The Pencil Case

Odaise Gaelach

I've been busy lately. I'll write and post more from now.



The Pencil Case

Annabel was sitting alone inside her small office, looking over her thesis one more time. Every now and again she would scribble a Diophantine formula on the blackboard covering the wall, just to make sure that it was correct.
Eventually she sighed and threw down her papers onto the desk. She sat back in her chair, yawning and stretching her arms out behind her. Her clock read 7:46 PM and her heart felt as if it had just been tickled. It was nearly time.
She rolled up her sleeves, took her bright yellow hair tie from around her wrist, stretched it out over her fingers and held her blonde hair back into a neat ponytail, deftly tying it with the hair tie.
She sat back, folded her arms and decided that she would finish checking over her thesis tomorrow. As she waited for the time to pass her thoughts wandered to her native Saskatoon, where she would be returning home to in less than a week’s time.
She always thought that she would be happy to leave Ireland and go home again. But she wasn’t.

Dermott was sitting in the library with a book that he had borrowed from the front desk. He was looking over a page of sheet music that he had to write about, thinking about what he could say. Sometimes his mind wandered back to the familiar streets of Kildare – his home town. He stroked his chin as he examined the notes on the page, his mouth moving silently as he imagined the music playing in his head.
He glanced at his watch and gasped. 7:58 PM.
He grabbed his coat and keys and re-tied his long, black hair back into a ponytail with his dark, thin hair tie.
He left the book back on the shelf, tore down the stairs and out through the revolving doors. Dermott turned right and jogged down the path, past the ancient college chapel and grounds, through the archway and to the entrance of Logic House.
Annabel was already waiting for him.
“Hi,” Dermott wheezed at her, catching his breath but his face smiling at her.
“Hi,” she replied and she couldn’t help but smile back.
Together they walked around the edge of Logic House. It was a grand, old building that housed both the Mathematics department and the Music department of the college. It was still fairly bright outside and the May sky was a rich cerulean colour. But it was cool, so they put their hands into their coat pockets and strolled around to the back of the building.
“So how’s your music coming along?”
“Not bad,” Dermott replied. “How’s your research into your Diopathing maths going?”
Annabel giggled.
“Diophantine. And it’s going well. Another look over it and I’ll be done.”
“That’s good news,” Dermott said, though he was actually sad to hear it.
They didn’t say much as they walked to the back of the building. Behind Logic House there was a garden, like a little piece of a paradise hidden there. Annabel and Dermott walked down the path, looking at the flowers, not saying anything. Their hearts were heavy.
In the centre of the garden was a huge tree, with branches that stretched higher than even Logic House. Its mighty roots had split apart some of the tarmac path and spread out to nearly every corner of the garden. Its trunk was so big that when Annabel and Dermott tried to hold hands around the tree they couldn’t.
This evening Dermott laid down on the ground by the tree with his back up against the trunk. Annabel laid down beside him and Dermott put his arm around her. She laid her head on his shoulder and sighed.
“You know, my Masters degree is nearly finished. I won’t be able to stay in Ireland for much longer.”
Dermott sighed.
“I know. They’re not letting you study your doctorate here, so you’re going to have to go somewhere else.”
He breathed in the cold evening air. Annabel watched his chest rise and fall.
“We probably won’t be able to meet each other for a long time,” she said.
“I know. I wish it could be different.”
“Me too.”
Annabel was silent for a moment, thinking of how she would put her feelings into words.
“When I first came to Ireland, I always... I always imagined that I would be excited to be going back to Canada again. But now that I’m so close to leaving, I don’t want to leave...”
“Well, you have a lot of nice memories of this college,” Dermott replied. “You’re going to miss being here.”
Annabel gazed up at him, up into his deep blue eyes.
“It’s not the college that I’m going to miss,” she said softly.
She rested her head back down onto his shoulder. Dermott gently pulled her a little closer to him.
“I don’t think that I’m going to miss the college either,” he said. “Not as much as you...”
His voice trailed off and he took another deep breath.
Annabel already knew that he was going to miss her, but she felt happy inside when he said it.
“Are we... we are, right?”
“Of course we are. I won’t ever forget you Annabel.”
“I won’t either Dermott. Even if I’m old and stupid and can’t even remember my own name I’ll still never be able to forget you.”
She stopped and tried to hold back her grief. They had spent many evenings together, lying here in the grass at the tree. Normally they would chat about their research, their courses, study, maths and music. Sometimes Annabel would talk about Saskatoon, and sometimes Dermott would talk about Kildare. Now both of them were quiet. Neither really knew what to say to each other.
