Rugby Rebel, page 5
Eoin did a series of short sprints up the touchline, ignoring the calls of encouragement and banter that were coming from his pals, and when Mr Carey signalled them to go on, he went straight to his position.
‘No special instructions from coach then?’ asked Devin.
‘No, he just said “keep it tight and keep the scoreline blank”,’ replied Eoin.
Castlerock’s forwards were much bigger and stronger than their opponents and every scrum, line-out, ruck or maul was a walkover. Eoin got a few passes and kicked them all upfield where the forwards were soon feeding them back once again.
Into the last minute the lead had mounted to 39-0 when JD knocked the ball on and the St Osgur’s scrum-half gathered and galloped upfield. Eoin was quickest off in pursuit and by the time he had crossed the Castlerock 22 he was on the No.9’s shoulder. The Osgur’s player looked behind him and the sight of Eoin right in his tracks seemed to rattle him into a moment’s hesitation. Eoin struck ten metres from the line, a flying tackle knocking the player and sending the ball spilling out of his hands and rolling end-over-end across the dead ball line.
Eoin helped the St Osgur’s scrum-half to his feet as the referee blew the final whistle. ‘Sorry about that,’ he grinned sheepishly.
‘Ah, sure we were well outclassed,’ came the reply. ‘We didn’t really deserve a consolation try.’
The Castlerock fans cheered as the teams came off, and Mr Carey had a rare, broad grin across his face.
‘Superb stuff, men,’ he said. ‘That was a very efficient performance and you deserve to have won by that margin. Now, we’re in the quarter-finals and every game from now on will be a lot harder. So let’s see you all for a light run-out tomorrow after school and we’ll discuss what we can do better.’
Later that evening, Eoin lay down on his bed, staring at the ceiling until his eyes started to feel heavy. The term was flying past, and he had trained almost every day. He felt really fit, but also needed more sleep than usual.
‘Eoin …’ came a hesitant voice. ‘Are you awake?’
Eoin opened his eyes, and was a little startled to see Brian standing at the end of his bed. Brian had never come into the school before, besides one visit to the library.
‘Brian, what are you doing here?’
‘Sorry, Eoin. A voice came to me telling me to talk to you as soon as possible. I hope you don’t mind me visiting you here.’
‘It’s OK, but what have you to tell me?’
‘I’m not even sure what it means,’ Brian replied. ‘But the message was “get someone to twist the rose on the fireplace as you push down on the opposite corners of the trapdoor”. Does that make any sense to you?’
Eoin asked Brian to repeat the instructions before he explained about the trapdoor and the stolen phones. Brian was surprisingly up-to-date on mobile telephones, having spent most of the time since his death at the stadium on Lansdowne Road, where he saw the changing fashions and advancing technologies over the best part of a century.
‘Thanks, Brian.’ said Eoin, ‘I’d better wait till the lads get back before I try that. By the way I hear you’ve met the other ghost, Kevin?’
‘Yes, and quite a surprise it was to me. He’s a nice lad but there’s a bit of a mystery about him … I think he’s looking for something down at the Rock.’
Chapter 16
. . . . . . . . .
ALAN and Dylan came up to the dorm soon after Brian had left, and Eoin explained his mysterious message.
‘You really seem to have some serious connections with the ghostly world, Eoin,’ said Alan. ‘Someone’s trying to help us.’
There was a black iron rose in the middle of the old, blocked-up fireplace, and Alan gripped hold of it as the other pair clambered under the bed.
‘Now,’ called Eoin as he and Dylan pushed down at the corners of the trapdoor. The rose was stuck, and needed some serious effort by Alan, but he soon worked it loose and a noisy mechanism cranked into life behind the walls.
The trapdoor felt loose under Eoin’s hand. He pushed hard until the corner came free and he and Dylan got their hands underneath it. They pushed the heavy trapdoor aside and stared down into the hole.
‘Has anyone got a torch?’ Eoin called, and Alan brought him the bicycle lamp he used for late-night reading.
Eoin paused, shining the light down and spotting that a short staircase led up to the opening. He looked at his friends, grinned nervously, and said, ‘Here goes.’
