The Glimmer Man’s Tales Part 1 – A Pig Faced Woman

“He just sits there, if he’d even just stare into his pint…you could deal with that, but no, he looks at you as if ya stole his Confirmation money!”, two young men at the bar began to once again taunt the old man sitting aloof in the corner of the pub. The new pub landlord thought him courteous but withdrawn, he would simply point to the Powers bottle and retreat to his corner. “He’s just auld lad, leave him be, he knows when to go and he bothers no one, unlike you two” the landlord replied with a sharp grin.

Related Stories:
The Glimmer Man’s Tales Part 6 – The Acre’s Resurrection
The Glimmer Man’s Tales Part 5 – Lord Norbury (The Hanging Judge & The Cabra Hound)
The Glimmer Man’s Tales Part 4 – Narcissus Marsh
The Glimmer Man’s Tales Part 3 – Darkey Kelly
The Glimmer Man’s Tales Part 2 – Billy In The Bowl

He was known well in the pub, once a week he would slowly lumber to his corner, his feet digged into the new petrol green carpet as if not recognising that it was there. They only remembered the old wood that lay beneath. He sat under a tobacco stained painting of a hunt in the Wicklow Mountains, a nearby TV flickered an unnatural glow on him. Broad and short, carrying more the weight of two for his height, unusually pale for a man his size, a bulbous nose and black eyebrows guarded jealously two large blue sapphires for eyes with just a whisp of white suggesting a fringe hidden under a grey cap.

As he sipped slowly on his whiskey, feeling it, first rinse then dry his throat, a commotion rumbled from the bar. Two glamorously dressed women jostled each other over the landlord’s attention, “would you ever feck off Jenna?! I was here first!” one screeched to the other, “Samantha I went to the jacks for five seconds” Jenna snarled back. The argument began to boil much to the annoyance of the general cliental and took on more personal tone. “You can’t accept that he’s with me!” Jenna screamed. As is often the way, drunken arguments are merely the flame for the wick of deeper insecurities. The old man watched with intense curiosity as the fight unfolded. “He’s only after you because you doll yourself up like a hoor! Jenna look in the mirror you have the face of a pig!” Samantha shouted. On hearing these words, the old man began to speak.

“There are many creatures worse than a pig faced woman!”. The bar went quite, “you picked a fine time to speak old man!” a subdued and somewhat surprised Samantha managed to speak. “Old?” he grinned, “‘old’ only has meaning when there is an end. I have been listening to your argument and I would suggest that any man should savour a woman for her ways, and personality rather than the temporary nature of her looks. A man’s wisdom is distilled from his memories, and my memories are rich as the blend sitting in front of me. I would like to relate a memory for you two now, a story that relates to a pig faced woman named Grisley Steevens”. The pub all sat now in silence, there was something better to drink than the alcohol in front of them.

“I am the Glimmer man, a lamplighter, I travel the streets of Dublin banishing the ancient horrors of the dark with the light on my candlestick, I witness the eerie moments after day and before night, when Dublin’s ghosts wander. I have seen more years than any here has seen days”…there broke out drunken laughter by the young men at the bar only to be quickly silenced by a crowd now drunk on the Glimmer man’s words, he continued. “Not so long ago, continuing on my route as I must do, I spied an old acquaintance of mine standing at the window at Steevens’ Hospital, my friend, Grisley.

Grisley was born to a wealthy family, though an attractive girl, she could never show it, as she was born with a most unfortunate blight, the sun’s natural rays would scorch her delicate skin, she wore a heavy veil to hide her face from the sun’s unforgiving light and often only came out at night and that’s when I first knew her. Her family commissioned a hospital to be built on the expressed condition that there would always be a place for her there and it was only in her darkened ward on the top floor of that hospital where she could comfortably walk without her veil, showing her pretty face. I would often pass her as I lit my trail across the city as she walked the green in front of the building at night, she was a gentle considerate creature, and though well cared for by the doctors and staff, she pined for the love of some young gentleman.

