Missing Candles

I met Eamon late in 1988 between the rock and a hard place . Fate had brought us together one evening after an anxious dispute in an East London pub not far away from Dalston Police station .
On a cold winters night in London I was looking for a place to get in out of the rain and walked into a bar I had never been in before . I bought a drink and sat down in the corner . After I finished a drink I said to this fella who sat alone at a table near the door .
"Excuse me . I was just wondering , do you know of any place where I could get my head down tonight ?"
Suddenly from nowhere I was hit from behind . In a few seconds I was pinned up against a wall with the ground disappearing under my feet . There was nothing much I could do except stare into the face of this six and a half foot Negroid with an attitude . He grabbed me by the collar of my jacket and threw me up against the wall . Either he had mistaken my identity of was under the crazed effects of a mind altering narcotic .
Never the less there I was completely taken by surprise when he produced a large bladed knife and held it menacing before me . I couldn't talk as my windpipe was being squeezed . That's when Eamon sided with me . Thank God things took a turn for the better . Eamon lifted a stool . It had a wooden seat and steel legs and wasting no time he sent in crashing down upon the Negroids head .
The next thing I knew Eamon got rid of the knife while the publican lay out cold on the floor . Eamon helped me to my feet and we both left the pub and walked at a brisk pace until we came to Snow Hill where we stopped and Eamon said with a thick accent .
"You're from Belfast . 
I nooded and said,
"So are you ."
We laughed and shook hands then Eamon said .
"The moment you walked in the bar I could see you were in trouble ."
I answered,
"What was the problem ?
"That fella who grabbed you by the throat in there is slightly disturbed . Most of us who know him leave him alone . See he was an Ex-Paratrooper who served in Belfast and lets just say he had a few bad experiences over there. So the moment you went over and spoke to him I knew you were in trouble ".
"That his problem ."
"Sure enough but he made it your problem . So as a fellow citizen of Belfast all I could do was the necessary ."
"Thanks . What's your name ?
"Eamon and what's your name.
"Some call me Skin or lucky . That depends on who you are . I'm kind of on a mission . You see my daughter had runaway from home . She's in London somewhere and I'm in the middle of a nightmare trying to find her .
When I showed Eamon a picture of my little girl he told me about some people he knew who might be able to help .
"C'mon follow me "
He said and I did .
I found it hard keeping up with him . His big footsteps almost chewed up the footpath . Now and then an odd loose paver would give way under his weight . Eamon was a huge size of a man with arms like tree trunks . After an hours walking we stood at the Elephant Castle . He stopped briefly and then ran across the road with me close behind . Suddenly he pushed open the door of a small townhouse and walked inside . I followed him down the hallinto the kitchen . He opened the fridge and grabbed some fruit . Then handed me a bottle of juice . I had a drink and he took a packet of biscuits from the pantry then we walked back out the door . I looked at Eamon and asked ,
"Who lives in there ?
He answered
"I don't know . I don't care . I just go in there when I'm hungry ."
I couldn't believe him and laughed anyway . I continued to follow Eamon and half way along this back street he stopped by a high wall .
"What's this place ? I asked him .
" Oh the Oval . In the summer they play cricket in there . During the winter some of the lads sleep in the change rooms . C'mon in here ."
As he pushed against a wooden door there I was amazed at how easy we got inside the ground . I followed him along through the terraces until we came to an area where the change rooms were .
Eamon shouted .
"Its ok lads its only me. Eamon .
In a moment or two we were surrounded by a handful of men . Eamon introduced them as the Lagan Lads . Some of them had bottles in their hand and one by one I was introduced to each one by Eamon . Some of them offered me a swig of their brew . One of the crowd who went by the name Brendan came over and stood with Eamon and myself . Brendan said softly .
"Eamon . It's amazing . We thought you were in Brixton . "
Eamon replied .
"See where thought got you ."
Brendan took a sip from his bottle of vodka and said ,
"What are you doing back here . I thought you were going home ."
Eamon replied ,
"I was but I changed my mind . Listen Brendan . I want to tell you about Skin here and his wee girl . "
