TOO LATE - a Pride's Children prequel short story

O'Connell St., Dublin. Late summer.

Five months later filming was over, and I came back to spend a day with the folks on the farm, see the old Dublin gang. You can never tell with films 'til the editing's over, and the music added, and the critics fed, but I had a deep solid feeling about this one. The character fit like electric blue spandex. We'd had a good bit of fun together, he and I.

If I was right - and I knew I was - life would change. I'd been disappointed before, too many times. Good work lost on a cutter's floor, script seen for what it was - a mishmash of cut-and-paste - when time came to put the bits together. But this one...

For this short while, only I knew this strange power, the rightness of it. When the movie premiered, everyone would know.

I had to tell her. I stalked our old haunts, pacing O'Connell Street from square to bridge, at closing time. I almost missed her. She came out of Clery's department store, headed away from me. I'd know that walk anywhere, but something was odd. I sprinted to catch her, tapped her shoulder.

I should 'a known, I should 'a known.

The middle of her was a rounded mound. From the back I'd noticed looseness where she usually pulled her shirts tight, proud of her taut little body. She'd invariably dressed smart, but she'd added expensive. She laughed at my reaction. "Surprised? You knew bloody well I always wanted me own."

"Is... Is it mine?" I asked, with the standard stunned gape of the male of the human species. Christ Almighty, the complications...

She flushed. "Get over yourself, Andy. Don't ya think I would have told ya, ya bleedin idiot?"

"Are ya sure?" She'd wanted babies. Hell, I'd wanted babies - and now I could feed 'em. It'd be awkward, but I could manage, we'd manage...

"Christ, Andy. A woman knows." A dark shadow flitted over her face, was gone in the soft afternoon. "Be happy for me, Andy." She squinted at her cell phone's misted screen for the time. "Have to go. Be well."

Why'd none of the lads said a word?

She didn't even hear me stutter I was happy for her.

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