A Strange Place

By Aideen Mooney

In this first book of the Ballynoosle series, four dyslexic children are living on an old Guinness barge, moored not far from the village of Ballynoosle. Eleven-year-old Anika Das hopes to make some friends there especially because she only had one friend at her last school.
At the village school, they meet a large black goat with flashing yellow eyes. He seems to have a small man as his personal servant. And he expects his every need to be satisfied.
One night, the children stay up late eating biscuits on deck, and they see lights moving around on one of the islands. They investigate and find themselves with the power to help the village. It's a tough, dangerous quest and Anika begins to realize that things are not as they appear in Ballynoosle. Having been crushed by her experience at school, Anika now finds that she has the courage to make a commitment to her new friend, the boy with the raven.
In this modern fairy tale, Anika learns a different way of being human, as an ordinary little lakeside village becomes an enchanted realm.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Feb 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9781667887906

Book preview

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Copyright

First published in 2023

A Ballynoosle Book

Text © Aideen Mooney, 2023

All rights reserved. No part of this eBook may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or by an information storage or retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except where permitted by law.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used ficitiously.

eBook ISBN: 978-1-66788-790-6

To all my dyslexic students past, present, and future

You are inspirational. You are amazing.

Contents

Preface

1 The Letter

2 Casting Off

3 Ballynoosle

4 Two More Children

5 Castle Island

6 Lights

7 Camping

8 Caught in the Act

9 What Danny Did

10 Dust and Bird Poop

11 In the Dark

12 Miss Horrigon Comes Tumbling Down

13 The Pooka’s Promise

14 Good to Talk

15 Telling Mam and Dad

16 Revels

Glossary

Fae Glossary

Boat Glossary

About the Author

Thank You

P

reface

Welcome to Ballynoosle. How wonderful to see you here. Are you ready for an adventure? A magical one?

Here in Ireland, there is magic everywhere. There is magic in the woods, amongst the flowers and ferns, as well as on the islands in the lakes, and along the seashore. I discovered this when I came to live here in 1985.

The faery folk have been written about throughout Irish history. But people rarely meet them nowadays and I don’t know why that is. I have heard say that the electric light does not create enough shadows. For, it is within the shadows that they dwell more comfortably alongside us. But I suspect that people do not encounter magic because they no longer believe in it.

The faeries keep their old customs but they also live like us. They have sports clubs, businesses, and parties which they call revels. Revels are important to them. They love music and dancing and using their magic to create illusions.

But there is a dark side to the faeries. They do not particularly like humans. So, you must prove yourself worthy of their friendship. They prefer humans who are generous and fair, keep their promises, have good manners, and who are always ready to be kind. If they give you a gift, they expect you to show appreciation.

They do not like nosey people who spy on them. Or people who go onto their land or barge into their revels uninvited.

Unfortunately, it is easy to anger the faeries unknowingly. And then they should be feared. Once it was dangerous not to believe in the faeries. And because of this the Irish people still respect and secretly fear them.

This book is about what happened to some children in 1985. It is a long time ago and Anika and Sam are grown up now with their own children. Perhaps your parents were not even born then.

Children’s lives were a little different at that time. They were allowed more freedom to roam around. And they did risky things like sailing without adults. Their parents thought that it was good for them and that they would learn how to look after themselves. I grew up like that, although that was in the 1960s. None of the children I knew had any terrible accidents. But it was said then, that to have a good childhood you needed to have had at least one broken bone. This is a controversial view nowadays.

There is a bit about dyslexia at the beginning of the book. I am afraid to say, that in those days, dyslexia was not well understood by Irish teachers. It is different today with dyslexic children getting lots of help and encouragement. It is also recognised how superior their minds are, even if they have trouble learning to read and write.

This is the first book about Anika and Sam and their friends in Ballynoosle. I can’t wait to bring you more stories from this extraordinary little village.

Aideen Mooney

County Clare 2023

Come away, O human child. To the waters and the wild.

W.B. Yeats

1

The Letter

I

t was Saturday when Anika came downstairs and saw a white envelope lying on the mat. But the post did not come on Saturdays so it must have been hand delivered. She nudged it with her toe and felt a sick feeling in her stomach. The feeling made her run back upstairs and lock herself in her room. But that was no good. Sitting on her bed, the horrible thoughts came thick and fast. She could not face them all alone, so she went downstairs again. The letter on the mat had gone.

