Free Dublin Folktales by Brendan Nolan Page B

pair off and become lovers on or about that day in mid-February. While Christmas Day is a day for the family, New Year’s Day is for new beginnings, St Valentine’s Day is a day for love and lovers.
    It was natural then for Tom from Irishtown to think of proposing on that day. He had been in Whitefriar Street church a few weeks earlier and was taken with the concept that the patron saint of lovers was just a few feet away from where he sat in the smooth pew. Tom rarely bothered with love and the like in real life. He was a film addict and preferredhis experiences of life at a distance in darkened cinema. Mousie, on the other hand, never went to the cinema. Her baptismal name was Margaret though she was never called that. It was a while now since she had been a blushing maiden and had decided this year that she would rather have one bird in the hand than many in the bush. She began to think about a likely life companion for herself.

    She liked Tom who came into her bicycle shop now and then to have his bicycle repaired. He was always polite and grateful and paid whatever the tariff was without comment, even when he knew she had added a little over the odds to the bill because she knew he would not complain.
    Tom for his part, had eyes for Betty who ran a craft shop down the street. But Betty wasn’t fussed about Tom, though she knew that his late mother was rumoured to have won a tidy sum on the lottery. If she did, she had never spent a penny of it, so it was likely Tom was a wealthy man. Apart from visits to the cinema, Tom liked to watch sales channels on television. It was while watching an exciting jewellery presentation on a buy-now sales channel that he made a decision that would change his life. He would propose to Betty on St Valentine’s Day and see what she’d have to say about that.
    They had never been on a date. Or, for that matter, had they ever conducted a conversation of any great length. To Tom’s way of thinking, this was to his advantage, for there would be no past misunderstandings to be rid of before they began their new life together. So he picked out a nice pair ofearrings on a TV show for Betty’s engagement present. He suspected there might have been something wrong with his television when the earrings arrived in the post a week later. They would have rattled around inside a matchbox with space to spare, they were that small. But the sellers had filled up the package with lots of nice soft tissue. Suppressing his disappointment, Tom thought a nice necklace would set the earrings off nicely.
    As for a ring, Betty could choose a ring herself in the jeweller’s later on when they had decided to tell people about their engagement. Come the big day, St Valentine’s Day, Tom was sporting a new haircut and went past Betty’s busy craft shop several times without going in. He had the earrings and the necklace ready in his pocket but anytime he looked into the shop, Betty was dealing with another customer.
    At this point, he thought better of his original plan of just walking in and putting the question to her. She might not hear him. Best to leave it until she was closed and she was at home. It would be more special then: private, romantic even. That was the plan, but like many a suitor before him, his St Valentine’s Day venture came unstuck.
    He called to the house. He rang the bell. Before it was answered he heard a voice inside that surprised him and almost made him run away. Tom was sure that Betty lived alone, so who was the older man standing before him who had answered the door?
    ‘Can I help you?’ asked the man.
    ‘Is she there herself?’ Tom asked, playing for time.
    ‘If you’re here for my daughter, you had better come in while she gets ready.’ Later Tom learned that the man was the girl’s father, returned from a long stay in another country but back now to look after her. In the long years afterwards, Tom wondered how he had not noticed bits of bicycles lying about the