him one Saturday afternoon in St. Stephen’s Green when her father’s eyes roamed all around the place.
“Often I look, Katie,” he said. “I look for someone who will make me more lively and exciting, more interesting than I am.”
“I think you’re nice the way you are, Daddy,” his daughter said. “I wouldn’t want you different, I feel safe with you.”
That’s because she’s nine, he thought, when she’s fourteen even she’ll realize what a shell I am. The visits will be shorter, the impatience very obvious.
Rory was invited to a colleague’s wedding. Brian, the bridegroom, sat beside him at work, and he had been through all the highs and lows of the romance with Maureen, the dramas of the courtship, the on-off nature of the engagement. The throwing away and retrieval of the diamond ring. Now the day was almost here.
Normally he would have made an excuse and got out of it, but not on this occasion. He couldn’t let Brian down.
“You know, I owe it all to that girl Fiona on the radio,” Brian had said unexpectedly the day before the wedding. Rory blushed as if he had been found out. Fiona was
his
secret—he didn’t want her shared with everybody. Not in a personal way.
“Did you phone her show?” He could hardly believe it. Rory thought he was the only one in the office who listened to Fiona on his earpiece.
“No, but my fiancée, Maureen, did. She rang her last week and said she was so nervous of giving up everything, and changing her name and becoming a chattel, all the usual crap, and Fiona was great to her.”
“What did she do?”
“Oh, she sent some mousy woman round to talk to her and the two of them got on like a house on fire. The mousy woman said that Maureen didn’t have to change her name and she and I should be partners and friends, and suddenly since last week everything is just magical.”
“Good for Fiona, then,” croaked Rory.
“No, good for the Mouse, I say. She is coming to the wedding, by the way, but don’t tell anyone.”
At the wedding the groom, Brian, red-faced with happiness and drink, introduced his friend Rory to this quiet, slim woman, with short, straight, shiny hair and a slightly diffident smile.
“This issh the woman who saved my marriage,” he said, and left them together.
“I’m Fiona,” she said simply.
It was the same voice, the one off the radio, not so urgent and strident, but it was the same woman.
“But I thought you were the Mouse? The Mouse who came to sort out Maureen.”
“I’m both,” she said.
He had seen her before, several times, walking quietly into RTÉ or leaving. But where was the hair, the glasses?
“I wear them as a disguise,” she said. “You see, I’m actually not that sort of person at all, but someone I loved—or used to love a long time ago—said I was so dull and ordinary that I should try to get a job as an actress or something to liven myself up. So I invented this personality…”
Rory looked at her in amazement.
“Was it a long time ago?” he asked.
“That I got the job?” she wanted to know.
“That you loved the other person, the one who said you were ordinary.”
“Oh, ages ago. I don’t love him anymore. I didn’t have the show and the false personality and everything just to get him back; I just thought he might be right that maybe I
am
very dull and ordinary.”
“No, you’re not, you’re terrific, you sorted Maureen out.” He waved at the dazzling, happy bride.
“Oh, that was easy. I do a lot of other things—I often get involved in a sort of quieter way myself to sort out people’s problems. I quite enjoy it.”
He wondered for a moment had she known the women who had asked Katie to the birthday parties. Did he dare to ask her?
Yes, of course he could. He knew it was a long shot but he was right. One invitation had been from Fiona’s sister Angela, who just loved little Katie, and in fact Fiona had met Katie at the house when she was doing her conjuring
“Often I look, Katie,” he said. “I look for someone who will make me more lively and exciting, more interesting than I am.”
“I think you’re nice the way you are, Daddy,” his daughter said. “I wouldn’t want you different, I feel safe with you.”
That’s because she’s nine, he thought, when she’s fourteen even she’ll realize what a shell I am. The visits will be shorter, the impatience very obvious.
Rory was invited to a colleague’s wedding. Brian, the bridegroom, sat beside him at work, and he had been through all the highs and lows of the romance with Maureen, the dramas of the courtship, the on-off nature of the engagement. The throwing away and retrieval of the diamond ring. Now the day was almost here.
Normally he would have made an excuse and got out of it, but not on this occasion. He couldn’t let Brian down.
“You know, I owe it all to that girl Fiona on the radio,” Brian had said unexpectedly the day before the wedding. Rory blushed as if he had been found out. Fiona was
his
secret—he didn’t want her shared with everybody. Not in a personal way.
“Did you phone her show?” He could hardly believe it. Rory thought he was the only one in the office who listened to Fiona on his earpiece.
“No, but my fiancée, Maureen, did. She rang her last week and said she was so nervous of giving up everything, and changing her name and becoming a chattel, all the usual crap, and Fiona was great to her.”
“What did she do?”
“Oh, she sent some mousy woman round to talk to her and the two of them got on like a house on fire. The mousy woman said that Maureen didn’t have to change her name and she and I should be partners and friends, and suddenly since last week everything is just magical.”
“Good for Fiona, then,” croaked Rory.
“No, good for the Mouse, I say. She is coming to the wedding, by the way, but don’t tell anyone.”
At the wedding the groom, Brian, red-faced with happiness and drink, introduced his friend Rory to this quiet, slim woman, with short, straight, shiny hair and a slightly diffident smile.
“This issh the woman who saved my marriage,” he said, and left them together.
“I’m Fiona,” she said simply.
It was the same voice, the one off the radio, not so urgent and strident, but it was the same woman.
“But I thought you were the Mouse? The Mouse who came to sort out Maureen.”
“I’m both,” she said.
He had seen her before, several times, walking quietly into RTÉ or leaving. But where was the hair, the glasses?
“I wear them as a disguise,” she said. “You see, I’m actually not that sort of person at all, but someone I loved—or used to love a long time ago—said I was so dull and ordinary that I should try to get a job as an actress or something to liven myself up. So I invented this personality…”
Rory looked at her in amazement.
“Was it a long time ago?” he asked.
“That I got the job?” she wanted to know.
“That you loved the other person, the one who said you were ordinary.”
“Oh, ages ago. I don’t love him anymore. I didn’t have the show and the false personality and everything just to get him back; I just thought he might be right that maybe I
am
very dull and ordinary.”
“No, you’re not, you’re terrific, you sorted Maureen out.” He waved at the dazzling, happy bride.
“Oh, that was easy. I do a lot of other things—I often get involved in a sort of quieter way myself to sort out people’s problems. I quite enjoy it.”
He wondered for a moment had she known the women who had asked Katie to the birthday parties. Did he dare to ask her?
Yes, of course he could. He knew it was a long shot but he was right. One invitation had been from Fiona’s sister Angela, who just loved little Katie, and in fact Fiona had met Katie at the house when she was doing her conjuring
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