I look down and there is only a hair's breadth between the front of the car and Kieran's leg.
Kieran steps away from the car unharmed, with me still in his arms. "No, worries." He smiles sociably. "You stopped in the nick of time. You should drive more carefully though, you could have killed me."
The driver of the car walks to the front of his car and wipes his hand disbelievingly over the unscathed paintwork. He says apologetically, "I swear ye weren't there. You just appeared out of mist. I swear it on my life."
Kieran steps toward him. He loosens an arm from around my waist and holds his hand out to the young man. The man reaches to him and they shake hands. Kieran says, "No harm done, then."
He turns me in his arms, keeping his one arm around my waist and steers me up the hill again.
I look at him anxiously, "I cannot believe we are still alive. That car barely missed you, it stopped just in time."
He sighs deeply, but says nothing. He looks uneasy and nervous, and he avoids looking at me.
When we reach the coffee shop and I see the busy flurry of everybody inside, there is not an empty seat, I feel reluctant to go in. After what just happened, I needed somewhere quiet to process my thoughts, since we could have been dead. More so, I could have been dead, if Kieran did not jump in between the car and me.
He suggests, "Would you rather like to get something to eat at my house? It's just up the road from here."
I nod my head in agreement. The initial shock is starting to dissipate and now questions are starting to crowd out the awe and wonder of this apparent miracle. I can swear I heard the crunching of metal and I am sure I felt the car slam into Kieran.
We walk away from the coffee shop, my hand twined into his.
I turn to him as we turn up a cobbled alleyway. "I could have sworn that car knocked into you, yet there was not even a dent in it, and you are okay."
I see him struggling with himself. His face is clouded over with doubt and indecision. He says, "We're almost there."
We walk through the busy Saturday market, and I have to look where I am walking not to crash into other people, so I look away from him. I have the distinct feeling he is hiding something from me.
When we reach his house, and after he unlocks the door, he lets me walk in and then he follows me in. I wait in the foyer for him while he closes the door again.