Read Online Loopy by Dan Binchy - Free Book Online

the least perturbed by this. “Have another try, only this time imagine the ball has an arse—and try to look up it!”
    Larry glanced at his mentor to make sure he had heard right. He had. Joe’s expression was one of utter concentration with not a hint of a smutty joke. Larry tried really hard to do as he was told, even though it meant craning his neck behind the ball, which felt awkward and uncomfortable. He swung the club more slowly this time and was gratified to see the ball soar skyward, in much the same flight path as the sliotair had taken just before he was felled by the sheep farmer.
    Joe grunted with satisfaction. “That’s more like it. I’ll leave the driver and the seven iron with you. Hit the rest of those balls, then come back to the shop. I’ve a lesson in a few minutes. Oh, yes, another thing. From now on I’m going to call you Loopy. After that swing of yours—in case you were wondering.”
    With that Joe disappeared in the direction of the clubhouse. Alone now, Larry stopped hitting golf balls for a moment to get his breath back. Below him lay Trabane in all its glory, a jumble of houses, their windows sparkling with the sun’s reflections. The village might have been a glittering pendant hanging from the golden necklace of sandy beach that almost encircled the bay. The Atlantic was calm today, a mirror of deepest blue with scarcely a ripple. Overhead, gulls swooped and shrieked. In the distance a green mail van, tiny as an ant, crawled along the winding road that meandered from Trabane to Lisbeg.
    There were many more lessons like that. Joe would loan Larry his own clubs, a bucket of balls, and let him get on with it. Whenever he caddied for O’Hara, he picked up the basics of the short game and got to hit a few putts on the green when O’Hara was certain no club members were watching.
    When Tim Porter returned to Trabane after a lengthy visit to the vineyards, he was amazed at the strides Loopy, as everyone now called him, had made at the game. His length off the tee was still phenomenal, but now he could also hit iron shots long and straight. This improvement decided Tim Porter to give Larry an old set of golf clubs he had stopped using. When Joe Delany looked them over, his only comment was that they would do for the time being.
    However, there remained the problem of Loopy’s membership. Because he was no longer attending school, reduced student rates did not apply to him. It went without saying that the annual subscription of five hundred pounds was out of the question. For the moment O’Hara and Joe Delany agreed things could go on as they were, but both men realized that sooner or later the problem would have to be met head-on. If Loopy was to continue to progress at the game, he would have to play regularly on the golf course, and to do so, he would have to become a paid-up member of Trabane Golf Club.
    It was just as well that Loopy was blissfully unaware of the problem for he had others to keep him awake at night. With the arrival of another spring, most of the hay remained unsold. As the weather got better every day, cattle were leaving their winter quarters to graze fields of fresh grass. In the barn, the hay would keep indefinitely, but selling it would provide some much needed cash. Leo Martin again wrote to Brona inquiring when her bank account might “be put on a proper footing” and looking forward to her proposals for “reducing the arrears in the account, which have now assumed alarming levels of indebtedness!”
    Leo did so in a determined effort to clear his file of any overdue accounts that might hinder his prospects. The grapevine at Allied Banks of Ireland was humming with rumors that the Trabane outlet was due for the chop, despite the furor caused by the recent closure of the Lisbeg branch.
    If that were not bad enough, things were going from bad to worse at the supermarket. Maire’s so-called