Free Echoes by Maeve Binchy Page A

more tolerant.
    â€œBut if you had the money to rent one of those for a couple of months what would you spend it on that for, why wouldn’t you go abroad to Spain or to far places like Greece even?” Gerry was beyond believing that anyone could pay good money for a place in his own Castlebay.
    â€œBut if you were married with children you wouldn’t be able to take all of them abroad,” David argued reasonably.
    â€œAh well, I wouldn’t be married, so I suppose that’s the difference.”
    â€œNot now, but later.”
    â€œNot ever. Do you want to?”
    â€œI thought I would,” David said.
    â€œYou’re off your head, David Power,” said Gerry Doyle agreeably.
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    Mrs. Power was in the hall arranging some winter branches in a vase.
    â€œHallo,” she said when the hall door opened. “Oh hallo, Gerry, do you want to see the doctor?” She looked slightly quizzical. Her head had inclined toward the surgery entrance. Patients didn’t come in the front door, they went in by the porch on the side.
    â€œNo, thanks, Mrs. Power. I’m coming to look at David’s record player,” he said confidently.
    â€œI beg your pardon?” She was polite, but frosty.
    â€œOh, I’m going to show Gerry the record player. . . . How much was it, by the way?” David didn’t feel as brave as he sounded.
    â€œIt was a present, David dear,” his mother said with a smile that wasn’t in her eyes. “We don’t ask how much a present cost.”
    â€œNo, but maybe you could tell Gerry then. He was wondering if he might buy one.”
    â€œI think it’s a little beyond Gerry,” said David’s mother in that tone he really hated. But Gerry didn’t seem to notice in the slightest.
    â€œYou might well be right,” he said cheerfully. “It wouldn’t be until the end of the summer anyway, I work for pocket money but there’s nothing really for me to do that’s useful until the trippers come. Still it’ll be nice to see it anyway.” He smiled straight into the disapproving face of David’s mother and with his arm on the banister and his foot on the first step he called to David. “Is it up here?”
    David followed him without looking back to see the grim expression that he knew had settled on his mother’s face.
    Â 
    At lunch Mrs. Power waited until Nellie had left the room. “Paddy, could you ask David not to bring Gerry Doyle back here to the house.”
    Dr. Power looked up mildly from his newspaper. “Well, he’s sitting beside you, Molly. Can’t you ask him yourself?” he said.
    â€œYou know what I mean.”
    â€œIs this some kind of row?” The doctor looked from his wife to his son.
    â€œNot on my part,” David said.
    â€œSee what I mean,” said Molly Power.
    â€œWell, it seems you are being off-hand with your mother. Don’t be like that.” Dr. Power went back into the paper.
    â€œ Paddy. Please. Explain to David that Gerry Doyle’s perfectly all right but he is not a guest in this house.”
    Wearily he put down the paper. “What’s it about?” he said, looking from one to another.
    There was no reply.
    â€œWell, what did young Doyle do that caused the upset?” Again he looked from his wife’s flushed face to his son’s mutinous one.
    â€œNothing,” David shrugged. “He came upstairs. I showed him my record player. He admired it. He went home.”
    â€œMolly?”
    â€œThat’s not the point, as you know very well. You’re not an infant, David. You know well what I’m talking about.”
    David looked blank.
    â€œYour mother is saying that she goes to a lot of trouble to keep this house nice and she doesn’t want people tramping all over it. That’s a reasonable request, isn’t it?”
    David paused, deciding whether or not to buy this explanation.