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A short story before bedtime Levitation

Taken from Levitation, the latest collection by Irish writer Sean O’Reilly.

SHORT STORIES ARE ideal when you want a fiction fix, but don’t have the time to get stuck into a new novel.

Tonight, we have an extract from a story from Sean O’Reilly’s new collection, Levitation. (Contains some adult language.)

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Valentine Rice turned left on Capel Street, skirted the road works for the new tram lines, and hugging the outside lane of the granite-edged pavement, he offered the occasional nod for someone inside one of the shops, the few older shops that had survived, selling things much more useful than sushi or Polish crisps or shirts made from hemp, until he reached the splendid roar of traffic along the quays, and soon found himself crossing the arches of Grattan Bridge towards the pillars of City Hall, a tricolour at half-mast. It was around eleven in the morning. The day stretched ahead of him, and high above him too. He could do whatever he wanted. Normally, out on the streets like this, doing his rounds, he was on the clock and had to be back at the shop before too long. Today, he was his own master. The hours were his own to fill. He waited at the lights to cross Dame Street.

Fuck, is that Rachel Holt over there in stripy tights at the corner? Not in the mood for that at all. Skip down this cobbled lane.

As every native knows, the charm of Dublin is all about who you might meet when you’re out and about on its miserly handful of streets. It might be someone you haven’t seen in a long time or a face from only the night before. It might be a lover you’ve never forgotten or your brother’s handsome headmaster or an old landlord you still owe money to. The encounter could bring remarkable news or distressing information or more of the same old drama despite the years that have passed. Passion might be rekindled on Watling Street, barefaced lies told on Wicklow Street, a secret shared on Sráid na gCaorach Mhór. And, of course, this feeling that you never know who is round the next corner can lead to some strange behaviour among the natives. People on bicycles, for example, flying around so no one can stop them and demand to know what they’re up to these days. Or the number of people in disguise. Or impregnable behind prams and pets and phones.

It can also mean you are regularly forced to abandon your destination altogether. You have to think on your feet in Dublin, stay alert, keep your options open. Pick any pub and study the expressions of those coming in the door; what you see is disbelief that they somehow, God knows how, have reached their port of call, or the equally famous resignation that this place would have to do. Some days there is so much avoiding to be done, so and so over there who made you take an unexpected turn down one street, only to be forced to veer off again to escape the approach of that other so and so, which leads you into the path of someone else, endlessly, inescapably. You can accidentally come face to face with your destiny because you thought it wise to avoid a tricky interaction with someone in stripy tights whose fortieth birthday party you ruined five years earlier.

And this is, more or less, what happened on this particular day when after Rachel, he saw Quinlan, and next Mad Emmet, and three more, and before he knew it Valentine was standing somewhere else and a voice said to him, Anything strange, Valentine?

On his wooden pallet, lotus-style under a fisherman’s cape, his long gunslinger’s moustache turning yellow, there was old Ultan. In his lap was positioned a sign stolen from a hotel which read Do Not Disturb, and squeezed in below, handwritten, the words, please donate quietly.

Extracted from ‘Levitation’ the title story in the new collection from Sean O’Reilly (Stinging Fly Press, September 2017).

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    Mute AyZYVV6F
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    Apr 8th 2019, 10:25 PM

    Thevamount of people who drive with their fog lights on WHEN IT’S NOT FOGGY!!

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    Mute shellakybooky
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    Apr 8th 2019, 10:45 PM

    @tooler doogan: and probably don’t use them in the fog then.

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    Mute AyZYVV6F
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    Apr 8th 2019, 11:11 PM

    @shellakybooky: spot on

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    Mute Earl of Daventry
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    Apr 8th 2019, 9:53 PM

    Most crashes in fog are people trying to find their fog lights.

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    Mute Glenn k ☘☘
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    Apr 8th 2019, 10:02 PM

    @Earl of Daventry: the amount of clowns i meet daily who cannot even manage to put any kind of light on.gob$hites.

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    Mute Tom Nolan
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    Apr 8th 2019, 10:36 PM

    @Glenn k ☘☘: or those clowns that have EVERY single light on

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    Mute Tom Nolan
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    Apr 8th 2019, 10:38 PM

    @Glenn k ☘☘: or those clowns that have EVERY single light on in the middle of the day

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    Mute Anthony
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    Apr 9th 2019, 2:57 AM

    @Earl of Daventry: well that’s not true.

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    Mute Gus Sheridan
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    Apr 9th 2019, 9:05 AM

    @Earl of Daventry: and your evidence for this is?……

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    Mute David Weston
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    Apr 9th 2019, 9:46 AM

    @Tom Nolan: or those that have all the lights on but there’s nobody home !

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    Mute Mark Plunkett
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    Apr 8th 2019, 10:37 PM

    That movie the FOG is on later,I heard it’s not to be MIST.

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    Mute Michael Carolan
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    Apr 8th 2019, 10:44 PM

    @Mark Plunkett: what a joker

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    Mute Tweety McTweeter
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    Apr 8th 2019, 9:53 PM

    Take care out there people, it’s foggy!

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    Mute ed w
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    Apr 8th 2019, 10:56 PM

    do no trust your car if you only have daytime running lights on your rear lights are most likely off.please at least put on your sidelights to ensure your rear lights are on please !

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    Mute John O'Connell
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    Apr 8th 2019, 11:54 PM

    Anyone that knowingly drives around during the day in clear conditions with their fog lights on must have a lower than average I.Q. The scary thing is, every second car appears to be driven by one of these F.Wits!

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    Mute John Carton
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    Apr 8th 2019, 11:16 PM

    It should be law to drive with lights on regardless of fog more lights the better lights save lives I drive with my front fog lights on when its after dusk you still get people driving with no lights on that’s how people get killed pulling out with on coming car with no lights on

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    Mute AyZYVV6F
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    Apr 8th 2019, 11:35 PM

    @John Carton: fog lights are for fog, used in clear conditions they can be blinding on oncoming traffic at night time or worse in wet conditions they reflect off the road making it very dangerous for others, Fog lights are for fog hence the name!

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    Mute John O'Connell
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    Apr 8th 2019, 11:45 PM

    @John Carton: Nob

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    Mute Arya
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    Apr 8th 2019, 9:56 PM

    Fog fog go away…it is Spring. Didn’t you get the F.ing memo.

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    Mute liam ward60
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    Apr 8th 2019, 9:57 PM

    Dont care wont be out in it til 5 30 am train to Dublin on weds morning

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    Mute Jake
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    Apr 9th 2019, 5:57 AM

    @liam ward60: the commuter dream

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    Mute Denis McClean
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    Apr 9th 2019, 12:15 AM

    Just think about it … fogs lights are for mist/fog … driving with headlights and fog-lights when there is no mist/fog during daytime means they are getting closer and closer to replacement and they will fail early, most likely during night/mist/fog when you really should have them.

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    Mute finbarr walsh
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    Apr 8th 2019, 9:57 PM

    How many idiots will still drive with their lights off in the morning and complain about people with front fogs on. Remember parking lights are for parked cars

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    Mute Paul Gorry
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    Apr 9th 2019, 1:18 AM

    @finbarr walsh: 1,236 on my last count, hold a sec, there’s another ‘jaysus that’s 1,237, going to start losing count soon methinks.

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    Mute Radek Hurt
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    Apr 8th 2019, 11:04 PM

    Usually have my fog lights off when I sleep.

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    Mute JeremiahMcDonagh
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    Apr 9th 2019, 8:21 AM

    What’s a fog light or a parking light

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