1
Aoife was bored – her sister Niamh was a little bored as well. They were at the cottage in Castle rabbit. Today was Sunday and the outside weather was dark and cloudy and it looked like it was definitely going to rain.
Aoife looked out of the cottage window and in particular she put her hand up to touch the black wooden frame that surrounded window.
She looked at the window frame and then onto the surrounding stones. “This really was an old cottage” thought Aoife, “just look at all those stones that make up these walls. Each one is different.”
Now Aoife had been a little poorly during the previous week with one of her sore ears. She had been to visit the doctor and he had given her some antibiotic medicine.
As it turned out, she didn’t take the medicine as she started to feel a little better the day after she’d been to see the doctor and of course her Father had paid for the courtesy.
Not surprisingly, Niamh actually thought there was nothing wrong with her in the first place – and that had caused a bit of trouble between them to say the least.
It was true to say that Aoife was much better this week but that made no difference – she didn’t want to go out into that dark garden and neither did Niamh.
So Aoife sat looking out of the window and pondering on its old black wooden frame and the crazy patterns of the stones that made up the crazy walls.
Niamh was playing a quick game of dominoes with herself. “Not much fun” she thought but better than being cold.
The Cottage belonged to Dad and Aoife and Niamh went there to stay with Dad every two weeks. The girls were always happy to go there, as they would be able to play and explore where they wanted. The cottage had been an old farm building that had been completely renovated only last year.
This cottage was a combination of two very interesting halves. The half first was new and clean and white with a new kitchen and a stainless steel oven and normal modern kitchen stuff.
The other was much older with crazy stone walls, high windows with little arches and old stone tiled floors. There was an upstairs part, which was part of the old half but had been painted. This was used as a bedroom and the roof of the bedroom sloped and followed the shape of the roof.
This was Dad’s bedroom.
At the top of the stairs opposite the bedroom door was a little attic double-door, which led into the eaves of the roof.
Aoife was still looking lazily at the old wooden windows. She looked carefully at the crazy stone walls, her eyes following each of the shapes, The person – the builder Aoife presumed – who had renovated the cottage had left these stones pretty much as they were – or at least as they had been when the cottage was originally made back in goodness knows when. Each one seemed to have its own special place.
She stood up and started to walk slowly around the room touching each of the stones – mainly to find if any of them were loose. Aoife was bored!
Just as she had gotten all the way round the room, she put her hand on a stone that moved.
She stopped, tilted her head and then grabbed the stone with two hands and with a little bit of a push and pull managed to work it loose.
Some of the old cement crumbled onto the floor and it came out. Then she was able to lift it out.
Niamh looked up and said “what are you doing Aoife, the whole house will come down on or heads … ”
Aoife slowly turned her head still holding the stone with both hands. She looked at Niamh and screwed her eyes up. It will be fine Niamh she snapped but secretly she gulped at the thought of the cottage around their ears.
She carefully put down the now free stone and peered into the hole. It was not, as she might have worried, a direct hole to the outside world. The thought of the cottage coming down was one thing but having a large hole in your living room would also be greeted by her father with more than a little concern.
Thankfully, there was another wall of stones beyond the gap. “Wow, this cottage has two walls!” she exclaimed to Niamh. Niamh was still playing and had lost interest.
She gently put her hand in and felt the base of another big stone-like a little ledge. It was very dusty and she brought her now equally dusty hand out and rubbed it on her nice now dusty red skirt.
“Tsk. Nothing there” she said with a sigh. She lifted the stone back into position and looked down at the dusty mess on the floor. She sighed again. “I’ll clean that later”.
She padded through the dust, wandered back to her chair and sat down to look out of the window again. It was raining now and those heavy grey clouds meant it was going to stay. Her eyes began to feel heavy and as the rain began to collect in bigger and bigger droplets on the glass. She fell quite easily into a light sleep her eyes, dreaming gently, moved round in their lids as the rain chattered its gentle words onto the window pane.