Nora Webster

As time goes on, Nora continues to take singing lessons from Laurie. Fiona meets a man named Paul Whitney, and when she brings him home to meet the family, Nora likes him and begins to look forward to his visits. Before one visit, she decides to wear a new dress. Fiona, surprised to find her mother dressed up, hastily rearranges her plans. She begins bringing Paul home less frequently, though Nora does not notice because she is focusing  on her singing lessons and preparing two songs for an audition to a choir. Laurie convinces Frank Redmond, the Wexford choirmaster, to allow Nora to audition. In addition to rehearsing two songs, Nora wears her new dress and has her hair done. However, when she arrives at the church, Frank is dismissive and uninterested. She feels uncomfortable during the audition, which Frank quickly brings to a close. He is “openly insulting” (248) to her as he ushers her out of the hall.

When Nora tells Phyllis about the failed audition, Phyllis makes scathing comments about Frank. Nora returns home, where Jim and Margaret are talking to Fiona. They offer to pay for Donal to attend a boarding school named St. Peter’s, where he will be able to take photography classes and visit a speech therapist. Nora realizes that they have already discussed the matter with Donal. Her son is now 15, but she is not sure whether he should go to boarding school. However, Donal reveals that attending his current school hurts him; because Maurice once taught there, every room reminds Donal of his dead father. Everyone feels sorry for him, he explains, and he hates them for it.

As Nora takes Donal to St. Peter’s, however, she realizes how “lonely and isolated” (252) he will be in this new school. Most of the other boys have attended for several years, while Donal is new. She leaves Donal to become acquainted with his new surroundings. Later in the week, Nora finally explains the failed audition to Laurie, who claims that she has “dealt with Frank Redmond” (253). Laurie drove to Frank’s house and confronted him, and her husband claims to have never seen her “in such a rage” (254). Laurie insists that they resume their lessons.

The next week, Nora receives a message at work that something is wrong with Donal. She drives out to the school the next day and notices that Donal already seems “taller and thinner and paler, but also more adult” (256). They spend the day together, and Nora listens to Donal’s complaints about the school. However, she is determined not to offer him the “easy” option of returning home. She promises to visit regularly and to bring him his favorite food. In return, he must write to her every week and perhaps even show her his photographs. Donal accepts this solution.

Conor asks Nora if he can have a camera for Christmas. Nora is immediately worried about how Donal will react if his younger brother imitates his hobby. When Conor mentions this to Donal, however, Donal offers to sell his old camera to Conor and to teach him how to use the dark room. Pleasantly surprised, Nora negotiates this compromise. As Christmas approaches, she regularly listens to the record by the Archduke Trio. With no new worries to concern her, she is suddenly concerned that this may have been the time Maurice feared most, “that there would come a time when he would not be missed” (263). However, she reassures herself that Maurice would want her to be happy.

Days later, the events of Bloody Sunday take place. The British Army shoots into a crowd during a peaceful demonstration in Derry, killing more than a dozen people. At work, Nora is surprised that more people are not discussing the matter. A national day of mourning follows. In Dublin, many protests take place, and the British embassy is burned down. Nora worries about Aine, who cannot be reached. For days, she tries to contact Aine and becomes increasingly worried. Nora enlists the help of Fiona and Paul, and they all eventually travel to Dublin to search for Aine. Eventually, Aine is found at a protest. Nora thanks Paul for his help in tracking her down.

One day, Nora sees Phyllis sitting in her car. Phyllis explains that she is keeping a close eye on Mossy Delaney, a painter whom she has paid to paint her house but who has failed to turn up to work. Inspired by this, Nora thinks about redecorating her own house. She draws up a list of changes that she would like to make and purchases many of the necessities. To save money, she decides to paint the ceiling herself. When Una warns her against this, Nora insists that it is “just a few days’ work” (279). For the first few days, Nora makes good progress. By the weekend, however, her arms and chest are in agony, and the doctor prescribes painkillers. Based on Phyllis’s suggestion, Nora visits Mossy and humbly asks him to finish the job for her. He takes pity on her and promises to get it done as soon as he can.

The painkillers, as well as the pain, have a terrible effect on Nora. She struggles to sleep, and when she moves, she is in agony. Mossy Delaney finishes painting her ceiling, and the rest of the room is remodeled under Fiona’s supervision, as Nora can barely remain conscious. At work, she snatches brief naps in the bathroom stall. Because she is taking so many painkillers, the doctor refuses to prescribe sleeping pills for her. Unable to sleep, Nora feels exhausted and delirious. As she lies awake and in pain, she is stricken with memories of her dying mother and the funeral arrangements that it fell upon her to make. As the eldest daughter, she was responsible for dealing with the situation. Maurice, she remembers, helped her through the difficult moment.

Nora falls over in work due to a lack of sleep and the pain. Peggy Gibney searches for Nora’s doctor, and Nora is taken home. When her doctor finally speaks to her, Nora suspects that he treats “his female patients in a different way to his male patients” (290). Eventually, he agrees to write her a prescription for sleeping pills. Later, Nora listens to the Archduke Trio record. Suddenly convinced that she hears a noise upstairs, she investigates and finds Maurice sitting in a chair. He speaks to her in short, hushed sentences. She asks him, in turn, whether each of her children will be all right. Maurice says yes to each of them, until he reaches Conor. He tells her not to ask about Conor’s future, then warns that there will be “one other” (294). Desperate, Nora begs him for more information. She is awakened by a car horn outside and finds herself sprawled across her bed, fully dressed. There is no indication that anyone was in the room with her.

The experience causes Nora great distress, but she is too exhausted to go to Josie. She begins to drive, then pulls over. Eventually, she is found asleep in her parked car and taken to Josie’s house. There, she explains to her aunt that the sight of Maurice was more than just a dream. Josie insists that she is sleep-deprived and in pain. Josie makes her rest. Nora drifts in and out of consciousness, and when she awakens, Josie is sitting beside the bed. The wardrobes are still filled with Maurice’s clothes, she says, even though Maurice has been dead for three years. Josie has arranged for Nora’s friends and family to visit. 

Gradually, Nora recovers. She returns to work as the pain subsides, slowly coming to accept Josie’s suggestion that her experience with Maurice was just a dream. She enjoys spending time in the redecorated house and watches over Conor as he pursues his interest in photography. Sometimes she feels Conor watching her. Unlike the reclusive Donal, he will become “a man who worried about things” (303), she believes. She visits Donal and discusses his new lessons. He has begun to settle into his new school.

One day, her friends come to empty the wardrobe of Maurice’s clothes. Laurie arrives and announces that a bequeathment has given her the funds to put on a show to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the reconsecration of the church where she lived under Nazi occupation. Now, Nora is the first person that Laurie wants in her new choir. When the clothes have been removed, Nora is left with a small wooden box containing love letters that Maurice has written to her. She feeds the letters into the fire, thinking about how much has happened since they were written. Later, she tells Conor that she will be performing in the choir.