Strands Of Time

by Stuart Mackay

nodded at her, she then pointed at the man, “Tosdach,” he looked at her, “Tosdach,” he nodded understandingly, she turned back to Faolan and Lachlann, “give him the broth and the clothes, I will find him a blanket, he can sleep next to the fire, I think he needs that; right I’m going back to my bed, Faolan, Morag will be wondering where you are, Lachlann don’t wait up too long.” Floraidh then left the room; all three men were now silent.

  Tosdach woke early in his new surroundings and looked around the room in which he had slept in, about four feet from where he lay stood three young children all staring at him, opened mouthed, he smiled at them and waved but the children didn’t move, Floraidh walked in to the room and ushered the children away, she walked over to Tosdach, “did you sleep well,” she said pointing to where he lay, she then closed her eyes and then put her hands against her cheek and leaned her head to one side, Tosdach nodded indicating that he did, Lachlann then walked into the room with a pile of clean clothes, Tosdach smiled at him then looked at his eyes, Floraidh laughed lightly causing Tosdach to smile, “too much uisge,” she said pointing at Lachlann’s face, she then took the clothes from Lachlann and handed them to Tosdach, “they were my father’s so they may be a bit loose for you, but it’s the Sabbath and you need to look your best for church, everybody on the island goes,” Lachlann didn’t know if she was speaking to him or the stranger; the main door of the house opened and Lachlann’s wife Morag walked in.

  “So it’s true,” she said as she looked at the stranger, Tosdach smiled at her, “do we know where he came from?”

  “We think he must have come with that tourist boat last week,” replied Lachlann as he nodded towards Faolan, who had just arrived.

  They could hear people outside, “we better get ready and go to church,” said Floraidh, “he should make it an interesting service,” she added nodding towards Tosdach.

  “I can’t wait to hear what the minister will make of him,” replied Faolan with a grin.

  “A gift from god,” said Lachlann bravely as he felt his wife’s glare on him.

  They sat down on one of the pews in the church, everyone was staring at the stranger, Tosdach tried to sink down as if trying to hide from them, Eoin one of the village elders came over to speak to Lachlann and Faolan, “who is the stranger?” he asked pointing at Tosdach.

  “We are not sure, he doesn’t seem to be able to speak,” replied Faolan, “we found him in last night, we think he came on the tourist ship last week,” Eoin looked at the three men in turn and nodded his head, he seemed satisfied at the answer.

  The minister was starting to walk towards pulpit to begin the first service of the day, “we will discuss this tomorrow,” ordered Eoin before he made his way back to his wife’s side.

  2

  The next morning the men were gathered as usual, the parliament as it was called, was the daily meeting to discuss what had to be done that day, on St Kilda or as the locals called it Hirta, there was no one person in charge, it was a group discussion , this was how they had lived for hundreds of years, everyone was equal, everyone was treated the same, when the men would climb down the cliffs to reach the eggs or the birds themselves, the catch would be divided equally between the islanders, even if they were too young or old to take part in the catch.

  “Where did he come from?” asked one of the men for the umpteenth time.

  Faolan shook his head, “we don’t know how he got on the island, we don’t know his name, and he doesn’t seem to be able to speak, all we know is, he is here and that he will be here until the next boat comes which will be after winter.” He stared at each of the men. “So do we cast him over the cliffs, or throw him out the village, maybe isolate him over on Boreray.”

  “It’s not that, can we trust him?” asked another of the islanders.

  “Would you rather he was among us or hiding up on the hill,” replied Lachlann, “look, he is a young, strong man, we need him, I’m not saying he will be as good, or replace Aonghas but we have help over the winter.”

  “Lachlann makes a good point,” said Eoin, he looked at Lachlann and Faolan, “where will he live?”

  Lachlann took a step forward and motioned for Tosdach to walk over to them, he put a friendly hand on Tosdach’s shoulder, “we have discussed things with Lucrais MacCuithein and she will take him in, it will be her first winter without Cormac.”

  “And she is fine with this?” asked Eoin.

