<FONT SIZE = 4>Chapter 82 – Fault Lines</FONT> -- Shamrocks & Stones

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Date Posted: 19:45:06 08/01/12 Wed
Author: Carla
Subject: Chapter 82 – Fault Lines

Pat opens the papers to find the head line "House of nightmares tumbling down", clearly David had handed all of his evidence over to Muck before giving himself up to Boyd. Kate is there, and comforts him not only over this story, but for the loss of the friend she has felt him grieving – although he said nothing – in the past few days. She tells him he can break, for she can bear the weight of it for it’s not hard "to bear what you can of another’s pain, when ye love them."

Q1. Why had Pat held himself in check until this moment? Is it more than David’s death that allows him to finally "crack"?
Q2. Is this the right time for Kate to admit her love for Pat?

Chapter 83 – The World Both Under and Over

Casey is walking his land, satisfied with the bounty it has yielded for the winter, thinking about the otherworldly sense he often has there of something – or someone – watching him. He brings a small bouquet of wild things to lay on the burial site of the ancient woman he had accidently dug up when harvesting peat earlier in the year. There, he pauses for a moment and thinks of all those he loves – those gone, those still with him and those missing. A light hand touches him on the back, that of a woman, but not his wife. He thinks of all the possibilities, all the other worlds and lives he may have lead and affirms that this is the one he would have chosen.

Q1. Do you think, if we were more open to such things, anybody could feel the presence of "others" as Casey and Pamela do, or is it a sense given to some through DNA, like eye colour or artistic talent, but not to others?
Q2. Why does Casey feel the need to honour the red-headed bog woman in this way?

The Tale of Ragged Jack, continued

Jack has left the Land of the Fair People and can feel that it has ceased to exist. When he’s unsure of which direction to take, he consults the bones and follows their advice. He finds himself once again with The Owl Woman, who reminds him that as long as he has the flower Muireann gave him, he still has her. He unwraps the flower to find it still fresh and with a drop of dew clinging to a petal. The Owl Woman tells him to guard it well, as it is more than it appears to be. He wakes to the Owl Woman telling him she has knit the road he must follow, the one that will take him to his destination. She gives him one of her own feathers, telling Jack it will summon help when he needs it most. His road is crowded and sometimes so faint he has to search hard for a glimpse of the blackberry wool the Owl Woman used. Winter comes and Jack finds himself in what he thinks must be the November Wood, the place where a gypsy woman had told him the Crooked Man spends his winters. With the magic thread he collected so long ago, a bridge is made and Jack crosses a final river, alone, to confront The Crooked Man. Using Owl Woman’s feather to transform into a wolf, as the Crooked Man had done, Jack prepares to battle for his dreams and his life. The Crooked Man, in his wolf form, is frightened of the flower revealed when it falls from Jack’s pack; Jack realises that he holds Muireann’s life in the flower, "a cloak of protection and love." He uses that fear & kills the wolf. He reclaims his dreams, but they are dull compared to what they were in the past. He knows now that Muireann died for love of him, a wound that will never heal, and that no battle worth fighting is every fully won, there is always a price to pay.

After walking still farther, Jack simply comes over the top of a hill one day and finds himself home. His parents are happy to have him back, but Jack finds himself unable to be thrilled to be home. He slowly integrates back into his old life, but is forever changed in fundamental ways. He has learned that while the mind forgets, the heart never does.

Q.1 Jack knows that he is no longer a boy and never will be again. Do you think this is true for all of those who experience illness or tragedy of some sort as a child or teenager?
Q2. What life lessons/truths do you think Cindy has touched upon here?
Q3. Jack describes his home-coming as being difficult in many ways – he’s not as thrilled to be there as he thought he would be, his parents aren’t sure how to relate to a child who has changed in fundamental ways. Is this an inevitable effect of being gone for so long? Or is it more related to the loss & change of his dreams?
Q4. Does Owl Woman represent a real person in Jamie’s life, someone who helped him find the way back and gave of herself so that he could fight his demons? Do any of the others we met in the Tale of Ragged Jack represent people in the "real world?"

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