The two siblings' surname is Fox, hence Cormac's nickname for Simon. They're Protestant, a fact that is mentioned more than once as you cross the yard. You are headed for a place called Glenkildove, in the valley beyond yours, but first you are going to collect two more of Cormac's friends.
Simon seems gentle and bookish, peering at the world over his glasses in benign, tolerant confusion, as though he were sixty rather than sixteen. His sister, Claudia, is a barely contained dynamo of energy and action. She can't even stand still for very long, constantly hopping from one foot to the other. She immediately launches into a series of questions about you, and London, and why you're here, and what you like.
"I'm so sorry," Simon says. "Claudia has heard about personal boundaries. She's decided against them."
"The Claw will have no truck with such things."
I answer her questions as best I can, being direct and honest about my mother's illness.
I tease her by inventing an elaborate series of lies accounting for my presence in Ballyavon.
I answer her general questions but politely decline to go into personal matters, explaining that it's not something I want to get into just now.
I ignore her persistent questions, making no effort to disguise how irritating I find her.
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