Sanctum of Death

And then summer comes and you return to Ireland. You have heard little from Cormac or any of the others in Ballyavon over the course of the year. They have been too busy studying for their own final exams, the Irish Leaving Certificate, to communicate much on social media or by text. They received their results not long before your arrival.

You hear about it all over a pint of Guinness in the parlor of the Wolf's Head. Everyone is there, except Cormac. The group has begun to drink, another of those changes that you've missed. Maire poured each one a ceremonious pint of Guinness on the day of their eighteenth birthday—Claudia, to her vocal disgust, is still forbidden alcohol. And Simon politely declined his; he's wryly declared that he wants his first experience with drink to be a proper student pub crawl.

To nobody's surprise, Simon has excelled, getting H1s, the highest grade possible, in all subjects, and has already been accepted into Trinity College Dublin, studying Irish and history. Daniel has also done very well, and Kitty has achieved a respectable result. Claudia, a year younger than everyone else, has yet to take the Leaving Certificate, and Áine has long since dropped out of school. That leaves Cormac. Nobody knows what his results are, as he refuses to discuss them. Daniel seems convinced that he must have failed altogether and be facing the prospect of resitting the Leaving Cert next year.

"Of course he won't tell us," Daniel says. It is raining outside, and raindrops splatter against the diamond-pattern windows of the snug Wolf's Head parlor. A band is playing in the other room, the mournful folk standard "She Moved Through the Fair". "He's too proud to admit he failed. That's Cormac all over."

Kitty frowns.

"Cormac was really applying himself this year. He wants to go to London for a year, to work on his music, and his da told him that he won't let him unless he did decently on his Leaving Cert. And that'd be great, wouldn't it? Cormac and Ewu would be able to hang out all the time, do cool London stuff."

I agree with Daniel.

I agree with Kitty.

"Why talk about Cormac?" I lift my glass in a toast to Simon. "Isn't it Mr. All H1s we should be celebrating?"

"I don't think Cormac and I would be doing much hanging out, somehow."

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