Chapter 32
Dugal smacked his alarm clock and blinked a few times. It
was still pitch dark outside. It had been a few days since the
tumultuous events at the courthouse and his emotions still hadn't
settled. It was getting colder too, and the last thing he wanted to do
was get out of his cosy bed.
‘You idiot!’ he
muttered to himself. 'What were you thinking?'
Pulling
the duvet over his shoulder, he turned and tried to go back to sleep.
‘What a stupid idea,' he suddenly hissed to himself, and sat up
in his bed. 'What on earth got into you? Who in their right mind goes
running at this time of the morning?’
It had seemed like
a good idea the day before, but now it felt more like madness.
‘Oh come on,' he said to himself, 'get your fat lazy arse out of bed.’
His fat lazy arse, however, refused to move.
‘Tell you
what, Dugal,' he said, 'let’s just walk the route first, to test it out.
We can start the jogging thing another time.’
He waited
a moment for his mind to digest the wisdom of his suggestion and then
threw back the duvet and swung his legs over the side of the bed.
It had been a long time since he’d last pulled on his old leather
walking boots. Brushing off the cobwebs from the laces, he turned them
upside down and gave them a good whack to get any insects out that may
have been lurking in them. The last thing he wanted was squished spiders
wriggling between his toes. When he’d pulled his boots on and tied the
laces, he stamped up and down a few times.
‘Come on
Dugal,’ he said manfully, crossing his kitchen to the back door. ‘Sooner
it’s over with, the sooner you get some breakfast.’
‘If
I survive that long,’ he muttered in reply to himself as he closed the
door.
It had been raining quite heavily during the
night, and before setting off, he peered along the dark puddled road.
There were no lights on in anyone else’s houses as yet. He blew into his
hands to warm them up a bit. Autumn was on its way, that was for sure.
Although the rain had stopped, he noticed the sky was still black.
Feeling somewhat giddy with all the fresh morning air filling his lungs,
he paused for a moment, then strode quickly down his garden path and set
off along the road towards the track leading down to the sea.
Although it was chilly, he set a brisk pace and it wasn’t long before he
was loosening the top button of his jacket. The leather boots scuffing
the road felt much better on his feet than his old wellies.
From the road, the track down to the seashore sloped gently until it
reached a shingle beach where a few wooden rowing boats lay moored to
buoys. Dugal looked across the inlet to the hills beyond and to his
surprise found himself rather enjoying the walk. When he crunched onto
the shingle beach a few minutes later, he took a deep breath and looked
around him.
Boats creaked gently at their moorings,
gentle waves lapping their hulls. A mound of lobster creels lay stacked
up at the base of a small cliff and a few fish boxes lay scattered
around. Dugel filled his lungs with the scent of the sea and the creels
and felt exhilarated. Standing there on the shingle, looking out past
the boats and over the water, he suddenly felt very alive, more alive
than he’d felt in a long time. So powerful was the moment, he had
difficulty keeping tears from welling up in his eyes.
‘Oh my, oh my,’ he whispered with awe as dawn began to break over the
hills.
Of course, going back up the track wasn’t quite
as easy as going down, and Dugal expressed surprise at this as he
trudged up to the road.
‘I’m sure the path wasn’t this
steep coming down!’ he wheezed between sharp breaths.
By
the time he reached the road his face was red and his legs felt wobbly.
It was with a great sense of relief he finally leaned on the fence
bordering the road to get his breath back. Then he noticed there was a
light on behind John Brown's house.
'What on earth is he
doing up at this time of the morning?' he asked himself.
Curiosity got the better of him and he decided to go and see what John
was up to. Breakfast would just have to wait.