Walking With Giants

IT always happens when I come back home to Northern Ireland, where my sister, Aileen, still lives. Having lived in England for years, it’s always lovely coming back, but a kind of Irish mysticism seems to take over!

So, as I arrived only the day before with my son, Declan, Aileen’s news takes a few minutes to sink in.

“Maura, guess who I met at a wedding recently?” she says. “Your old pal, Carrie! She still lives in Antrim.”

I nearly choke on my coffee. Carrie!

Truth is, I never return without thinking of her. It might have all happened years ago, but the regret is still there.

My falling for Carrie’s boyfriend, Jack, was bad enough, but then to go on and marry him . . .

I know you can’t help who you fall in love with, but to do that to Carrie, of all people!

I shall never, ever forgive myself.

Especially as later, when we moved to England, the marriage went so disastrously wrong.

All these years my actions have nagged away, at the back of my mind. “How is she?” I ask.

“Fine! We were both a bit wary, mind. She teaches art to adults. She was always so good at it, remember?”

“Did she mention me?” “No. A shame; you were such good friends once.”

True. I did try sending her Christmas cards and the like afterwards, hoping to make amends. No answer, of course.

Declan comes running in from the garden.

“Mum says we can go to the Causeway, Auntie Aileen!” he cries.

“I might see a giant, like Dad said!”

I grin. It was Neil’s suggestion that we come over to see Aileen while he’s away on business.

Before we left, he explained the legend of the Giant’s Causeway – which is just along the coast from here – to our eleven-yearold son.

“Two giants hated each other, and the Irish one, Fionn McCool, built a path across the sea – stepping stones all the way to Scotland – so he could pick a fight with the Scottish giant, Benandonner.

“But Benandonner ripped it up, and what’s left is the Giant’s Causeway. You’ll be walking in giants’ footsteps, son!”

I was so lucky to meet Neil after that painful divorce from Jack.

He was a real charmer, was Jack, and I loved him to bits, but we were

This enchanting place was always full of surprises . . .

complete opposites.

And when I found out about the womanising, that was it.

No doubt he would have treated Carrie the same way – not that that makes what I did all right, of course.

Aileen, alone since her husband died, has made plans for the week ahead.

I’d mentally marked in Wednesday for our Causeway visit, but she has booked us in for a dinosaur exhibition that day, and suggests Declan and I go on Thursday.

Aileen has to work that day, but knowing the place well, she advises me on the best vantage points on the beach.

When my son and I finally set off in the car “to see the giants”, we drive through scenery that still takes my breath away after all this time.

The fields seem so much greener here, and the skies clearer.

Or maybe it’s just that Irish mysticism again!

The weather is not that sunny, but the spectacular Antrim coastline changes with every bend in the road.

Bliss! I really must come back more often.

As we walk down to the Causeway, I am taken right back to my teens.

This being one of our favourite places, Carrie and I used to cycle here a lot.

Always together, we spent hours leaping about the stones, our shrieks competing with the roar of the sea.

Then Jack came into Carrie’s life . . . and one memorable day he turned his attentions to me.

I was too flattered – and besotted – back then to see beyond his good looks.

We reach the Causeway and Declan stares openmouthed at the dark brown hexagonal stones, stacked together like massive plates along the beach, seeming to tumble into the grey sea.

“Sixty million years old, these are,” he says reverently, squatting to stroke one of the wet blocks of stone. “Like great big chocolate buttons! There’s forty thousand of ’em. Wicked!”

I laugh at my statisticmad son’s serious expression.

“Don’t go too far,” I warn, as he begins to scramble across the “buttons”.

Taking Aileen’s advice on the best area to aim for, I go to sit on a rock under the craggy cliff.

There aren’t too many visitors today so I’ll be able to keep an eye on Declan from here.

It’s quite noisy with the cry of gulls and children shouting, yet after about ten minutes, from close by, I catch a woman’s Irish lilt.

