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‘Why didn’t you come to see me sooner, Joe?’ Nora asked. ‘You’ve been home for three days now.’
Joe looked down at his hands and then at Nora. ‘I wanted to, Nora. I wanted to very much. But I was afraid of unseemly haste. And besides, I had a lot to talk about with my folks.’ Joe reached a hand towards Nora’s, then dropped it on to his knee instead. ‘I came by here last night and stood outside for a while. I almost came in but I was afraid you’d be in bed and I didn’t want to disturb you.’
‘Oh Joe, it wouldn’t have mattered.’
‘I know. But I decided to wait.’ He smiled, and for an instant the young Joe Carney appeared in the older, weathered, war-weary face. ‘Where’s Liam?’
‘At the school. He’ll be home soon. Will you stay for tea?’
‘I don’t know if I should. Or if I could.’
‘Please do, Joe. I don’t want you to rush off again when you’ve only just arrived.’
‘Well, in that case, how could I say no? Of course I’ll stay.’
Nora’s face beamed a smile of pleasure that deepened the long dimples at the sides of her mouth.
‘When’s the baby due?’ Joe asked.
‘June twenty-third or thereabouts.’ Nora stroked her hands across her stomach. ‘Three months to go. We’d like you to be its godfather, Joe. We both would. You don’t have to be here for the baptism if it’s inconvenient; it can all be done by proxy.’
‘Are you sure that Liam is agreeable?’
‘Yes, I’m perfectly sure. We’ve discussed it already, and Liam would definitely like you to be the child’s godfather. If it’s a boy we’re going to call him Owen Joseph. Owen was the name of Liam’s grandfather, and Liam has fond memories of the old man. He was once writing a book about his grandfather’s family but he never finished it. He keeps saying he will, but he rarely looks at it. He gets carried away on some other line of study. There must be five or six hundred hand-written pages lying in the bottom of the wardrobe upstairs.’
‘And what if your baby is a girl?’ Joe asked. ‘Do you have a girl’s name picked out?’
‘Not exactly,’ Nora replied. ‘If we have a girl, my mother would like me to call her Sinead, after old Mother Ross. It’s also my middle name. But Liam has chosen his mother’s name, Siobhan. Owen and Joseph go together, but Sinead and Siobhan don’t. So, we’ll see.’
Libros Libertad 