mam said, “I don’t think you should really make a habit of hanging around with him. All right? Some people around here… they get nervous. It’s not your fault, or his, it’s just that—”
That we have to change who our friends are because they’re bigoted, Uchenna thought. But this was not a safe thing to say to her Mam right this minute.
“—so promise me that you won’t get any more friendly with him, all right?” her Mam was saying. “I mean, you can talk to him, there’s nothing wrong with that, but—”
Like it matters, one part of Uchenna’s mind said. You’ve known him for about three days. Dump him! It’s not worth making a big deal about. But another part of her mind said in an annoyed tone, He came right in on our plan because it was to help the Mammy. There’s nothing wrong with him! And dumping him now would tell him that we’re just as bigoted as everybody else.
“—and so you understand how it is around here, these people—”
The phone rang. “Oh, damnation,” her Mam said under her breath, picking the phone up off the counter and glancing at the display. She punched a button on the phone, frowning. “This is Doctor Debe-McConnor—”
A pause. Her mother’s frown turned alarmed. “He what?” Another pause. “When did this happen?”
This pause was much longer. As it went along, Uchenna’s Mam moved around the kitchen, slipping hurriedly into her overcoat, changing phone hands to do so, and picking up her purse and her work bag. “No,” her Mam said. “Don’t do anything further, if he’s stable he’ll hold until I can get in. Get those blood enzymes for me, though: I want them as soon as I arrive. Right? Good. Thanks. Bye —”
She hung up and headed for the door, though she paused to hug Uchenna. “Tell your Dad they just readmitted one of my patients who had a relapse, and I had to go early,” her Mam said. “And thanks for being a dear and understanding…”
“Love you, Mam,” Uchenna said as her mam went out the door in a rush. Because you talk yourself right into what you want to hear!
“Thank you sweet—” The door closed. A moment later the SUV’s engine started up, and the sound of it receded down the driveway and out of the circle.
Uchenna sat there staring at her cereal bowl, then fished out her phone and texted her Dad with her Mam’s message: he’d see it first thing when he got up. After that she went upstairs to change for school, and then hurriedly went out.
There were only a few apples left on the ground in the back yard now: she picked them up and stuffed them into the plastic bag she’d brought with her, then went out to the field by the Hole in the Wall path. It was gray and misty again this morning, that strange mild end-of-summer weather that often hung on for several weeks before the real cool of the autumn set in. But Uchenna shivered as she hurried through the field in that thick gloomy fog. She kept thinking of a time very long ago when some of the first Irish people would have been leading horses out into this mist to some stone ring or under the shadow of some menhir. Usually the horses would have been mares, which were sacred to Epona. But sometimes they would have been mares “in foal”: getting ready to have their babies. And in the mist, dull golden, a bronze knife would rise and fall—
She gulped as she came to the hedge by the Condom Ditch. The gap in the hedge had been pushed wider by the going and coming of the last couple of days: Uchenna was able to slip through it without her school uniform getting snagged on anything. But as she came out on the far side and stood up, her mouth dropped open. All the grass was gone. But so were all the horses.
“Oh no…” she whispered. “Where did you go?” But there was no way to tell. At first Uchenna thought she’d go down to the far end of the field and look for tire tracks—but she’d get her school shoes muddy, and there would now be no time to get home and clean them and then still get to school on time.
“Feck,” she said softly, and turned away. The bag of apples weighed in her hand. Miserably, Uchenna dumped them out on the ground and went back through the hedge, across the board, and back home.
She had just time enough to pick up her books and head out again, locking up behind her. That morning was a grim one for her, and Uchenna had less taste than usual for the morning prayers and the Bible reading for the day. No one noticed, of course: half the kids paid no attention to the religious instruction part of the morning anyway, treating it as something to get through before the real business of the school day, and concentrating on it only when there was about to be a test. “In the name of God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit…” the morning teacher said, looking down at her desk like someone lost in prayer: but Uchenna could see that Mrs. Maginnis was already copping a look at the lesson plan for the next class.
Uchenna looked up at the crucifix at the front of the classroom, feeling depressed. And what about You, GTS? Uchenna thought unhappily. Did you finally do something about the Mammy? I wish I could know what it was. There was no point in going to see Mr. Mallon now, either: there was nothing to tell him about.
Across the room, Emer was looking at her, making What’s the matter? faces at Uchenna when the teacher wasn’t looking. Uchenna just shook her head: she didn’t feel like texting or even writing a note. It wasn’t until the break after English Lit that they had a chance to talk out in the hall, and Uchenna told Emer everything that had happened, first with her Mam and then with the horses.
