Trespasses

Michael and Cushla attend Jim’s birthday party. The only other Catholic present is Mrs. Coyle, who cleans Penny’s home and Michael’s flat. A mortified Cushla is convinced that Mrs. Coyle must think she’s promiscuous. Jane bursts into tears suddenly and confides to Cushla that she missed Penny’s art opening because she had her seventh miscarriage. A doctor who drinks crème de menthe from a pint glass makes unsolicited comments about Cushla’s body, and she retorts, “Do you actually like that stuff or is it just an affectation you resort to because you have a shite personality?” (197). She storms into the kitchen and bonds with Mrs. Coyle. Michael plays an Ottilie Patterson song on the piano and sings, “When I move to the sky, up to heaven up high, what a wonderful time that will be. I’m ready to go washed in Calvary’s flow. That will be the last move for me” (199). The song gives Cushla a sense of melancholy and foreboding, and she goes to the garden to cry. She and Michael head to his flat afterward, and he tells her that Mrs. Coyle’s son has been accused of a crime he didn’t commit.

Cushla and Gerry take their students to a park for a picnic. The children dress informally rather than in their uniforms in the hope that they will be less easily identified as Catholics. Davy sticks close to Cushla since the other children exclude him, but he has turned down her offer of a ride home ever since the social worker visited his family. She works a shift at the pub that evening. She and Eamonn discuss their mother’s worsening drinking, and he says, “I’m looking after this place. I thought you were looking after her” (209). The officer who watched Cushla dance at the disco comes to the pub, and it takes her a moment to recognize him without his uniform. Michael arrives at the pub, looking pale and harried. He tells Cushla that he may be unable to contact her for a few days and that he loves her. She kisses him and replies, “You’d better, Agnew” (211).

Cushla and Gina have lunch at an elegant seaside resort. To their surprise, Eamonn and his family are there celebrating the birthday of Marian’s mother. Gina stiffly refuses Marian’s offer to join them and has multiple cocktails. On their way out of the hotel, Gina and Cushla run into Michael, his wife, and his son, Dermot. Joanna is far more beautiful, serene, and kind than Cushla imagined. Cushla is so shaken by the interaction that she fears she will be ill in the parking lot. Gina tells her that Joanna was a law student before Michael got her pregnant. Cushla thinks about the many mistresses Michael has had before her and of her terrible, increasing certainty that she will not be the last. Later that evening, Eamonn calls Cushla to talk about their mother and tells her, “You need to get away from her [...] Join the circus. Leave the country. Get married” (217). Cushla feels as though she might cry, but she assures her brother that she will sort things out with Gina.

After the chance meeting with his family, Cushla ignores Michael’s calls for three days. When she finally answers, the distraught man’s apologies persuade her to agree to see him after school. She teaches her class how to write letters and pens one of her own in her journal in which she describes Michael as “a lying, cheating, philandering fucker” (220). Gerry and Cushla arrange a series of games for their students. Davy wins the relay race for his team, and the children who usually exclude him are overjoyed, “hoisting him up and thumping him on the back” (221). Davy hurts his ankle, so Cushla drives him home. This gives her an opportunity to check in with Betty. Seamie is continuing to heal, but Betty is worried about Tommy, whom she rarely sees.

Cushla goes to Michael’s flat. He explains that his wife has an alcohol addiction and is being treated for depression. He had three affairs before his relationship with Cushla, which he doesn’t consider an affair. She finds it hard to believe him, but she wants to stay with him even though she’s certain their relationship will end badly. He says that she could move in and they could go to Donegal, Amsterdam, or Barcelona. She finds some comfort in these plans even though she doesn’t think they’ll follow through with them. Later, Michael comes to the pub at the start of one of Cushla’s shifts and asks if things are all right between them. She replies, “We’re doomed. Apart from that we’re grand” and agrees to meet him the next day (227).

Cushla drives Davy to school the next day, and the other students treat him like a wounded hero because of his injured ankle. Gerry invites Cushla to go to France with him and his friends in the summer, but she declines. After dropping Davy off, Cushla returns home and finds that Gina is out. When she calls the pub, Eamonn tells her that their mother is there and asks Cushla to bring her home. The pub is crowded and solemn when Cushla arrives, and Eamonn tells her, “Michael Agnew was shot dead this morning” (232). Numbly, Cushla goes about her usual tasks before staggering out of the pub. Her brother follows her. Through tears, she tells him that she was seeing Michael. Livid, he demands that she get back to work “as if someone [she] hardly knew died” so that no one will suspect she was having an affair (233). The news reports that Michael was shot in his bed in front of his wife and shows footage of his body being carried from his house.