177
CHAPTER NINETEEN
There were disturbances in the night: the sound of gunfire, rumble
of armoured cars, shouting in the distance, the flicker of flames
agianst the sky. No one in the Jackson house slept very much.
Their own street was quiet but the activity ofon the fringe of the ar
area kept them on edge.
"Sounds like the I.R.A. fighting it out," commented Mr Jackson as
he sat drinking tea in the ktchen at two o'clock in the mroning.
"How do you know?" said Sadie. "Could be anybody."
"I don't know what we're all doing sitting here," said Mrs Jackson.
She scratched her scalp between the rollers and yawned. "It's not
as if we haven't heard the sound of guns before. It's funny how you
get used to the murders after a bit."
"You can get used to anything," said Tommy. "You have to live."
Sadie looked at the clock. She ought to go to bed and get a few
hours sleep. She planned to leave the house before seven to go and
meet Kevin but now she was afraid that she might sleep in and he
would be sitting waiting for her in a field twenty miles outside
Belfast, watching the road thinking she was never coming. But he
would wait, she/knew that.
"What are you smiling about?" asked her mother. "Can't see anything
very funny about shooting matches myself."
"I was thinking of something else." Sadie stood up. "I'm off to bed.
Oh, and by the way, I'll be going out early in the morning so don't
worry if I'm gone when you get up."
