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The Drayman and the Horse


Grudge Galmount needed something to put the brakes on his racing mind. So he allowed his thoughts (ordered them in fact) to travel back to the early 1800s:

The drayman was leading his horse into Raytown and missed his road, walking accidentally into the Liffey along with the nag and their bounteous cart of four big barrels of Arthur's finest. Both man and horse drowned. Piteously, the drayman left a young dependent family behind him. Of crews of fishing boats nearby, nobody intervened, though some did scramble for the bobbing barrels.

Something needs to be done, Grudge thought, from his vantage point of 2019. Bollards and chains placed at the dockside. It should never happen again.

This resolution becalmed him, and his thoughts slowed down.

©Brian Ahern 2019

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