Skellig

Chapter 32

DR. DEATH FACED ME ACROSS THE kitchen table. He touched my hand with his long curved fingers. I caught the scent of tobacco that surrounded him. I saw the black spots on his skin. Dad was telling him the story: my disappearance in the night, my sleepwalking. I heard in his voice how scared he still was, how he thought he’d lost me. I wanted to tell him again that I was all right, everything was all right.

“I woke up and knew he was gone. Straight away I knew he was gone. When you love somebody you know these things. It’s right, Dan. Isn’t it?”

Dr. Death tried to smile but his eyes stayed stupid and cold.

“And there was this girl with you?” he said.

“Mina,” said Dad. “She saw him from her window, sleepwalking in the night. She went to help him. That’s true, isn’t it, Michael?”

I nodded.

Dr. Death licked his lips.

“Mina. She isn’t one of mine,” he said. “I wouldn’t know her.”

He tried to smile again.

“Sleepwalking?” he said. He raised his eyebrows. “And this is true?”

I stared at him.

“Yes. This is true.”

He watched me. He was cold, dry, pale as death. Wings would never rise at his back.

“Let me look at you.”

I stood in front of him. He shined a tiny bright light into my eyes and peered into me. He shined it into my ears. I felt his breath and his scent all over me. He lifted my shirt and pressed his stethoscope against my chest and listened to me. I felt his clammy hands on my skin.

“What day is it?” he asked me. “What month is it? What’s the name of the Prime Minister?”

Dad chewed his lips as he watched and listened.

“Good lad,” he murmured as I answered.

Dr. Death touched my cheek.

“Is there anything you’d like to tell me?” he asked.

I shook my head.

“Don’t be shy,” he said. “Me and your dad have been through everything you’re going through.”

I shook my head again.

“He’s a fit and healthy lad,” he said. “Just keep an eye on him.” His mouth grinned as he looked at me. “And make sure he stays in bed at night.”

He kept me close to him.

“It’s a difficult time,” he said. “Everything inside you’s changing. The world can seem a wild and weird place. But you’ll get through it.”

“Did you treat Ernie?” I asked.

He raised his eyebrows.

“Ernie Myers. The man who lived here before.”

“Ah,” said Dr. Death. “Yes, Mr. Myers was one of mine.”

“Did he talk about seeing things?”

“Things?”

“Strange things. In the garden, in the house.”

From the corner of my eye I saw Dad chewing his lips again.

“Mr. Myers was very ill,” said Dr. Death. “He was dying.”

“I know that.”

“And as the mind approaches death it changes. It becomes less … orderly.”

“So he did?”

“He did speak of certain images that came to him. But so do many of my people.”

He held me again with his long fingers.

“I think you need to play football with your friends,” he said. “I think you need to go to school again.” He looked at Dad. “Yes, I think he should go to school again. Too much inside the house.” He tapped my head. “Too much thinking and wondering and worrying going on in there.”

He stood up and Dad went with him to the door. I heard them muttering together in the hallway.

“School for you tomorrow,” said Dad as he came back in. He was trying to be all brisk and efficient but he pressed his lips together and looked at me and I saw the scared look in his eyes.

“I’m sorry, Dad,” I whispered.

We held each other tight; then we looked out at the yard.

“Why did you ask those things about Ernie?” he said.

“Don’t know,” I said. “Crazy notions.”

“It’s true, what you told us? That you were sleepwalking?”

For a moment I wanted to tell him everything: Skellig, the owls, what Mina and I got up to in the night. Then I knew how weird it would seem.

“Yes,” I said. “It’s true, Dad.”