The Emerald Lie

A storm had been threatening the city for weeks. The government focused on this to lure us away from the horrors of the water charges but it wasn’t working. Large-scale marches of ordinary, decent people were increasing and the ministers scoffed. The leader of the Labour Party had been especially condescending about the protesters until

She was trapped in her car by them for over two hours.

Ebola continued to wreak havoc in Africa. Of course what do the powers that be do when they want to distract the public? Fall back on the old reliable scare:

... Bird flu.

Yeah, time to float that handy threat again.

In the European qualifiers after a wonderful draw with the world champion, Germany, we were beaten by a newly invigorated Scottish side. Bob Geldof resurrected the Band-Aid single with a whole new cast of young singers to help the Ebola-stricken countries.

George Bush brought out a book about his dad and wrote on his friendship with Clinton! Ireland decided it needed an Irish fiction laureate and drew up a list of the usual suspects that nobody read.

I was walking the pup along the prom when I met a slow-moving elderly man. He raised his cane, boomed,

“Well, I declare, Jack-een Taylor.”

There was no warmth in that, none at all. I didn’t recognize him but nothing new in that. He was one of those who didn’t see the pup. That was all I needed to know. I gave a terse,

“Hello”

Kept going.

But he wasn’t done, said,

“Getting very high and mighty, are we?”

I sighed, wondered if I should just get honest, slap him in the mouth, be done with it. I looked at him, said,

“Hey, I don’t know you and I have no desire to remedy that.”

He smiled, showing some seriously bad teeth, said,

“I had a pub in Forster Street and you were more than a regular.”

I moved to go. The pup was showing signs of maybe gnawing on the guy’s leg and I wasn’t sure I’d stop him. Before I could answer, he added with a smirk,

“I barred you.”

That didn’t really jog my memory a whole lot. I’d been barred from the best and the worst. I said,

“You take care now.”

I leaned on the care letting it be something else entirely. He seemed reluctant to let it slide, said,

“They caught that lunatic, the guy who was killing people for speaking badly.”

I thought, Emily will be pissed. He was on her to-do list. I looked out at the bay, dark clouds were forming on the horizon, I said,

“You need to get home before the storm.”

He laughed, near spat,

“Weather never worried me.”

I gave the pup a rub on his ear, turned to go, and asked,

“Who’s talking about the weather?”