Rugby Rebel (4 page)

H
ISTORY was the second class the next morning, and Alan gave Eoin an elbow in the ribs when Mr Finn came through the doorway.

‘I’m afraid your history teacher, Mr Dunne, is sick today, so I’ll be taking the class. What have you been studying recently?’ he asked.

‘The Easter Rising, sir,’ replied Hugh Bowers.

‘Ah, of course,’ said Mr Finn. ‘Sure weren’t we all in Kilmainham last week. Does anyone remember the names of the leaders of the Rising?’

A couple of hands went up and the class got under-way. Mr Finn was an  inspirational teacher and soon had almost all the boys enraptured with stories from times gone by. He talked about the various flashpoints in the long search for Irish independence.

‘Does anyone remember the name of the young man who was hanged in Mountjoy Jail – he was the one who played rugby?

‘Barry, sir?’ asked Daniel Reeves.

‘Yes, that’s right, Kevin Barry. I’ve been researching
the history of Castlerock and I had heard stories that he actually played against the school a year or two before he died. But I just haven’t been able to find any evidence, which is very disappointing. However, I will bash on, as indeed you boys must do now – to the science laboratory, I believe.

Right on cue, the bell to end class came, and the boys left for their science class. Eoin hung back and cornered Mr Finn.

‘Sir, can I ask you a question about Castlerock?’

‘Of course, young Madden, fire away.’

‘Well, do you know the little wood down by the stream? I just wondered what that was used for in the olden days. It has a strange atmosphere and I was wondering why it had been left as a wilderness when the rest of the school was used for buildings and playing fields.’

‘That’s a very good question, Eoin,’ said Mr Finn. ‘I confess I haven’t a clue, but I’m working my way through the – sadly incomplete – school records and may find an answer to your query yet. Now run along, Mr Magee won’t be happy if you’re late for his class.’

Eoin tapped Dylan on the shoulder as they were leaving the last class that day.

‘Fancy a run?’ he asked. ‘The Js are having a session
for forwards only so I’m off the hook.’

‘Yeah, suppose so,’ muttered Dylan, who hadn’t been very communicative since the phones had gone missing. They went back to their dorm and quickly changed into tracksuits and trainers, locking the door as they went.

It was a bright, sunny autumn day and they enjoyed pushing themselves hard with sprints and chases through the fallen leaves. With the light closing in they finished off with a wind-down jog, which took them past the woods.

‘You’re always down here,’ Dyl panted. ‘What is it about it that brings you here so often?’

Eoin paused, not sure whether he wanted to bring another of his friends into his secret life on the edge of the spirit world. Alan hadn’t been fazed by it at all but he was worried that Dylan might blab about it around the school – or think Eoin was going mad.

‘Nothing really, I just like the atmosphere. It’s perfect when you need a bit of peace.’

They stumbled through the glade to the Rock, and Eoin was startled to see a young man standing there, wearing a red, yellow and black hooped rugby jersey.

‘What the …?’ gulped Dylan. ‘Let’s get out of here!’

‘No, it’s OK,’ said Eoin. ‘I know him. There’s nothing to be afraid of.’

‘Who is he?’

‘That’s Brian. I met him a couple of years ago. He was killed playing rugby—’

‘Killed? So he’s a … a ghost?’ Dylan whispered, looking rattled.

‘Hello, Eoin,’ said Brian. ‘Had you a good summer? It was a bit boring for me, but I woke up this morning and found myself out here. Is there something going on at the school?’

Brian had been a great help to Eoin as he struggled to master the skills of rugby and the loneliness of boarding school life. He always seemed to crop up at the moments Eoin needed him most and Eoin thought of him almost like a big brother.

‘Nothing major,’ Eoin started.

‘And who’s your friend?’

‘Dylan, Dylan Coonan,’ Eoin replied, glancing at Dylan, who was staring at Brian with his mouth open.

‘Yes, Dylan. You’re the winger aren’t you?’ asked Brian.

‘Yeah,’ Dylan replied, nervously.

‘Pleased to meet you,’ said Brian, stretching out his arm before he pulled it back, realising Dylan could be a bit frightened by shaking the cold, dead hand of a ghost.

‘What brought you to Castlerock?’ Eoin asked.

‘I’m not sure. There’s something funny going on
though,’ said Brian. ‘I get a strong feeling that there’s another spirit around the place.’