“See how the colour of the stones changes constantly . . .”

I glance across to where she sits, surrounded by half a dozen adults, all earnestly sketching or painting.

The woman wears a large green hat and there’s something familiar about her . . .

My heart begins to hammer and my first instinct is to move away.

It’s Carrie!

I peer across the beach, looking for Declan, and frown when I can’t see him.

Alarmed, I grab my bag, fear overtaking everything as I reach the stones and begin to stumble across them.

I should never have looked away!

And then I hear his voice. I stop, going limp with relief.

“Mum! Over here, quick!” I turn. Declan is waving desperately from a rough, deserted cavern tucked away from the main beach.

As I draw nearer, I spot a small girl sitting beside him, clutching her leg and trying not to cry.

“She fell down,” Declan explains.

I kneel and touch her leg gently. She has a gash which is bleeding a little through her torn jeans, but nothing seems to be broken.

I smile reassuringly and ask her name.

“Selina,” she mumbles. “We’ll soon get you back to your family, Selina,” I say. “Don’t you worry.”

I grope in my bag for the large clean hanky I always carry for just such emergencies.

Carefully, I cover the wound.

“You’ll be fine.”

I help her to stand up and Declan and I guide her as best we can over the slippery stones.

“Selina!”

The woman in the large green hat is hurrying towards us.

My heart does more somersaults as the little girl calls to her.

“Mum! I tripped over.” “Thanks a million!” Carrie addresses me, but is too busy hugging her daughter to actually look up.

“I suddenly realised she’d vanished.”

Now she turns to me.

“I’m taking an art class here, but with it being the school holidays, I had to bring my daughter –”

She stops, staring.

“Do I know you?”

“It’s Maura,” I mumble, looking away quickly as Carrie’s expression changes. “Let’s get Selina back.”

When we eventually rejoin the art group, Selina’s leg has stopped bleeding and she’s chatting away to Declan.

Carrie asks her students to pack up their gear and we both sit down.

“I met your sister,” Carrie begins.

“Yes, she told me,” I answer tentatively.

There’s an awkward pause and, stupidly, I feel myself blushing.

“Carrie, I am so terribly sorry for what happened. Really, I am . . .”

I blurt the words out, then stop and stare across the Causeway at the dot-like people in the distance.

It all sounds so trivial now, that massive event that turned all of our lives around.

Carrie doesn’t answer. But the children, beside us, gabble on.

“. . . an angry Scottish giant smashed up an angry Irish giant’s path. So we get the Giant’s Causeway. Cool!” Selina says.

Declan shakes his head. “Not cool at all. There could be a road right across to Scotland now and we wouldn’t need to use planes and things. Giants shouldn’t fight – ”

“True, and neither should people,” Carrie interrupts, looking pointedly at me.

To my great relief, her eyes are twinkling.

“Isn’t it weird, meeting like this?”

“It was all so long ago, Maura. And I heard you divorced Jack – I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be. It didn’t work out. And I was lucky – afterwards I met Neil, Declan’s father.”

“Great!” Carrie beams. “Isn’t it weird, meeting like this?”

I’m about to agree when something occurs to me.

“Carrie, did you tell

Aileen about this class?”

“Yes, she said she was interested in doing art. I told her we were at the Causeway beach and she could find me on any Thursday.” She grins. “Oh, I get it!”

I smile back. Not so weird after all, then. Wait till I see Aileen!

“Maura, please don’t feel bad,” Carrie goes on. “You see, I was also lucky, finding Selina’s dad.

“Paul and I have been really good together.” She smiles and touches my hand.

“Why not come back with us and meet him? We’ve some catching-up to do!”

I nod happily, feeling so much better.

Later, after I’ve bought my sister a huge bunch of carnations, her favourite flowers, I shall ring Neil and tell him that he was right.

In this magical place, with its legends and mysticism, Declan and I surely are walking in the footsteps of giants!

The End.