10.4 Short Story: Guinness and Coke by Lochlainn McKenna
MANAGING MYSELF LITERACY
Learning Intentions In this section you will … ✓ Read a short story about a father and child on a journey. ✓ Explore how relationships are described in a story.
BEING CREATIVE MANAGING INFORMATION AND THINKING Before Reading
The story you are about to read is centred on an activity that a parent and child do together regularly to build their relationship: travel. Name an activity you do with an adult in your life that has helped you two to grow closer. Describe this to another student.
NUMERACY STAYING WELL 38
GUINNESS AND COKE by Lochlainn McKenna
I wake up to the sound of seagulls crying overhead. I roll over and see my father fast asleep in the driver’s seat alongside me. He’s twisted around the steering wheel with his back to the door. His mouth ajar, snoring lightly.
Condensation has cocooned us from the outside world, but I can tell it’s not too early to get up. The car is claustrophobic but oddly comfortable, I don’t want to shift my body in case I let any air breach my ‘blanket’, but I need to pee; so I do.
I hop out of the car and head for the nearest verge. I see now that we’re pretty close to the sea and there’s little around us except for one small mountain and a long road back along the flatlands. Some inquisitive sheep with muddied orange and ecru wool come to check up on me.
I see my father now too. He stretches and puts his boots on the roof of the car. He spots me across the way and smiles. “What time did we stop?” I query.
He raises his arms over his head and releases a squawky reptilian-esque yawn.
“You fell asleep around 11 and I pulled up here at … I don’t know, two? It was too late to pitch the tent anyway.”