  “Happy and relieved, Tosdach will make sure she is warm and fed,” replied Faolan.

  “Anybody got anything to say on the matter?” Lachlann asked the group, there were shakes of the head.

  “Today,” announced Eoin, “we need to repair the wall over by the graveyard, it will not survive the winter.”

  The days past into weeks and Tosdach was a fine addition to the community, he learned fast and never got in the way, there was still a few on the island who were wary of him, but the old widow MacCuithein was always full of praise for him, Tosdach also had a knack of catching fish, he liked to fish alone but would always bring back his catch to share with the villagers.

  It was the second week in January when Tosdach earned the respect of everyone on the island, the youngsters were playing on the far side of the village next to the shoreline, the weather had turned fast, all the villagers knew was that two of the young boys were washed out to sea, Tosdach had been trying to catch some fish when he heard the screams, by the time the nearest of the villagers had reached the shoreline, Tosdach was already far out in the bay, struggling with the angry white horse waves and two young boys under one arm, the villagers looked on in fear as they were lost beneath the wild sea, the storm was getting more violent, streaks of lightning and deafening thunder, rain bombarding the landscape. After what seemed like an eternity Tosdach reached the shoreline, several men ran into the sea to help him get the boys to shore, the women grabbed the boys and rushed them to the schoolteacher who was also the island nurse, Tosdach managed to walk to the shore before he collapsed, the men carried his exhausted body back to the village.

  It was two days before Tosdach woke up again, someone from the village had been by his bed every minute since he had been brought back, he opened his eyes and then tried to get up, there was panic in his face, he smiled when both the young boys were brought into the room before slumping back down and back to sleep. The next morning he woke up and got dressed and made his way outside to where the men were gathered for the start of the day, the men tried to get him to go back to his bed but Tosdach refused to move, he wanted to work, they were repairing a wall for the livestock, Tosdach would insist on lifting the heaviest stones and if someone tried to help him he would shrug them off, the men were worried that Tosdach was doing too much, they had come to rely on him, they had missed his strength during the previous days that Tosdach had been sleeping, he was becoming one of them.

  The days and weeks passed slowly as winter battered the island, but the community carried on as had their generations before them, the future generations were hit hard by the deaths of four young children, the nurse had tried her best, but to no avail, the deaths of the youngsters was unfortunately nothing new to the island, every winter brought despair for islanders, no one could remember a winter where no child had died, some of the locals blamed the tourists and the strange illnesses that they brought with them. Three of the elders of the island died as well, the cold winter nights meant that they never woke up; the dead were buried with respect in the graveyard, the rock hard ground even tougher to break with the winter frosts.

  In early spring the first boat arrived to the island, they had made Tosdach hide in an old cleit until the boat had landed and the people disembark but it was only a few tourists, the first of the season, for some reason people were fascinated with St Kilda, the villagers at first were sceptical about them, but after the interest in the local tweed, stockings, gloves and scarfs and the money that could be made by them they opened the tourist with open arms. The money could be used to buy
items that had never been seen on St Kilda before, and for some of the men a chance to buy a bottle of uisge.

  The tourist came and went and life was good on the island, Tosdach was becoming an expert in catching the seabirds, he was able to climb down the cliff faces as if he had been doing it all his life, he was also the best on the island at repairing the stone walls of the island, his fellow islanders looked on in awe at his ability, the elders of the island compared him to Uilleam Gillios, Aonghas’s great grandfather, who had built most of the walls that Tosdach was repairing. Tosdach was spending time with Aonghas widow Isbeil, which hadn’t gone unnoticed by the villagers, but nobody could see anything wrong with it and the children seemed to like him.

  St Kilda was owned by the MacLeod’s of Dunvegan in Skye, once or twice a year, the owners factor would arrive to collect the rent from the islanders, traditionally this was paid in produce, be it hand plucked wool, barley and oats or produce from their livestock, but in more recent times they could pay in the monies that they received from the tourists, the boat that was most likely carrying the factor was spotted, so Tosdach was sent away from the village.

  The villagers were waiting at the rocks where the lifeboats were rowed to shore,