Tales From Ireland

In a distant country where the provinces had improbable names, a woman sits their waiting on her husband to come home from war. The midwives tell her daily that her husband will not be back because he is dead, but she does not believe them. "When do you think he will be back, Nona ?" asks Patricia. "He will not be back for he is dead." Nona tells her. Patricia sits as she rocks back and forth in her rocking chair and says "For how is he dead when he calls daily ?" Nona did not respond. Patricia's baby must be fed and nurtued by the midwives because it is apparent she is not mentally stable to do so. Everyday she sits and rocks in that same rocking chair listening to old blues tunes and wonders when her husband will come home. The midwives converse daily on whether they should end her to a mental asylum. But it seems to get them nowhere because all of the midwives have different opinions. " She must not be sent to an asylum, she needs us to help her ," one midwife whispers for fears of Patricia over hearing their conversation. "This woman needs professional help," says the secnd midwife. " It's tme or supper Mrs.Monahan would you like some ?" Nona asks Partricia as she sits and gazes at the gray skies thriugh the window. " No thank you, darling," she says s she changes the station on he radio. "I'm worried about you, Mrs.Monahan." the midwife says as she confronts the woman. "Wht is their to be worried about, all is right in the world, my baby is healthy and my husband will be back soon." answers Patricia charismatically. The midwife takes a deep sigh an continues with what she was doing before. At times the midwives felt sorry for the woman, she had lost ahusband and now she was in denial. As the baby started crying, the third midwife came into the room and fed him. As she walked out of the baby's room, she decided to ask Patricia to go for a walk." Would you lik to walk with me while i run up to the store ?" the midwife asked . "No thankyou ," "If we ge you out of the housse maybe yo wouldn't be so anti-social." the second midwife said. Patricia was greatly offended by th comments that were made and turned around like an animal about to attack its prey and tells her " Don't dare tell me that , don't ever tell me what I shold do, I do as I goddamned please." The midwife was shocked and startled at Patricia's explosive manner, she had never done such a thing. " I didn't mean to offen you Mrs.Monahan." "It's alright," the woman replies as she calms down and sits back in her rocking chair. The midwife decides to tell the other midwives about the altercation. As the midwife told the other about the incident they were shocked. So they decided to tell her what was in her best interest and face reality. "Mrs.Monahan , we have something very importsnt to tell you." "What is it ?" asked Patricia. "We must confront you about something ." says the midwife nervously. "Your husband is dead and we have the death certificate to prove it, he died three months ago." said bravely by the second midwife. " You're wrong , you're all wrong !" Furious and visibly upset she stormed out of the house.
Everyone was appalled. " Should we go get her ?" asked the third midwife frantically. ANd the second midwife replied " No, she will be back shortly, we should just wait." So they decided to wait, but hours later she never came back. Someone knocked on the door, they were hopeful it was Patrcia , but unfortunately it wasn't , it was the police. The midwife opened the door. "How are you, officer?"
We have a body that seems like it might've drowned and we wanted to know if you could identify the body " The midwives drove to the coroner's office. As they were driving the frist midwife's heart was pounding faster and faster. "who could it be," "why didn't we go with her ?" she thought. Nona was the closest to Patricia and cared for her deeply. As they walked into the coroner's office Nona's grew more and more nervous. As they identiied the body, it was indeed the Patricia. As he coroner pulled the covers from her head , they were shocked by her ghastly transformation. From that day on people see her walking on that same beach on that very same day roaming the vicinity.