Emer sighed. “Are you okay?”
“No,” Uchenna said. “Not until I find out if the Mammy’s okay! This is awful.”
Emer sighed. “I guess we’re not going to the Headmaster, then.”
“Don’t see why we should,” Uchenna said. “And I get this idea that Jimmy’d rather not, really. No matter what he says.”
“Yeah,” Emer sai
d, “he’s a strange one. Don’t know how to figure him, sometimes.”
“How’d you mean?”
Emer shrugged. “Just something weird about the way he looks at you. Those narrow little eyes. He’s all the time squinting.”
“Maybe he needs glasses,” Uchenna said. “Come on, Eames, you can’t be not trusting somebody just because of how they look. You wouldn’t do that with what’s his name. You know who I mean.”
“No, I don’t.”
“The smart Czech kid with the spine problem.”
“Oh, Szoltan,” Emer said. “Well, yeah, but a lot of the kids would.”
“You’re not a lot of kids,” Uchenna said. “Come on, you didn’t do it with me!”
Emer shrugged. “Chen, it’s not the same thing. I knew you for a while. I don’t know this guy, he came out of nowhere…” Nonetheless, she looked thoughtful.
They went back into class a few minutes later, and Uchenna tried to pay attention to her lessons and concentrate on getting through the morning: but it felt like it took forever. When lunch time finally rolled around, she was glad to go, though she had no appetite for it. What surprised her, when she walked into the lunchroom, was the sight of Belle, over at her table with her usual group, waving Uchenna over energetically.
Emer had just come in behind Uchenna: Uchenna caught her eye and gestured her over. They sat down. “What?” Uchenna said.
Belle gave her a wide-eyed look. “You have to be the only ones who haven’t heard,” she said in a hushed excited whisper. “The mythical mystery horses have appeared!”
“What? Where are they??” Uchenna whispered back.
“Donelan’s old place,” Belle said. “The other side of the north wall. But not for long! Because they’re stolen, and there are about five Garda cars out with them right this minute.”
Uchenna and Emer looked at each other. “Who were they stolen from?” Emer said.
Belle shook her head. “Don’t know. Don’t think the Guards do, either. They’re in the middle of an investigation… at least that’s what I heard one of the teachers saying. At least nobody knows who they belong to. But the Guards are getting ready to take them away.”
Uchenna’s eyes went wide. “Where to?”
“Back behind the Garda station,” Belle said. “They’re going to pen them up there until tomorrow, then take them over to the county animal pound in Urlingford.” Belle then started to snort with laughter. “They couldn’t take them over there today because somebody’s stolen the local Guards’ spare horse transports, would you believe it? And they couldn’t borrow one from the pound, and the horse boxes that belong to the Gardai in the city can’t be loaned out, or something like that… the city Guards won’t trust the country Guards with them.” Belle’s little group crowed with laughter. “They wound up borrowing some local guy’s horse box to move the horses into the parking lot behind the station.”
“Were the horses okay when they found them?” Uchenna said.
“Yeah, as far as I know,” Belle said. “What I heard was the Guards were trying to figure out how anybody had moved this big pregnant mare in there without anyone noticing. Whole thing sounds kind of shady to me.”
“Yeah,” said one of Belle’s group. “They’re trying to figure out where the horses were last. They think there might be some clues to who stole them if they can track them back…”
Uchenna flushed hot with sheer panic. She went and got some lunch just for the look of it, but she wasn’t able to do more than toy with her food for the rest of lunchtime: she was too busy cursing herself for dumping out that bag of apples. Oh, God. What am I going to do if Mam and Dad find out about this? If a few phone calls from the neighbors make Mam crazy, what’s a Garda car in front of the house going to do?
Her state of mind after lunch got her called out a couple of times by her afternoon teachers, which just made her angrier and more nervous: so that when afternoon break came around she was beyond merely tense. She almost didn’t want to face Jimmy, but when she went out of her classroom, there he was, waiting across the hall, just where they’d agreed they should meet before they went to Mr. Mallon. A few moments later, Emer joined them.
“So what now?” Uchenna said softly, all out of sorts and not much caring who saw it. “Do we go see him and tell him what we know?”
Jimmy shook his head. “No way,” he said under his breath. “Leave me out of it now. The minute the Guards get involved, I’m out of it. Got enough trouble as it is.”
“What trouble?”