“You know...” Annabel said, “I wonder how many people were here before?”
“What d’you mean?”
“I wonder if any other couples ever spent their time here. Lying up against this tree... how many other people fell in love here like we did. I wonder if any traces of their love still remain...”
She reached up and rubbed a palm against the smooth tree bark. At her feet was one of the tree’s roots that had grown above ground, cracking through the thick tarmac. It had been worn smooth from all the years of people walking on it.
“That’s what we’ll do,” Dermott said suddenly.
“What?”
“We’ll leave something behind,” he said beaming. “Something for other lovers to find here when we’ve gone.”
Annabel gasped, and then she smiled with excitement and delight. Dermott loved it when she smiled like that.
“What’ll we do?” she asked.
The first thing they thought about was carving their names into the trunk of the tree, but neither really had the heart to cut into its fine wooden skin. Besides, it was a tacky and childish idea. So they talked and discussed about other ideas that they had.
Then Dermott had the thought of burying a box into the ground around the tree.
“Wait here,” Annabel said. “I’ve got something we can use.”
She stood up and ran back to Logic House. Dermott dug out a few handfuls of earth while he waited for her. A minute later she was running back to him with a notebook under her arm.
“What about this?” she whispered, panting a little.
She handed an empty pencil case to him. It was rectangular, made out of tin, with the words Oxford Set of Mathematical Instruments painted on the lid.
“Perfect,” Dermott remarked.
“We should put a note into it, just to say who we are and why we buried the pencil case.”
“That’s a good idea. Let’s go with that.”
Annabel laid down against the tree trunk again, opened the notepad, and said:
“What’ll we say?”
Several minutes later she stood up again, carefully tearing out the page from the notebook. It took them a while to know exactly what to write, but once they began then the words easily came to them. She folded the sheet and Dermott placed it into the pencil case.
He was just about to put it into the hole that he had dug when Annabel stopped him.
“No, it’s not enough. Maybe we should put in something that belongs to us. Something personal – something special. Any ideas?”
Dermott thought for a moment. And then he slowly and softly reached up to Annabel’s face, and around to the back of her head. He gripped and gently tugged it and it came off easily. Annabel’s beautiful blonde hair fell down around her ears, down to her shoulders, down her back. She laughed.
Dermott had pulled off her yellow hair and now held it in his hand. He lovingly squeezed it before putting it into the pencil case.
“May I?” Annabel asked, and then she tenderly reached around the back of Dermott head and pulled off his dark hair tie too. His black hair flopped around his ears and over his face. Annabel laughed at how comical he looked.
She put his hair tie into the pencil case as well, before they closed it and Dermott placed it into the hole. Together they buried it with a thin layer of earth, just enough to hide it and just enough for someone to be able to find it someday.
“You know,” Annabel said, “I might not ever see you again but I know that we’ll still be together. Even if they are only hair ties, I feel better knowing that a little part of me is beside a little part of you.”
Dermott nodded, though he could barely accept the thought of never seeing her again. But she was right; when he thought about the pencil case he felt better about it.
They stayed for a little while longer, lying under the tree in the garden, talking about how they would meet up again in the summer, until at last it got too cold and dark for them to stay here anymore.
They both gently gave the ground a little pat with their palms before they stood up again. And, hand in hand, they walked out of the garden, away from Logic House, past the library, across the footbridge, and finally out of the college grounds.
Behind Logic House the garden was completely still. Only the tree moved as the breeze swept through its leaves, making a rustling noise that sounded like quiet voices.


One summer day two people fell in love here in the garden behind Logic House.
We left this pencil case here as a tribute to our love,
and we hope that someday two more people will fall in love here and find this.
May they never be apart from one another.

Annabel and Dermott,
Students of NUI Maynooth,
1st June 2006.

Odaise Gaelach

Can't get this attached for some reason...

http://forums.eyesonff.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=22402&d=1151289683

shiv

Beautiful lovely stuff!
My heart goes ping.

I love the emotion involved and the line about a little part of me is beside a little part of you.

Perhaps I am slightly biased because of the Canadian connection, but i really enjoyed it. Kudos!

Odaise Gaelach

Thank you shiv. I'm glad that you enjoyed it.