A Friend of the Family

It is our stretch of the river. Nanny and Grandad have sat with us on the wall to enjoy the beautiful view over the river, with swans coasting at high tide, and gliding across to us at the wall to snap up the stale crusts we have saved for them. `Walking the plank' along the length of the wall is still a common dare for us --- when adults are not around. We all know the bridge, and have paddled, or swum at high tide, across the river from the wall to the steps.

Has this place we love and know so well changed because we have heard that the tragic events of the story took place there? Is it haunted now? I don't know. Perhaps.

It doesn't escape our notice that Mary Kate belonged to one of the famous Irish families, the O'Briens --- a name common enough in Waterford and in Paddington. Mary Kate too descended from Brian Boru. Was she, therefore, we wonder, related to us? Was it our family banshee they were talking about?
As if reading our minds, Auntie Mary goes on:

“It isn't that people think our banashee is evil, she is a friend of the family; it is just that she has this extraordinary ability to foretell death. And people there claim to have heard her singing from the end of the lane on different occasions, just before a death in their own family.

“Everyone, but everyone, is curious to know what our banashee sounds like, but you wouldn't really want to hear her wail or sing.
Would you now?”

Auntie Mary teases us with more than just a twinkle in those eyes that change colour and pattern like a kaleidoscope.

There is no need to answer her question. We already know what a banshee sounds like --- we have Auntie Mary.