See Part 2 here
Downalong
All were invited back to the house where Lorca had arranged for caterers to provide a light lunch and a river of booze. George stayed very much in the background, surprisingly unmoved by his new status of widower, wandering around the grounds with his two orphaned teenagers and his own stray, now a sullen young man riddled with facial hardware and tattoos.
The rest of us partied long and hard, the tide-pool of her friends sharing more deeply as the night descended and the garden lights came on. The talk always circling back to the monks. Speculation and conjecture running rampant across our conversation, dipping and swooping and catching and holding. She never. I wouldn't put it past her. Remember how, well, sexual, her solos were? Those old hymns given a new husky spin? The monks were lapping it up. Yes, they were. And to bury her. Brazen. In their very own cemetery. What kind of statement was that? I mean another fifty years and more monks would be interred. Poppy surrounded by over a hundred monks.
And that was when we all fell apart. George and Liam, together, coming in to Poppy's vast living room, stopping, thunderstruck, finding all of us heaped in various positions on the furniture and floor, loosened by countless glasses, howling in helpless laughter.
Poppy's final outrageous finger to the universe.
I came in late, so was able to read Poppy's story in full at one sitting. What a character! I wonder if you know her birthday - even roughly? I loved the last scene, the idea of her sexing up the hymns - and doing the same for the monks - LOL!
ReplyDeleteSo pleased to read that you both had such a glorious weekend.
I think she was August as we had each bemoaned that everyone was always away in Ireland in August and there were less gifts, that was early in secondary school.
DeleteThank you T, it was a very special weekend hanging out with her.
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I am pretty certain that she would have LOVED the turnout for her funeral. And the questions and the helpless laughter. Going out in style.
ReplyDeleteI am so overjoyed we got the joke when everyone else was basically enraged. Poppy had planned the whole thing from the beginning of her "courtship" of the monastery.
DeleteLying down with hundreds of monks in death. The scandal!!
We should all live as she did. Truly.
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And the mystery of WHY/ never answered. Love it.
ReplyDeleteI think it was - she invested all that time and trouble with the monks and then persuaded them to bury her there, thus giving her finger to her family and the church who condemned her lifestyle. I honestly believe - having known her - there wasn't one shred of her faith left. It was all faked.
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love your sharing
ReplyDeletewhat a writer you are
the best
Ah you are so sweet Ernestine, thank you!
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I was able to read all the three instalments in one go and am impressed with the characterisation. And no, the humour did not go unnoticed either.
ReplyDeleteI knew you'd get it Ramana, she was such a character, so fearless, I envied her that assuredness.
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Imagine seeing her grave surrounded by all those men in their own graves. Nice.
ReplyDeleteThe only civilian every allowed in there Gigi!!
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Well, the benefit of being away from the computer for a bit - I got to read the story in full at one sitting! Very interesting (and so well written!).
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