Dada 106

I heard the clerk shift behind me. I told him that in my opinion, that was none of my business what gave him meaning. From across the table, he launched himself at me, the beads in front of him. He was screaming like a madman, his skull turned down in a paroxysm of rage of someone possessed. I turned around to the clerk but his face was down as if the keyboard was his holy book and would give him no reason to look up.

‘How can you not believe that they suffered for you’ the policeman was addressing my whole life.

 I felt or I was about to say that I had suffered for someone else’s beliefs and actions but thought it best to stay quiet. An image of my ma and da rose before me and I thought what trouble they might still bring to complicate matters further. After my initial shiver, it was starting to get hot; soon the pavements would be steaming. This was my time. As always whenever I want to get rid of people my head turns down or away and I nod in agreement; to my surprise the policeman stopped shouting. He stopped everything and remained quiet as if his thoughts were also closing down, drifting away like a ship suddenly released from the port to dance on the tide.

There was a confidence in his voice.

‘You see.’ He said. ’You see?

‘You will put your trust in those who suffer for you’