– encounters 4

Who knew that the Miho Airfield actually got used?
I find this patch of the walk from the university into Miho, to the point of the peninsula – not that I usually get that far – kind of spooky, like in a Patrick McCabe, Call me the Breeze kind of a way. Scratch spooky. Let’s try disturbing. Well, that book is disturbing.

And what’s the connection? This red cross van which sits there on its blocks (no, I think it has wheels), with its burnt out windows and faded stencils of cheer. It just sits there, all year round (I guess). Though I also guess it is put into use when the occasional light aircraft uses the airfield.

The main character, Joey Tallon, in Call me the Breeze

stay[s] in his cramped trailer in Scotsfield, a small border town plagued by violence in 1970s Northern Ireland.

A blow-up doll is involved, and the kinds of things that you just cannot unsee, which is usually the case after having read one of McCabe’s books. Though I’ve only read two. You’d have thought The Butcher Boy would have learnt me. Both are brilliantly written though.

That first aid station overlooks the ocean, of course. And the landing strip.

And here’s the man to take us out.