Down he stepped, sweeping the lamp from left to right as he went. At the bottom he called to his friends who followed him down, first Dylan and then Alan. They shone the lamp around as their eyes got used to the darkness. On the left hand wall stood a doorway with a bolt across it, sealed with a huge lock. On the right was another door which appeared to be ajar.
‘Do you want to go in there?’ asked Eoin.
‘Yeah, let’s see where it leads,’ replied Dylan.
‘Hang on, guys, just wait a second. We heard the phones down here – shouldn’t we look for them first?’ suggested Alan.
Eoin flashed the light around, taking care to light up every corner of the room and, sure enough, the three stolen mobiles were sitting on a small bench against the far wall.
‘Hang on,’ said Dylan. ‘We shouldn’t touch them yet – then the thieves will know we’ve been here. They don’t seem to want them immediately; maybe we should leave them here until the teachers come.’
‘Good thinking,’ said Alan.
Eoin turned to the open door and slipped through without touching the handle. He found himself in a corridor, and about fifteen metres away he spotted a ladder. He showed it to his pals, holding his index finger to his lips to show them he wanted them to be silent, and started up the ladder.
He stopped at the top where he found another trapdoor, and listened. There was a muffled sound of talking and laughing, and the edges of the opening leaked light.
He carefully went back down the ladder, again motioning to Alan and Dylan to stay quiet, and led them back along the corridor. He counted his paces as he went, and finished at the foot of the staircase to their own dorm.
‘23, 24, 25 … 26,’ he finished.
‘What was that about?’ asked Dylan.
‘He’s counting the steps from our room to whoever else has been using the passageway,’ said Alan. ‘If he counts twenty-six steps out the door of our dorm he’ll be outside their door.’
‘Exactly,’ grinned Eoin. ‘Now what do you want to do about the phone, Alan? I’m inclined to agree with Dyl and leave it there for the moment.’
Alan went along with the plan and the trio climbed back into their bedroom. Without a second’s delay, Eoin began counting again, strode out the door and turned left down the corridor. He went silent as he neared the end of his sequence, and mouthed ‘26’ to his friends as he stopped right outside the door to dormitory number 11.
Alan’s eyes widened as Dylan’s face darkened.
The trio turned on their heels and went back to their dorm, closing the door firmly behind them.
They looked at each other, wary of what would happen next.
Alan was first to speak the word they all had at the front of their minds. ‘Duffy!’
Chapter 17
. . . . . . . . .
‘NOT just Duffy,’ said Dylan, ‘but Sugrue, Flanagan and Humphries as well.’
‘We’d better make sure we’re completely right on this, lads,’ said Eoin. ‘That gang will destroy us if we slip up. We need to get the teachers in on this as soon as possible.’
‘But McCaffrey and Duffy’s father are best friends,’ whined Alan. ‘He’s always going on about how much fund-raising he does for the school. He won’t do anything to him.’
‘OK,’ said Eoin, ‘here’s what we do. We show Mr Carey and Mr Finn what we found. They’ll be horrified and won’t allow it to be hushed up.’
‘I wonder what’s behind the other door?’ asked Alan.
‘That lock looked pretty solid,’ said Dylan.
‘Look, the sooner this is sorted and we get our phones back the better,’ said Eoin. ‘I’ll go down to the staff room now.’
Dylan went along too, and Alan stayed behind to keep an eye on the secret chamber.
Mr Finn was talking to Mr Carey outside the staff room. He hailed Eoin as he came down the stairs.
‘Ah, Master Madden, hero of the JCT I hear.’
Eoin blushed because Mr Carey was present, and mumbled his thanks.
‘I’m sorry to interrupt, sirs, but we’ve discovered something serious in our room. Can you come up with us?’
The teachers immediately looked concerned, but Eoin assured them it wasn’t anything dangerous. Or at least he hoped it wasn’t.
When they got to the room he explained how three mobiles had gone missing, and how they had heard the sound of them ringing – he left out Mr McCaffrey’s part in their discovery – and how they had found the trapdoor. He also explained how they found their way in – leaving out the part about Brian – and showed the teachers the staircase.
Alan handed Mr Carey his lamp and the rugby coach led the way down.