Sadly, difference can be an evil thing in the hands of the uninformed and as she grew into a young woman, the idle talk of people turned sinister, her veil forever shrouding her pretty face from the public was seen as a snub to those with too much to say, they spoke about how she was such an aristocrat not to grace them with her gaze. Soon the taunting began, the mob of malicious cowardly minds crafted a vicious story that she was birthed with the face of pig due to an ill deal her father made with the devil.

The taunts and cheers forced the already lonely Grisley further away from the public and into the hospital. There, she prayed one night to anyone or anything that would listen that she would give up her beauty for it had not served her, for the love of a true gentleman. Somewhere, in the dark night, where the Glimmer men had not yet travelled something heard her prayer.

The months passed with increasing speed as age tips the hour glass against our favour but still no suitor would dare to lift the veil of the hidden beauty. Loneliness was about to be married to tragedy. One day, a nurse new to Grisley’s ward and unfamiliar with the girl’s unique condition opened her perpetually closed curtains. The sun’s malicious eye saw its chance and swallowed the sleeping girl in its gaze, tarnishing, burning, hardening her delicate skin. She awoke in terror, in frenzied anguished screams that could be heard as far as Ringsend, as nurses rushed to her aid. When the pain had subsided, she stood alone staring into a mirror, her pretty faced savaged and mauled, left now were peeled eyes and the tough reddish brown skin of a pig. That night I sat with the girl on the green in front of Steeven’s Hospital looking at the moon as it shone on King’s Bridge as she wailed, “who would love this?!” she screeched, my heart heaved heavily for her.

A special doctor was required to treat the girl in the weeks that followed the incident. The doctor chosen was a man from humble beginnings, who rose through the ranks in a time when that was not easy. He alone now would see Grisley deformed face as she took to never lifting her veil off no matter how dark the room. The two became friends as herself imposed isolation meant he was the only one she would talk to. Time moved faster still as the two would spend hours chatting. Words are funny how they change things and he fell in love with the girl, her beautiful nature more important than her harsh appearance. He would visit her more and more and saw the intrinsic beauty within her. The world snarled at her ‘pig face’ but the man who loved her saw her for what she was, truly beautiful.

Sadly, Grisley story does not end there. Supernatural forces that exist among us do like to toy with the human mind, they play in the dark, appearing and vanishing, they reward us with our desires only to take them to see us fall. It was no angel who intervened in her prayer but something much darker, its presence returned to play a new game. Her lover was stricken harshly with fever and he was cared for in Steveen’s Hospital with her by his side, there was nothing that could be done and he passed leaving her once again, alone, in her darkened ward, in her veil.

She’s still there you know, though the world is new again, and lamplighters are no longer needed, often by her window, her saddened face hidden beneath her veil looking at the busy taxis passing by Hueston station in the dark of night safe from the sun. Terrifying those who see her spectre though they do not realise that it was the world that terrified her. She is lost in time, mourning the man who truly loved her. The moral is my two friends that the man who should love you will love you no matter what you look like, ‘to doll’ yourself up for another is to waste your time, which you might not have as much as I do”. The Glimmer Man stopped, he finished his glass.

The two girls said nothing for a period, finally, Jenna broke the silence “you can have him, he’s bit grabby anyway”, “I was never that gone on Jason to be honest” replied Samantha. The Glimmer Man smiled and rose, he slowly dredged to the door before stopping just as he had opened it, then as he faced out into the night, he spoke softly staring at the stars “not all ghosts in this city are evil, some are sad, some are trapped in memories that hold stronger than iron cages. But then there are others that rightful terrify, however all serve a purpose, a purpose for a time and a place” he then lumbered out into the cold night air.

Related Stories:
The Glimmer Man’s Tales Part 6 – The Acre’s Resurrection
The Glimmer Man’s Tales Part 5 – Lord Norbury (The Hanging Judge & The Cabra Hound)
The Glimmer Man’s Tales Part 4 – Narcissus Marsh
The Glimmer Man’s Tales Part 3 – Darkey Kelly
The Glimmer Man’s Tales Part 2 – Billy In The Bowl

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