Her parents were talking in the kitchen. It was not possible to hear what they were saying but there was a grave tone to the conversation.

Anika, darling! Mam said brightly when she opened the door. Breakfast?

Yes, please, Anika answered as normally as she could.

We’ll leave you to it. Come on Vijay.

As her parents left the room Anika saw her mother pick up the opened envelope from the dresser.

Marigold, their calico cat, was asleep on a cushion. Anika knelt beside her and laid her cheek on her fur. Marigold began to purr and Anika felt better. Marigold’s purring helped her to get up and pour some cereal into a bowl. But Anika wasn’t hungry and she only sat there watching the flakes and crunchy banana bits drowning in the milk.

Sam, her younger brother, wandered in half asleep. He opened the door of the oven but the cooked breakfast that he was expecting wasn’t there. Where are my sausages? he asked. When he did not get a reply, he pointed at her bowl of cereal and said, Can I have that?

She nodded and pushed it over to him.

What’s up Anika?

I think that a letter came from the school?

So?

"We are in serious trouble Sam. Dee said that the Board of Management was going to discuss us. Her father is on it, that’s how she knew.

You can blame me. I ran away. You were only coming after me because Miss Horrigon sent you.

But I threw the frog.

Anika remembered it all so bitterly. The way Miss Horrigon, the school principal, had click-clacked into her classroom. And Kris saying, Ooh Miss Horrigon, I love your heels. And all the popular girls, including Dee, agreeing with her.

Miss Horrigon wore high heels even when she was teaching PE. Everyone said that she had a walk-in wardrobe full of them. The ones she had been wearing that day were white with black polka dots and a big bow. Anika knew all about the different types of high heels. She listened in when Miss Horrigon told the popular girls about them. They all liked ankle straps best. In the winter Miss Horrigon wore high heeled boots.

When the principal had come into the classroom Anika had looked down at her work. She heard her say to her teacher, Miss Broring, I need somebody to clean the toilets. The caretaker is having another day off. Will I choose one of the usual suspects?

Take Anika, will you? Miss Broring had replied. That will save me from correcting all her spelling mistakes and wasting the red ink in my pen."

Miss Horrigon had sighed theatrically. Then said loudly, If only, Anika, you could be more like Deirdre and her friends.

Dee and all the other popular girls had smirked.

If only I could learn how to be popular, Anika had said to herself as she put on the rubber gloves in the toilet. If only she wasn’t so terrible at her work. She could not spell for toffee. She could not spell toffee. No wonder Kate was the only girl in the school who stuck by her. The popular girls did not like Kate either, although they did not say things to her, they simply left her out. It was probably because she had cerebral palsy.

Anika had gone into the toilet and was mopping the floor when the door burst open. Oh no! She could not bear for anyone to see her doing this. She tried to scurry out but found herself trapped under an arm. Then she realised that it was Miss Horrigon’s. The principal pushed her backwards making her skid across the wet floor.

Anika had been using one of those old-fashioned string mops that came with a bucket. She tried to twist and squeeze the water out of it but always left puddles behind her. Miss Horrigon, looking at the floor, had made a face of disgust when she saw that her high heels were getting wet. She pulled Anika out into the corridor.

And as she did so, the mop slipped from Anika’s hands. The strands of string spun round. They flung dirty droplets, saturated with toilety germs, all over Miss Horrigon.

Miss Horrigon’s face turned from deathly pale to hot pink. She shouted, but Anika could not understand what she was saying. Anika could only see a monster mouth. It had bright red lips that moved up and down. They opened and closed. There was spit on them. They stretched out sideways and then squeezed themselves together in an ugly pout. She saw a smudge of lipstick on the teeth underneath the lips. Through the roar of the shouting, she could not make out any of the words.

And then she did. Sam…run away again…go after him.

With relief, Anika had sped outside to freedom. She could see her brother running across the bog, going home. She flew to catch up with him. She exhilarated in feeling

Reviews for A Strange Place

[Brian Ingram · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Hello again Miss Mooney, Bomb-Along here! It was great to meet you and you've done a marvellous job describing our goings on here in Ballynoosle. Do you think anyone will believe it? I expect not, that's humans for you.. Oh well, see you again soon, B-A.

[Anne Marie Neville · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My son loved this book. Great for the imagination and easy for him to enjoy

[Cheryl Kochenderfer · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A Strange Place is beautifully written and we enjoyed reading it!