‘That’s weird. I was down here last night and saw another guy in a rugby shirt – it looked like a Belvo one. He didn’t say anything and we didn’t stick around.’

‘Hmmm, there’s something afoot I fear,’ Brian muttered. ‘I also found this beside the Rock,’ he added, producing a brass bullet casing.

‘That looks very old,’ Eoin said, turning it in his hand. ‘It must have been there for a long time.’

‘I don’t think so,’ said Brian. ‘It’s still got its shine and I would have noticed it before. You hang on to it, Eoin. You might find out something about it.’

‘We’d better be getting back,’ said Dylan, clearly unnerved by the ghostly encounter.

‘Alright, well if you hear anything you know where I’ll be, Eoin,’ said Brian. ‘I don’t have an awful lot else to do …’

I
T was a big Champions’ League soccer night and most of the year was watching the match in the common room. Dylan still hadn’t made up with Rory so they sat on opposite sides of the room.

Richie Duffy strolled in with his buddies and immediately noticed the strained seating arrangements.

‘Heh, heh,’ he sneered. ‘So Baby Ror-ror and Baby Dyl-dyl are having a bit of a tiff … Hey Dylan, did you take away his soother – or was it something else?’

Dylan growled, but didn’t rise to Duffy’s jibes. Rory just looked away and pretended to concentrate totally on the football.

‘Let’s get out of here, Dyl,’ said Eoin, who was tired and wanted to get back to the dorm. ‘Don’t mind that Duffy,’ he continued as they left the room together, ‘He’s all wind. But were you a bit rattled by Brian earlier on?’

‘Well … yeah …’ said Dylan. ‘But what really surprised me was that you seemed to know him well. What was that about?’

‘Sorry, Dyl, I had to keep that from nearly everybody – you’d have thought I was mad. Brian has been around for a couple of years and has been a great help to me. He was the one that tipped off Alan about the kidnap at the Aviva last year – and saved me and Caoimhe.’

‘Oh! … I always wondered about that,’ Dylan admitted. ‘I couldn’t work out what Alan was doing in the car park so that he heard Caoimhe in the back. Still, I suppose I’d better thank Brian next time I see him.’

When they got back to their dorm, Eoin sat down on his bed and reached across to his locker. He slipped the key into the lock and turned it, reaching in behind the pile of books to where he had hidden his mobile.

But it wasn’t there.

‘Ah, no!’ he said. ‘My phone’s gone! It was here just before we went out for the jog. And the door was locked!’

Dylan looked at him, and his face darkened. ‘That’s brutal, Eoin, but at least Rory can’t blame me for stealing it.’

Eoin shrugged his shoulders, more concerned with losing the precious gift that Dixie had given him the year before.

Alan and Rory arrived at the door, and Dylan filled them in: ‘Eoin’s phone has been nicked. We locked the
door and went out for a jog – together – and when we came back it was gone. So it can’t have been me…’

He slipped past the others and walked off down the corridor.

‘I told you it couldn’t have been him,’ said Eoin. ‘He’s a good guy and doesn’t need you to be at him about his dad. Even if you don’t say it, he knows where you’re coming from.’

Rory shrugged and wandered off in the opposite direction to Dylan.

‘We should go to see Mr McCaffrey,’ Alan said to Eoin.

The Castlerock headmaster was in his office when the boys knocked at the door.

‘Come in. Ah, Madden and Handy, how can I help you?’

Eoin explained what had happened, and how he was concerned that Dylan would be blamed for the missing phones.

‘I was with him all the time when mine was stolen, and I’m sure he wouldn’t have taken the other ones, sir. But Rory has jumped to conclusions and I’m afraid it could get around the school.’

Mr McCaffrey sat back in his chair and tapped his pencil off the desk.

‘Well, of course we will do our best to ensure that
doesn’t happen. But we also must try to get your property back. Now show me where you are sleeping this year.’

The boys led Mr McCaffrey back up to their dorm where he made them stand by the door while he searched for the phone. When he couldn’t find it, he took his own mobile out and asked Alan what his number was, and then dialled it.

‘Ssssh,’ he went. The trio strained their ears to try to hear anything. And sure enough, there was a muffled ‘
dring
dring; dring dring
’ sound coming from somewhere under the bed.

