The Parting Glass

“Nick?”

He heard a woman’s voice in the distance. At the sound of his name, memory rushed in to fill the void. He had gone back inside the tunnel to find Josh. There had been an explosion…. He tried to sit up, but immediately his head began to throb. He decided against moving for the moment.

“Nick?” This time the voice calling him was a man’s.

“Here,” he croaked. “I’m here. I’m okay, I think.”

He heard footsteps, quick ones, and loud enough to make his head throb harder. He realized the light that illuminated the bottom of the wall was a flashlight. His flashlight. He had dropped it. He felt for it until he had it in his grasp. Then he shined it on the wall, hoping to guide his rescuers.

“Here,” he croaked again.

He waited. His vision was blurry, but as he stared at the wall, his eyes began to focus. Above him was an image. He struggled to focus more closely. A woman gazed down at him, an image as familiar as his own.

The footsteps drew closer, but now he paid little attention. He drew the beam along the edge of the image. Up, down, across. It was pronounced, certainly not the result of his injury. He was not looking at something that wasn’t there.

The Virgin Mary was looking down at him, and she was weeping.

“Nick, my God, are you all right?”

He heard a man’s voice. Jon. He was glad to put a name to it. Then he heard a woman’s, and he knew the worst moment of his day wasn’t over.

“Megan,” he croaked. He turned his head to see a vision in white running in his direction. She fell to the ground beside him.

“Are you okay? Don’t move. What happened?”

“Explosion. Gas leak. Maybe in the cellar. Fumes ignited by the—maybe the water heater. I should have thought to blow out the pilot light.” He coughed.

Jon joined them. “Were you in the cellar when it blew?”

Niccolo tried to remember. “Almost. Where am I?”

“About ten yards down the tunnel.”

Niccolo realized he must have been knocked off his feet by the explosion and catapulted to this place. “I should be…”

“Dead,” Jon supplied. “For sure. I don’t know why you aren’t. It’s nothing short of a miracle. Can you move your arms and legs?”

Niccolo tried. He felt bruised all over, but nothing seemed to be broken. “Josh?”

“Down below. You should have waited to find out.”

“Time wasn’t a friend.”

“You said you were going up to the road,” Megan said. “You lied to me.”

“I didn’t want you to worry….”

“You two settle that later. Right now, I think we need to get you out of here,” Jon said. “The fire department’s on its way. They’ll address the leak, wherever it is, but we don’t want another explosion while we’re in here.”

“Fire…” Inevitably, it followed explosions.

“There’s not much to ignite down here. We can assume the furnace room will be a total loss.”

Niccolo struggled to sit up. At the second try, and with Jon and Megan’s help, he managed. The world spun, but when he opened his eyes again, the Virgin still stared down at him.

“Tell me I’m not imagining her,” he said.

“Nick, you’re not imagining me,” Megan said.

“You’re real. I know. Her.” Niccolo shined his light on the wall again.

Jon and Megan turned to see what he was talking about. Niccolo watched Megan’s face. He watched his bride’s eyes widen. She stared at the wall, then at him. And then Megan, whose relationship with the Church was suspect at best, made the sign of the cross.

chapter 6

Cleveland’s Hopkins airport was open for business, and planes were still flying. That seemed incongruous to Peggy, who only the day before had wondered if she or Cleveland would survive the tornado’s devastation. Now, she stared at the ceiling in Niccolo and Megan’s guest bedroom and wondered how she would feel tomorrow, when she woke up in another strange bed. This time in Ireland.

A faint rapping launched her to her feet. She opened the door a crack to see her sister’s serious face.

“Phil tracked you down,” Megan said softly, so not to wake Kieran. “Nice of him.”

Peggy wasn’t surprised at her sister’s tone. Megan did not like Kieran’s father, nor, for that matter, did Casey. “At least he’s calling, Megan. I should have called him myself last night. There was just so much going on.”

“I suppose even Phil finds it hard to ignore the fact that the saloon was struck by a tornado. We’re the toast of the town. We made statewide news.”

“You’re supposed to be on your honeymoon.” Peggy looked around for something to pull over her T-shirt so that she could take Phil’s call.

“We’ll go after I get the estimates for renovations. I’ll have plenty of time to relax. I won’t be working for months.” Megan shook her head as if she was still adjusting to that thought. “Let me get you a robe. There’s nobody in the kitchen. You can talk to Phil there.”

Peggy checked Kieran, who was sleeping soundly, his tiny body curled in a ball. She wanted him to sleep, since their flight to Ireland was going to be trial enough. When Megan returned, she wrapped the flannel bathrobe around her and secured it; then, with a nod to her sister, she went down to the kitchen and picked up the receiver.

“Phil?”

“I was beginning to think you weren’t going to speak to me.”

She found a chair and tried to make herself comfortable. “Things are in chaos here, but we’re all right. I’m sorry you had to hear about it from somebody else.”

“The Columbus Dispatch had a front page article. Kieran’s okay?”

“Fine. We’re all lucky. Just cuts and bruises and one mild concussion. It was one of those freaky things. Lookout Avenue caught the tail of a twister. There were trees down all over the West Side, but it could have been so much worse.”

“The paper says the saloon sustained the worst damage on the street?”

“Let’s just say we won’t be serving Guinness for a while. Luckily it’s not a total loss. And since she has to close and renovate anyway, Megan’s swearing she’ll improve the place while she’s at it.”

“Megan said you’re still planning to leave today.”

“I am.” Peggy considered her next words but decided to go ahead. “I wish you could have come to say goodbye this week, Phil. Kieran will be a whole year older by the time we get back.”