The Secret Scripture

Roseanne began writing about Café Cairo the day before but stopped because of “some horrible feeling” (125). Roseanne is writing her life story while simultaneously evading Dr. Grene’s questions about her life. She figures that, after she’s dead, he’ll find her completed testimony under a floorboard.

She looks out her window into the courtyard at an apple tree. She figures it must be around 1,100 years old and is “sure” that it “[feels] the terrible cold” (126). This reminds her of her father-in-law, Old Tom’s “wonderful garden at his bungalow in Sligo” (126). This memory brings back unpleasant ones of her enemies in Sligo, like Mrs. McNulty, and those who presented themselves as friends, like Father Gaunt. Roseanne now wonders if Dr. Grene is a friend.

She insists that his assertion that her father was in the police is a lie that she’s heard before. She doesn’t remember, though, where she last heard it. She thinks of how such lies got boys shot at one time. The new government, under Eamon de Valera, shot 77 young men. John Lavelle escaped that.

For Roseanne, it was a relief to become a server at Café Cairo after her father died.