The last one-third of Irish Firebrands (chapters 23-34) contains an eye-popping 34 instances of “notice.” Whether having to do with sight, smell, touch, taste or hearing – should any of them have been expressed differently?
- But after their first Wednesday together, when Lana was headed back to Dillon’s flat, she observed Medb exit a shop – accompanied by some girls she didn’t recognise – and noticed that Medb’s skirt seemed to be shorter than she recalled it to have been, when the girl had changed out of her school uniform that day.
- As she passed the bookcases, she noticed the stack of sketchbooks again.
- He also noticed links about genealogy – of special interest because that was Lana’s occupation.
- Then he noticed John Sweeney seated on a podium at the head of the room.
- He didn’t know the barman, but he noticed the man look curiously at him when he placed an order for food and a fizzy drink.
- From the corner of his eye, he noticed a slender ginger-haired woman take the seat he’d vacated beside her.
- More than half of the ceilidhe passed unnoticed, in his jealous preoccupation with their whispered tête-à-tête.
- She slid out of the vehicle onto grass that crunched with frost, and she noticed a few snowflakes dancing in the beam of the headlights.
- Lena didn’t notice him at first, because he was assigned to travel in the rear of the wagon train, and his camp duties were with the other single men. [NB: “Lena” is correct, here. Lana is telling a story about one of her ancestors.)
- He’d been out with the scouting party, and it was evening before he noticed it was gone.
- She didn’t notice at first that every day after that, the wagon he drove crept forward in the wagon train, until he was driving behind her – not in his assigned place.
- Even as good-looking as he was, she still might not have noticed him, except that he started doing her chores, like putting the oxen on their picket pins.
- As he reached for the light switch he cast a parting glance round the flat – and noticed the Book of Mormon, lying amidst the bunched up blankets on the bed.
- When she picked it up, she noticed it was unmarked, but she just took it to the kitchen and put it with the other letters.
- It was near dawn, but still shadowy in the room, and she didn’t notice the rainwater on the floor until she stepped in it.
- She’d never noticed how long his eyelashes were, perhaps because his spectacles hid them.
- She glanced down at it – noticed bits of branches scattered in the bed, and dents in the tops of the side walls – and then it sped away from the lumbering bus–
- He noticed the smoothness of the ball on the newel post and the stair railing – as smooth as Lana’s hands….
- Briefly flipping the pages, he noticed entries dated during the last years of their marriage – the final one being a few weeks before Mo’s death.
- Then he noticed that Mo’s handwriting appeared in the end leaves, in a list of entries such as a person might make in a family Bible:
- Then he noticed that the parting of the ascending pilgrims began to occur a bit farther down the curving footpath, where they overtook a person who moved slowly with the assistance of a wheeled walking frame.
- Nobody else seemed to notice, but he felt uneasy, and he struggled to keep his mind on the meeting.
- But how could he admit that he’d been so wrapped up in his personal problems, he hadn’t even noticed that his style had changed?
- This time, Dillon noticed the figure at the top of the tallest spire – a golden trumpeter, standing upon an orb.
- Then he noticed the bemused expression of a man who was watching them from his seat on the podium.
- Rereading Mo’s obituary had the same startling effect as the discovery of her death certificate – for now Lana noticed that she’d broken into Drumcarroll on the anniversary of Mo’s death.
- First, did you ever notice how Paul distinguishes between when he’s just giving advice – and not giving revelation from the Lord?
- Then he noticed that she was watching him through half-closed eyes.
- “For years I didn’t even notice other women, until–”
- The life of a man is as the leaf of a tree. Born in ignorance of the span of its days, often working unknown and unnoticed … until a storm might untimely tear it from its bough … or until slowly fading life revealed its true character in brilliant colours that briefly crowned it with glory–
- Stunned by his subdued behaviour, her excited expectations ebbed away, and she drooped in dazed disappointment. Dillon noticed.
- When he took his seat he looked out upon the vast congregation, but he seemed not to notice Lana.
- Her gaze travelled irresistibly to the window above Conlon’s shop. Paula noticed her glance. “I see. Does Frank know this?” Her voice was hard.
- He only seemed to notice her twice –
©2012-2014 by Christine Plouvier