Bruar's Rest

that,’ she said to Bruar, ‘the only visitor we get, and we miss him.’
    ‘You’ll see him next time,’ he told her, adding, ‘I think the lassie McAllister is due her baby soon.’
    ‘Yes, I suppose so. But I’ll tell you something, I didn’t like the colour of Mammy this morning. I think she is not letting on about her illness. She says it’s her bones that ache, but I think it might be far more serious a problem. Do you know I got up in the night and heard her whispering to Daddy’s memory? I hope we don’t have to fetch the doctor sooner.’
    However, when the summer’s solstice came, Megan’s words echoed with an uncanny truth as Annie awakened in the dead of night, screaming and fighting for breath. Her screams roused everybody from their beds. ‘Death stands on the forest edge waiting with his scythe, can you see him lassies? Look, his head is hooded and he hovers like a dragonfly.’ Rachel was crying, unable to ease her mother’s suffering. Megan gripped Rachel and said, ‘You and Jimmy go fetch Doctor Mackenzie; I’ll stay with Mammy until you come back.’ In no time Rachel and Jimmy were gone along the old drove road to bring the doctor, while she and Bruar comforted the dying woman. ‘Mammy, you look at me and ignore old Death, for sure I’ll cut him in bits with his bloody scythe if he so much as winks at you.’
    Minute by minute Annie’s breathing became less erratic, but this was replaced by a rasping sound from within her throat. This frightened Megan—she’d heard older folks speak of ‘the death rattle’, and if their words had any truth then there was certainly no mistaking the sound. Tears flowed down her cheeks and gently landed on her mother’s face. ‘Mammy, please, don’t die! Rachel’s coming with Doctor Mackenzie, he’ll make you better. Oh mother, I love you so much. Don’t leave us so soon after Daddy, we need you!’
    ‘Megan, you’re making it hard for her to let go,’ whispered Bruar. ‘Look, her eyes are glazing over, she wants to join your father. Let her be, my love.’ He prised apart both her hands that were tightly clasping Annie’s and moved closer to the dying woman. Suddenly she arched a rigid spine, drew in one last breath, then slumped back lifeless on her horsehair mattress.
    ‘Say goodbye now, your mother’s gone. See how peaceful she looks.’
    Megan could not gaze upon her mother’s dead face, and ran out into the night. The moon was spreading gentle rays throughout the forest; she threw herself down on the rain-moistened moss to empty her mind of everything apart from the thought of her mother’s silent, dead frame. ‘Oh Mammy, Mammy! What will we do, now you’ve joined Daddy?’

     
    Far up on the high hills a solitary eagle lowered his churk-churk call as if out of respect for the death on the moss-covered ground below him. A lapwing gently ceased its flight and bobbed upon the earth inches from Megan’s mournful figure. Perhaps a fox or weasel had killed its chicks, and in some strange bond of nature the bird sensed the girl’s grief as being akin to its own.
    Bruar left her in peace, to break on her own the invisible birth cord between a mother and her child. When she’d cried herself sore, he brought her back to see to the duties that must be carried out for any dead soul.
    By the time Rachel and Jimmy arrived back with Dr Mackenzie, Megan had composed herself and had Annie’s small, lifeless body laid out. After certifying the time and cause of death, the doctor stayed a while. He offered his condolences before slowly walking off alongside his horse, saying he’d send the priest if they wished it. But there was no need, the girls informed him; they had their own ways of burial.
    Throughout the next day, refusing help from other hands, they prepared their dear mother for her rest. Moistened flax was carefully inserted in her ears and nostrils to keep out evil spirits; to prevent demons from looking into her soul, her eyes were covered by two small river pebbles. And finally, every inch of her body was wound round with muslin cloth. When their trembling hands had finished this last duty, only the ground awaited. Jimmy had nailed up an oblong box with whatever materials he could find, and it was into this narrow vessel that the girls very gently placed Annie.
    Bruar watched them from among the nearby willows. He felt a silent pride that there was no longer any sign of the girl in Megan, just a strong, controlled