This Dark Respect
A short tale for Halloween
Maura Dunne jumped at a series of sudden, loud pops, before the teenager rushed outside. She quickly found Shadow, her black cat, crouched under a small car in the driveway — his ears flattened and eyes wide. Laughter brought Maura to her feet again, and she faced a tall boy leaning by the gate. “Something wrong?” Simon Carney said with a smirk.
“Are you stupid or something?” Maura said marching up to her neighbor, “You do know fireworks terrify animals?”
“Really? Wow… well I’ll do whatever I like.”
Maura folded her arms. “Not if the police find out. Bangers are illegal?”
Carney’s smirk died. “You say anything to the police and I’ll-”
“Get your daddy to fix it? Yeah of course… little daddy’s boy.”
Carney began to lurch forward, but then froze. Maura turned to see her grandmother, now standing at the front door. “Everything all right pet?” said the old lady, her bespectacled eyes locked on her granddaughter.
“Yeah grand Gran,” said Maura. Glancing back to see Carney disappear into the house opposite, she then returned to the car.
An hour later, as the Halloween sun disappeared, Maura came into her kitchen. “That lad isn’t very nice,” said Granny Dunne, her wrinkled face aglow in the light of a jack o’lantern, “Do your parents know about him?”
Maura shrugged as she sat opposite; knowing that even if her parents weren’t away for the weekend, they couldn’t have done anything. “He’s a bully. Just because his dad’s some big solicitor.”
Granny Dunne sighed and got up. Taking various fruit from a shopping bag, she then neatly arranged all within a bowl. “Leave this out by the gate pet.”
Maura frowned, but nodded. Returning a moment later, she said “Um Gran, we don’t get trick or treaters now? Everyone here’s grown-”
“It’s respectful to leave offerings out tonight pet. Your mam use to help me do it when we lived in the countryside, but then she grew up and… ah well.”
Granny Dunne emptied the remaining fruit into another bowl. “For your mother,” she said, and then clapped her hands. “Right pet, let’s go find a spooky movie now.”
Two hours later, and seeing the lights across the road finally go out, Simon Carney then quietly hurried over to his neighbors garden. Holding fresh fireworks in one hand, and a matchbox in the other, he ducked down by the gate and grimaced. Dunne had really pissed him off earlier . . . trying to imply that his dad got him off the hook for everything. Was she joking? His dad barely knew he existed, never mind getting him off the hook.
Snatching an apple from the nearby bowl, Carney took one juicy bite and then tossed the fruit away. He crept up to the car, Carney putting the bangers down and next striking a match — the light immediately catching two small circles just beneath the vehicle. Carney almost jumped — the match flickering out, but then he grinned. “Still there you little shite?” he whispered, “Good, then this is going to be even better. ”
Striking another match, Carney lowered the flame downward — a sudden tap making him look up. Maura Dunne frowned down from her bedroom window, Carney’s smirk fading when he then noticed the black cat she held. He looked back as something rose to its feet before him; whatever had been under the car now tall, dark and with fiery eyes.
A scream from outside brought Granny Dunne into Maura’s bedroom. “Jesus, what’s going on?” the old lady said, reaching the window.
“Not sure Gran,” said Maura, “I caught Carney outside. So he screamed to scare me or something? And then raced back to his daddy’s. Big eejit.”
“Ah well . . . go to bed now and don’t mind him pet. He won’t be back.”
Maura yawned and got back into bed. She quickly resumed snoring, as a curled up Shadow watched Granny Dunne; still standing by the window. Something tall and dark suddenly left the shadows below, and the old lady’s wrinkles creased with a smile. “Samhain Blessings, and accept my offering ancient one,” she whispered, before finally leaving the bedroom.
Nodding upward, the dark figure then took some fruit before it suddenly bolted into the night — at first like a man, then like a huge hare.
©️ Emlyn Boyle 2021
I’ve always been fascinated by the puca/pooka myth. That dark shapeshifter from Irish folklore, who is especially active around Samhain and can be appeased with a small offering (in order to avoid its wrath). The creature has already inspired my animated short Twilight Offerings, but I’ve always wanted to write a prose piece too. The image above is of a former pet of mine, a grey and gentle giant who’s now sadly departed. Thanks for reading and Happy Halloween.