‘We didn’t touch the phones, sir, in case you need to fingerprint them or something?’ said Dylan.
Mr Carey came back up through the floor a few minutes later. He dropped the mobiles on the bed.
‘I presume you discovered the ladder at the end of the corridor. Do you happen to know where it leads?’ he asked.
‘Yes sir,’ replied Eoin. ‘It’s No.11. Duffy, Sugrue …’
Mr Carey looked at Mr Finn. ‘This is very disturbing …’ Mr Finn started.
‘Don’t worry about fingerprints or any of that,’ Mr Carey chipped in. ‘Just be happy you got your phones back.’
‘But, sir––’ started Eoin.
‘I’ll have a word with the occupants of room 11, and be assured this will not happen again.’
And with that the teachers left.
‘That’s really annoying,’ said Alan.
‘They’re going to let them away with it,’ said Dylan.
Eoin stopped and looked at his two room-mates. ‘There’s something that just doesn’t add up,’ he said. ‘Why did Duffy’s gang leave the phones down there?’
‘They just wanted to cause trouble and they knew Rory would blame me,’ said Dylan.
‘Maybe,’ said Eoin. ‘But why haven’t they gone back down there? There’s something missing here and I’m going to try to find out what it is.’
‘How are you going to do that?’ asked Alan.
‘I don’t know,’ he replied, slipping into a hoody, ‘but one of the spooks might have an idea.’
Eoin brought a notebook and pen down to the Rock, as he needed to get moving on that history project. He was glad to see that Kevin was there, again scrabbling round at the base of the enormous stone.
‘Hello, Kevin,’ announced Eoin. ‘I wonder is this a good time to start that interview?’
Kevin nodded, and stood up, stretching his ghostly bones. ‘No time like the present,’ he laughed. ‘Especially when all you have is a past.’
He explained to Eoin about his days as a boy living in the countryside of County Carlow, and how his family moved to Dublin where his father worked on his dairy in Fleet Street in the city centre.
He talked too about his schooldays, first out in Rathmines at St Mary’s College and, when that school closed down, in Belvedere College which was a short walk from his home.
‘I used to ramble up Sackville Street – I think they call it O’Connell Street now – past the GPO and up to the school. Dublin was a different place then, very few motor cars and nearly everyone wore a cap.
‘It all changed for me after the Easter Rising in 1916. I thought those men were very brave and I joined up after that. Here, take a look at this – my souvenir of the rebellion …’
Kevin poked around in his pocket but looked confused when he couldn’t find what he was looking for.
‘That’s very annoying. For years I’ve been carrying around a bullet case that I found up on Sackville Street …’
‘Is this what you were looking for?’ asked Eoin, producing the bullet he and Brian had found weeks before. ‘I found it down here.’
‘It is indeed!’ chirped Kevin, delighted to see his keepsake once again. ‘I went up to the GPO when it was all over …The place was covered in rubble. My mother was very annoyed when she found out I’d been up there – I suppose I was about your age, Eoin. Just gone fourteen.’
‘And was it scary?’ asked Eoin.
‘No, there were lots of soldiers around but the place was such a mess no-one paid any heed to me. I found lots of these things,’ he said, pointing to the bullet casing, ‘and swapped them with my pals for cigarette cards and toffees. I kept one to remind me of the rebels though.’
A few raindrops started to fall, but within seconds there was a steady strumming on the leaves as the rain got heavier.
Eoin went to hide under a tree, but his new friend just grinned.
‘Not much point me worrying about getting a chill, is there?’ Kevin laughed. ‘Mind yourself there,’ he said as he pulled the thicker leaves over where Eoin was standing. ‘Remind me of a day when I ran home all the way from Rathmines using a rhubarb stick and leaf as an umbrella. The passers-by all thought I was mad.’
Eoin laughed too, as Kevin mimed his attempt to avoid the raindrops.
‘I’d better be heading back,’ Eoin said, pulling on his hood, ‘But it would be great if you could ask Brian to get in touch with me when he’s next around.’
Chapter 18
. . . . . . . . .
EOIN got soaked running across the playing fields back to the dormitory, and when he woke next morning he found he was starting to sniffle. By lunchtime he was sneezing and Mr McCaffrey sent him to see the nurse, Miss O’Dea, who told him to go back to bed.
