‘Your grandmother will probably have eaten by the time we get home; just you and me for dinner. What do you fancy?’ his mother asked as they turned up towards the top of the village. The evening light was drawing in now, and high on the headland, Niall could just about make out a light in Dan’s cottage. Off in the distance, the seagulls were pulling in over the ocean, probably headed for the pier; perhaps the last of the fishing boats had just docked for the day. ‘Niall?’
‘Oh, I don’t mind, whatever’s easiest is fine.’ Anything was better than school dinners.
‘It’s a takeaway so. Will you pop in to the chippie for both of us?’ She handed him her debit card and pulled in outside the door.
‘Go on ahead, I’ll walk back,’ he said as he got out. They were lucky to make it in time. It seemed almost everything in Ballycove closed early. A bell on the back of the door announced his arrival in the shop and the young guy behind the till nodded at him. Niall didn’t recognise him. They were probably around the same age, but this guy looked as if he had dedicated the last year of his life to the gym. He had the shoulders and arms of a man much bigger and older, and from his neck sprouted a slightly too small, spotty face. He muttered something – perhaps a greeting. It was hard to make out. Everyone knew his name here and it used to really get up Niall’s nose, but these days, he just accepted it. He’d been the talk of the town after that night when they’d all thought he’d thrown himself in the sea, but the curiosity around him had quickly died down and no-one had ever been nasty to him.
He stood looking at the menu over the high counter. His mother always ordered the same thing here: freshly battered locally caught fish and chips. Niall fancied a kebab instead; he was deep in consideration when he heard the door open again. The kid inside the counter brightened and Niall looked across to see what had pepped up his smile. There, standing near the counter was the girl from the piano shop.
‘Hello, Zoe, what can I get for you?’ Muscles asked. The girl had the softest, straightest, silkiest black hair Niall had ever seen. On the ends, the very tips had been dipped in a light pink dye and it perfectly matched her pink hoodie. Niall stood behind her for a minute while Muscles made a bit of a drama about dropping a basket of chips in the hot oil. ‘There we go. Is your old man working late again?’ he said, handing over a can of Sprite and ringing up the cash register.
‘Yes, he has to finish by tomorrow because someone is coming to collect a baby grand he’s been working on all week,’ the girl said and her accent was clear, local, but with an inflection of something else thrown in. When she turned around, she did not expect Niall to be standing behind her. ‘Oh,’ she said, as if jolted a little by his proximity. ‘You startled me…’
‘Sorry,’ Niall muttered and for a moment, they did an embarrassing sidestepping thing where each of them moved, but still stood before each other. ‘Sorry,’ he said again.
‘So, you said.’ She smiled now and her face creased into something that approached a giggle. ‘You’re the apple pie kid?’ she was confirming more than asking. ‘My dad loved it.’
‘Oh yeah, that’s Niall Nolan,’ the guy behind the counter supplied too helpfully, as if Niall was some kind of dummy.
‘Yeah,’ he said, then wondered for a moment if he could drag out the conversation a little longer, but the guy behind the counter coughed and Zoe looked back and it seemed as if the moment was lost. She turned and headed for the door and off into the falling evening probably forgetting about their embarrassing two-step already.
‘That’s Zoe Huang.’ Muscles rubbed his chin as if it was some great crossword puzzle he was figuring out. ‘Now, what can I get you…’ He rang up the items Niall ordered, and Niall slipped a bar of chocolate in to round it off. ‘Grand.’
‘Thanks,’ Niall said, pocketing the chocolate, and he waited for his food, looking out onto the empty street outside.
‘Her father is the piano man – they’ve got the shop over on Garden Square,’ he called after Niall, as if it was information that vitally needed to be passed on. Still, when Niall left the takeaway, he turned right instead of left, following the path back behind the main street and into the slightly leafier Garden Square. There, at the centre of the road, he watched as the girl stuck her key in the front door of a shop called ‘The Piano Man’ and closed it out firmly after her. Niall had passed by here many times before, but he didn’t have any interest in pianos and certainly not great big grand ones like the sort that ranged about beyond the windows of that shop.