Novel 9

 

Chapter 9

Irene and Sydney

One of the days, when Finbar was sitting in his little sheriff's office, reading his favourite comic, The Eagle, he heard a tapping from outside.

Tap . .tap . .tap . . tap . . getting closer by the second.

Tap . . . tap . . . tap . . tap . . TAP  . . . . TAP even closer, now.

When it was almost outside, the lavatory door opened: then after a few mini seconds, it closed.

He stood up and made sure his holster was tightly strapped to his thigh, then he opened the door and passed by the lavatory – he knew who was in there - so he hid in the wash room.

Eventually the door opened and out came their next door neighbour, Sydney; a blind man.

“Hold it there hombre -  or I'll let you have it” said Finbar.

Sydney turned around to face him.

“Too late, hombre” cried Finbar, and he pulled the trigger.

Sydney made a move and fell almost to his knees – very very gently; he was a very old man.

He almost reached as far as he could, then lifted his white stick, pointed it at Finbar, and said: “Take that La Rue – BANG!!”

Finbar fell to the floor with great exaggeration.

“How are you, little fella” said Sydney “no harmonica today?”

Finbar jumped up, pulled the harmonica from his pocket and started playing 'The Man from Laramie,' a popular song of the time.

“That's it” said Sydney “I like that.”

It was a miracle that he could hear at all, because as well as only having one fifth of the sight in his right eye, and his left eye with no sight at all, he needed a hearing aid.

He loved young Finbar and would listen out for Finbar's harmonica playing.

His favourite programme on the radio was ‘The Archers’ which he would listen at full blast; he had been an avid fan of the soap opera, since the radio serial first started. Finbar knew this and started playing the theme to The Archers and as soon as he started, Sydney gave him a little clap.

Once in a while, Finbar's parents would go out, so Sydney and his wife, Irene, would come around and baby sit. They didn't have a television of their own and they loved watching Finbar's set.

Sydney would have to sit next to the TV and watch from a distance of two or three inches, just to the side so as not to block the view; the sound had to be on maximum volume too.

Irene would sit on the sofa, with Finbar, and there was a little stool for Sydney, for his close up position.

If there was a singer, or even a round of applause from the audience, Irene and Sydney would clap their hands as if they were at the theatre themselves.

“Did you like that one Syd' she would say, but Syd – Sydney – would never hear her. Finbar liked to have them around as they were amusing, especially when Irene would go into the little kitchen and Finbar would hear her rooting around in the cupboards.

Sydney's hearing aid was the old fashioned type which had a device with wires.

He was a very good conjurer: one trick, involved a handkerchief and a match: he would take a match, wrap his dirty handkerchief around it, break it, and when he opened the handkerchief again, “lo and behold” he would say, the match was still in one piece.

His handkerchief was usually dirty because he would shine the brass door knocker every time he went in and came out of his front door; even though he could hardly see it.

Another thing he used to do was throw a coin into the air, make it disappear then find it behind Finbar’s ear.

Finbar would hear Sydney every morning when he would rise, very early, and clean out the fire place; after that he would put the ashes in to a special metal bin and go back in to the house and light the fire.

He did this the old fashioned way with loads of newspaper, a few fire lighters, bits of wood and coal.

Sometimes, when the fire was burning in the grate, he would throw on a few chopped logs.

Chapter 10

The Ballad of Carmel and Pat: 2