‘Take this lemon and honey drink with you and try to sleep,’ she told him. ‘I’ll call up to see you about four o’clock. What classes do you have this afternoon? I’ll tell the teachers.’
Eoin listed off the subjects he would be missing, but remembered something else. ‘Oh, Miss, can you tell Mr Carey too, he’ll expect me at the JCT training. We have a big game tomorrow,’ he said.
‘Tomorrow? I don’t think you’ll be well enough in time to play tomorrow,’ she told him. ‘But I’ll let Mr Carey know.’
Eoin was miserable enough without missing the big rugby match too. Why were the days you were allowed to stay in bed always the days you felt too terrible to enjoy it?
He dozed off eventually, but was awoken by a rustling noise in the corner. He opened one eye to see Brian peering under Alan’s bed where the trapdoor lay.
‘Hey, Brian,’ he said, ‘what are you doing here?’
‘Kevin told me you wanted to see me,’ he replied. ‘And I was wondering about that trapdoor message – I presume the trapdoor is the one under this bed?’
‘Yes,’ said Eoin. ‘It leads to a secret passageway that goes up to another dorm. The lads in there were using it to sneak in here and steal our phones. It was weird, though, they just took the phones out of here and then left them down in the secret room. We told the teachers, but they don’t seem too interested in finding out any more about who did it or why. There’s a second door down there too, with a huge lock on it. It’s all very mysterious.’
‘I’ll have a look around. Why are you in bed during the daytime?’
‘I woke up with a cold this morning. The nurse says I can’t play in the Junior Cup quarter-final tomorrow, which is a pain.’
‘Well, she’s probably right. Never a good idea to play a match too soon after a cold. I’ve seen a lot of lads get much worse. Get yourself right for the semi. They’ll be fine without you.’
Brian was right, of course, and Eoin was still in bed when Castlerock found their way past St Ultan’s in the quarter-final. Rory came straight up to the room to give him a blow-by-blow account of the game.
‘It was too close for Carey to empty the bench, so Paudie never got a look-in,’ he chuckled. ‘He wasn’t too happy about that. Paddy Buckley got a knock though, so Gav got on. I suppose I’ve moved up in the scrum-half pecking order too …’ he added.
‘You definitely have,’ said Eoin. ‘But I think they can only play guys in the 35 they send in before the cup starts.’
‘Oh,’ said Rory, suddenly gutted.
‘Sorry to break that to you, pal. It’s just the stupid rules.’
‘But what if …’ he started, before shrugging his shoulders and sighing. ‘Oh well, there’s always next year. We’ve a decent team – or we will when we get you back anyway.’
Dylan and Alan arrived, and the four sat around talking rugby for a while before Dylan tried out one of his stupid jokes and they all cracked up laughing.
‘Thanks for coming to visit me, lads,’ chuckled Eoin. ‘Just a shame no one cared enough to bring me a few grapes.’
Chapter 19
. . . . . . . . .
EOIN recovered quickly and a couple of days after the JCT game he was up and about. His return to training took a couple of days more.
‘OK, Eoin, good to have you back,’ Devin called as he jogged onto the training pitch. ‘How are you feeling?’
‘Good, thanks,’ he replied. ‘Raring to go.’
‘Right, Ronan’s looking a bit dodgy for the semi,’ said the captain. ‘I want you to work with the first team backs in case you need to be brought in. Mr Carey’s still not sure whether to stick with Paudie, but I’m pulling hard for you.’
Eoin nodded and took his place with the backs. The session went well, but when it came to rejigging the first team backline, Mr Carey called out KPaudie Woods’s name.
‘OK, Woods, let’s see what you can do with the big boys,’ he called, as Eoin gritted his teeth. Devin looked across and shrugged, as if to say that he had done his best, but the teacher had made the final call.
Paudie did OK too, but Eoin still reckoned he was a better out-half. Paudie was just too slow making decisions and was often caught in possession. Eoin knew whether a pass or a kick was the better option before the scrum-half had even turned to pass him the ball. He wished he had another chance to show that to Mr Carey.