Mr McCaffrey laughed. ‘You just need to look a bit harder, boys. It seems like the great Headmaster
Sherlock
has solved another mystery.’

He turned and left, chuckling to himself as he wandered down the corridor.

Eoin ducked under the bed, but still couldn’t see any sign of a phone. Alan joined him and at once noticed what had changed.

‘That’s weird,’ he said. ‘I was down under here the first night and noticed this trapdoor, but it was sealed shut. Look how the varnish has cracked around it. Someone has opened it recently.’

A
LAN tried to work his fingers around the edges of the trapdoor, but it remained tightly shut.

‘You can probably push it open from the other side,’ he said. ‘That must be where the thief’s been coming from.’

‘Let’s move the leg of the bed on top of it,’ suggested Eoin. ‘That would slow him down a fair bit, whoever he is.’

‘Our phones are still down there though – we need to get them back.’

‘OK, I wonder does Mr Finn know anything about secret passageways?’

They wandered down to the staff common room and knocked on the door. Mr Carey answered it, listened to their request and told them to wait outside. Boys never got to cross the threshold of that room.

‘What can I do to help you?’ asked Mr Finn.

‘Sir, remember you said you were writing about the school’s history? Well, have you ever heard of a secret passage?’ asked Eoin.

‘Well … not really,’ Mr Finn answered cautiously. ‘Why do you ask?’

‘I think someone has been getting into our room through a trapdoor in the floor – and they’ve been stealing mobile phones!’ answered Eoin.

‘That’s very interesting,’ the old teacher replied. ‘I heard rumours about such a passage back when I was a student here, but no-one I know had ever found it and it doesn’t appear on the original plans for the college, which I have been examining recently. You must show me this trapdoor.’

The boys brought Mr Finn upstairs and lifted the bed off the mysterious doorway cut into the wooden floor.

‘Very wise. I’d keep that bed on top of it until we get to the bottom of this.’

He checked where the room was in the building and spent some time looking up and down the corridor outside.

‘Very mysterious,’ he said. ‘I will have to study this further. Don’t mention it to any other pupils. We don’t want them going off on a hunt for the culprit or his hiding place.’

Eoin was annoyed to lose his mobile, but Dylan let him text his mum to tell her, so she wouldn’t worry when he didn’t answer. With the schoolwork piling on
and rugby training eating into every spare hour, he soon forgot about it. He was an unused replacement for the Js’ next two friendlies and was starting to feel a bit rusty.

‘I wish Carey would allow me to play with you guys,’ he told Rory in the dorm one evening. ‘I won’t be much use in an emergency if I haven’t played a game for weeks. I’ve had less than ten minutes on the pitch all season!’

‘I’ll ask him can you turn out on Saturday morning – we’re going down to play Rostipp in Tipperary and you could visit your folks,’ Rory replied.

‘Do you think he’d let me?’ Eoin wondered, ‘The Js don’t have a game and I’d love to get out of the school – and those training sessions – even for a day,.’

Rory was a skilled talker and Mr Carey proved more co-operative than Eoin expected. On Saturday morning he, Rory and Dylan got up early to join the rest of the Under 14s for the two-hour trip down the country. They were first on the coach and took the prime positions down the back. Eoin was tired and just wanted to doze off, but he was interrupted by Richie Duffy, shadowed as usual by his sidekicks Flanagan and Sugrue.

‘Ah, you’re back slumming it with us now, eh, Madden?’ Richie sneered. ‘Dropped off the JCT already.’

‘No, just back to show you how a real out-half plays,’
Eoin shot back.

Duffy’s face turned white. ‘But, but …’ he started, before walking up to the top of the bus where Mr Hoey was sitting alongside Mr Finn.

‘Who’s playing out-half today?’ Duffy asked the teacher.

Mr Hoey looked up from his crossword and stared at the boy.

‘Well, for a start, you need to address me as “sir”, and then you need to say “excuse me”,’ the teacher replied. ‘Then you need to go back to your seat while the bus is in motion. I’ll be having a discussion with the captain, Charlie Johnston, before we arrive in Rostipp. You will be informed in due course.’

Duffy walked back to his seat with his face like thunder. The rest of the team had heard Mr Hoey’s lecture and most of them were amused at Duffy’s discomfort.

Charlie turned in his seat and caught Eoin’s eye at the back of the bus, and gave him an exaggerated wink.

