Summary

Safia Moore’s short story “That Summer” takes place in North Down in Northern Ireland during the summertime and is told in retrospect by the narrator.

As a young boy, the narrator has a feeling that somebody is going to die. His friend Ivan jokes about the narrator’s prediction. Together with another boy, Noel Conway, the narrator goes to spy on Mrs Walsh sunbathing topless in her yard. As the only Catholic family in town, the Walshes are often treated with suspicion. The narrator is fascinated by Mrs Walsh’s physical appearance but does not reveal this to Noel.

Soon, two little children go missing and the people in town start looking for them in the woods. The narrator thinks this is a sign that his premonition was right and wonders whether they hav...