Secrets by Bernard MacLaverty is the story of a great-nephew and his great-aunt Mary who “had been dying for some days now and the house was full of relatives.”
The secrets in the title refer to Mary’s letters from long time ago. Although she tells her great-nephew never to read them, he does the exact opposite and, of course, is caught red-handed. Mary becomes very upset: “’You are dirt,’ she hissed, ‘and always will be dirt. I shall remember this till the day I die.”
On the day Mary died, “he felt a hardness in his throat… Tears came into his eyes… and he cried silently into the crook of his arm for the woman who had been his maiden aunt, his teller of tales, that she might forgive him.”
What her secrets were rests with the readers to find out by reading the short story.
Bernard MacLaverty is an Irish novelist and short story writer. He was born in 1942.
Actually, Bernard was born on September 14th, 1942. Definitely not in 1945.
Yes, you’re right. Correction made.