R
OSTIPP was only a twenty-minute drive from Ormondstown so Eoin wasn’t surprised that his mum, dad and grandfather had come out to see him play. They had brought Dylan’s mum too, and his sister Caoimhe, who gave the boys a big wave as they trotted out onto the pitch in the green and white hoops of Castlerock.

Eoin was selected to play at out-half, much to Richie Duffy’s disgust, and he settled into his favourite position without any fuss.

Although both teams were just a year younger than the players he had been training with this year, they seemed so much smaller, and judging by the way they threw the ball around in the warm-up, less skilled. Eoin felt that he had moved up several steps on the rugby ladder.

That wasn’t to say it was much easier – the big, bruising Savage brothers from his home town of
Ormondstown
made sure of that.

‘I hear you’re a bit of a rugby star up at Castlerock,’
George said as the teams lined up for the kick-off.

‘Well, you’ll be seeing stars by the time we’re finished with you,’ added his brother Roger.

Eoin laughed and hoofed the ball high into the air where it hung momentarily before Charlie Johnston caught it and the ruck formed around him.

Castlerock were a bit of a shambles in the first half, but Eoin kept them in it with his kicking and they changed ends 10-6 down.

‘We need more ball in the backs, Madden,’ Duffy complained as they sucked their slices of orange.

‘OK, hold it there please,’ Mr Hoey chipped in. ‘I have a few plans of my own and I’ll be obliged if you listen to me instead.’

Eoin listened to the coach, who had some good ideas on what needed to be done. As the players moved away to restart the half, Mr Hoey took Eoin aside.

‘Look, you’re our best player by far and you’re kicking well. But their backs look vulnerable so I’d like you to give ours a chance to expose them now and again.’

Eoin nodded, realising that his dislike for Duffy might be clouding his judgement and preventing him from giving him the ball.

He got a chance to atone early in the second half, but Duffy was too slow to the pass and knocked the ball
forward.

‘Come on, Duffy!’ roared Charlie. ‘Keep your eye on what’s going on.’

Duffy glowered at Eoin, who shrugged back at him.

The next time Eoin had the ball in his hand he flung an inch-perfect pass to Duffy, but the inside-centre hesitated in deciding what to do next and was soon swarmed by the Rostipp forwards.

Eoin put over a tricky penalty goal, but with less than five minutes left Castlerock were 13-9 down.

‘Come on, Castlerock!’ came the high-pitched call from the touchline, and Eoin grinned at Dylan as his sister waved a home-made banner.

From the next line-out Eoin gathered the ball and, spotting a gap, decided to make a run through midfield. He rode a tackle and was only ten metres from the try-line when one of the Savage brothers came crashing in from his left. As he fell he twisted and spotted two team-mates chasing hard in support: Duffy to his left, Dylan to his right.

‘Pass!’ roared Duffy, but Eoin slipped the ball to Dylan who was very fast over short distances and nipped over the line and touched down under the posts.

‘Hooray!’ shrieked Caoimhe, and the rest of the Castlerock supporters joined in with her celebrations.

Eoin knocked over the conversion and with a
three-point
lead Castlerock concentrated on closing the game down for the last couple of minutes. At the final whistle he shook hands with the Rostipp boys and his team-mates and walked over to where his family were standing.

‘Well done, son,’ his father said, clapping him across the shoulders. His mum and grandad also congratulated him, and both slipped him some pocket money.

‘Any sign of your phone?’ his mother asked.

‘Not yet, but I hope we’ll get them back soon,’ replied Eoin.

A loud whistle called him back to the field where Mr Hoey wanted to have a warm-down and short discussion on how they had played.

Duffy continued to give Eoin daggers, but Mr Hoey was full of praise for Eoin’s late burst and the quick decision that saw him pass the ball to Dylan.

‘You’ll be back at out-half next week, Mr Duffy,’ he said, ‘but we need the sort of speedy decision-making that Mr Madden showed today from now on. Now, get yourselves changed and we’ll be back on the bus in twenty minutes.’

Eoin hurried over for a quick farewell to his family, and also thanked Caoimhe and Dylan’s mum for their
vocal support.

‘See you at Hallowe’en, Caoimhe,’ he called out as he was leaving. ‘What are you dressing up as?’

‘She doesn’t need to dress up!’ laughed Dylan, as they clambered onto the bus.