“My folks,” Jimmy said, and scowled. “They were getting grief from some people last night. ‘Your son was out getting everybody suspicious about us,’ blah blah…” He shook his head, scowled. “No more of that for me. Me da—”
Uchenna waited for him to say something else about his dad: but nothing else was forthcoming. “Listen,” Jimmy said then, fierce and upset, “you promised. Not a word about me. You promised!” And Jimmy walked off, head down, vanished around a corner into the corridor that headed toward the toilets.
From behind Uchenna came a snicker. A crowd of other kids who’d been milling around further down the hall now drifted up past them, paused. “Hey, You-chenna, you ready to start dating now? Didn’t think you’d start with some dumb creamer.”
Another snicker. “Yeah,” somebody else said from inside the crowd, “the creamer found himself some coffee.”
“Or some brown sugar—”
Uchenna went hot with anger. Yet another insult, a secretive reference to some rhyming slang: creamer from “cream cracker”, which rhymed with “knacker”. “It’s not like talking to somebody new’s a crime,” Uchenna said, rounding on them. “You should try it sometime, but you’re all such big fecking blouses that none of you’d dare.”
She glared at them, then turned and marched away before they would have time to do anything about the insult except suck in breath and make that “ooooooo” noise. Emer had vanished. Uchenna carefully didn’t look in the direction she suspected Emer might have gone: just took herself down to the room where her next class was.
The afternoon dragged on, and Uchenna spent it twitching. When classes were over, she was half afraid to go home. She and Emer were standing on the school steps again when Belle came out and paused, looking around for somebody. “Belle—” Uchenna said.
Belle looked around at her, surprised. “Oh, hi, Chen—”
“Where’s ‘Donelan’s old place?’”
Belle smiled a little secretive smile. “Thought you might want to know,” she said. “Come on.”
She led them out the school gate and down to the right, past all the shops and apartments in the middle of Adamstown: then angled northward through an area that Uchenna didn’t know all that well, on the far side of the new leisure center and out behind it, where there were dumpsters and wheelie bins standing around in a big bare parking lot. Here there was another of the usual high concrete walls, but this one had a little gated gap in it, and the chainlink gate wasn’t locked.
They went out through it and across another field like the Field of Dead Trolleys, but one with a lot more nettles in it, some of them growing a meter tall. “Watch out for those,” Belle said, leading them on a circuitous path where most of the nettles had been trodden down.
“Jeez, how many people were out here before?” Emer said as they went along.
Belle laughed. “Lots. Anybody who thought they could sneak out to watch the Guards trying to deal with horses came out here. Everybody said it was pretty funny. The pregnant one stepped on one of them. There was screaming…” She shook her head. “Don’t think we’re gonna find a lot here now, though.”
She was right. Through a hedgerow there was an empty field, well grassed over, Uchenna was happy to see: but the horses were gone again. Their hoofprints could still be seen in the somewhat wet ground. Many tire tracks, some of them deep, led away from the hedgerowed field. That was all.
Uchenna let out a long unhappy breath
.
“Something you want to tell me about this?” Belle said.
Uchenna gave her a look.
Belle held her hands up in the air in a don’t-blame-me gesture. “Okay, okay,” she said, “just asking. Never mind.” She turned and headed back toward the rear of the leisure center.
Uchenna and Emer followed her, a little ways behind. “So that’s that,” Emer said. “If the Guards have them, then the Mammy will be okay. All the horses will have plenty to eat, and the Guards’ll get the Mammy a vet if she needs one.”
“Yeah,” Uchenna said. She knew she should have felt glad: but somehow she was heartsore. She couldn’t get out of her head the image of that mild, thoughtful eye looking at her, saying… what? It was as if there’d been some attempt to communicate going on, but Uchenna hadn’t been able to work out what the message was. And now there would never be another chance.
She went home in a sad mood and did her homework more or less on autopilot: she ate dinner the same way, even though her Dad had brought home Indian from her favorite restaurant in Naas. When everything was cleaned up in the kitchen, though, and her Dad was sprawled in front of the TV tapping away on his laptop as usual, Uchenna slipped quietly downstairs again into the kitchen, rummaged around in one of the kitchen drawers, and came up with the little flashlight her Dad used when he had to go out and root around in the shed in the dark. I hate this! Uchenna thought as she headed silently out into the back yard and went as quickly as she could up the tree and over the wall. It’s like being some kind of crook. But I don’t dare let anybody see me—
She made her way across the field nervously, still afraid she might be spotted. At one point, when she realized there was enough skyglow from Dublin to get by without the flashlight, she turned it off, slowing down to keep from tripping in any of the holes in the field. A while later she crossed over the Condom Ditch and into the field where the horses had been.