I showed the picture around and they all had a look at her face .
As the night went on the whole crowd sat around drinking and telling stories. They sat around drinking and talking . We sat around drinking and sharing tales of London and lost love . The lagan Lads had made me at home and I was one of them . It was the first time I had been anywhere near happy since I landed in the city . We were all like brothers with different stories to tell . Some had come to London to find work and never did . Others found it too hard to return home because they were on the drink . London had taught a hard lesson to most of us there but all of us had the substance to survive .
Somehow one of the lads called King Rat jumped to his feet and he said ,
"That's her . I remember her now . I saw that girl about three weeks ago ! "
King Rat had a job as a rat catcher in Hackney . After he lost his job King Rat hit the drink but just before he was put off he said he defiantly remembered a girl who looked like my daughter . For me it was just like a miracle .
All that night King Rat tried to remember where he had seen her . He wasn't sure if is was in a flat of a house where he had been sent to . He went through all the different housing estates and the block of flats he had been called to . Basically because of his drinking problem King Rat used to write everything down in case he had a lapse of memory or a blackout . The logbook of all his jobs and contacts was tossed after he lost his job and the only record of his job list was somewhere in the back of his head .Now it was lost . Eamon sprung into action . He grabbed King Rat by the arm and sat him down on a bench in the change room . He took his bottle from him and started to interrogate him .
"Who did you work for ?"
" The local council
Came the reply . Eamon continued .
"Don't give me that . Who sent you and what did you do ."
"I captured and killed rats .
King Rat answered .
"You captured and killed rats ."
Eamon said and King Rat immediately replied .
"That was my job . I was a rat catcher . "
Eamon produced the photo and said ,
" Where did you see this girl ."
"She was there with the rats ."
King Rat replied .
"In where. " Eamon said .
"In the sewers.
King Rat began to shout and jump around .
"That's right . I remember her now because she said she was expecting a baby and that none would understand . So she left Northern Ireland . I was thinking to myself how lost she looked . That's when I saw the scourge up ahead and went after the ratpack and baited them at their exit hole . When I returned the girl had disappeared . I went home that night and next day had forgot all about it . I suppose you get used to ignoring things in my kind of work . But I do know the sewers well . I can tell you down there is a maze of tunnels the like of which no one has ever seen . If anyone can find her I can . Trust me . 
"Oh God my little girls in the sewers "
King Rat put his hand on my shoulders and said ,
"Ok . Don't panic . She must have made her way in there by the Bethnal Green Inspection Point . There is only one Entrance to that tunnel section . "
We all left the Oval that night and walked through the streets of London . Some held on to their bottles and stumbled along the footpath . We eventually came to a row of archways on a street near a railway where King Rat pulled a steel lined plate from its cover and there it was . A huge hole in the ground with a ladder descending down into an ground . A few who were still able to stand climbed down with Eamon , King Rat and myself . At the bottom of the ladder King Rat went and opened up a large oblong box that was mounted to the wall in the tunnel . He pulled out some flashlights and hard hats from the box and passed them around as he did he said.
"Put these on and stay close with me . Don't wader off or you'll get lost ."
We walked for what seemed an eternity down there until in the darkness and stench there she was . Close to death and wrapped in a blanket . My little girl lay cold and still but alive . We brought her out from there and by chance grabbed a taxi that was passing by . He rushed us to the hospital and asked for nothing in return other that we let him know how she pulled through .
That evening in tears I rang my wife from my daughters hospital bed and told her to put the candle out because our little girl was found and soon would be coming home .

It was just by chance Eamon and I had met and from there fate had played a hand . My little girl was no longer a missing person and now we have a bonus Our first grandchild was born safely . He was a healthy little boy and his name is Eamon .

By Paul McCann
The End