Colum
It took a little work, but it wasn't very hard to find her actually. I had a word with Dermot's friends and in no time they gave me an address.
"She won't come back with you," Dermot kept telling me, as if I didn't know already. "That sister of yours is too stubborn."
"Well, I can't just leave her there," I said hotly. I was already calculating how much school she'd miss and how much I'd miss and the cost of the plane ticket . . . even with the address, getting there wouldn't be an easy matter.
"Let her stay, Colum. No good will come of her being here."
Would you just listen to him? Saying that we should leave her alone in a foreign country not going to school and living with some hormone driven teenage boy . . . and her not even 16 years old yet.
"Maybe there's someone that will take her in. I might have some friends."
I silenced him with a look. She'd be staying with no friends of his. I wouldn't have it any more than he would have her staying with Aunt Maggie. At least Aunt Maggie would take care of her.
"Well, someone anyway," he went on. "It's better than nothing, isn't it?"
I didn't like it, but what else could we do? And once we decided on that, then we had to find a way for me to get there.
"Have Maggie shell it out," Dermot said. "Tell her you've found Bridget and you need to go to her. In fact, tell her you've found a nice posh school in Salaise, all girls mind you, and ask could she please cover the tuition."
"We haven't, Dermot," I replied dryly.
He smirked. "Yes, well she doesn't have to know that, does she?"
He's no help at all sometimes. "I'll just use the money I have saved, that's all." It was supposed to go toward a motorcycle and school, but that would just have to wait, wouldn't it?
So I booked the soonest flight I could and left Ireland for the first time in my life to go chasing after my mad sister.
She was gone when I found her apartment, so I let myself in. It was the sort of place even Bridget couldn't make nice. Oh, it was clean, surprisingly, and a decent place, but it just wasn't pretty - it didn't look like Bridget.
I didn't wander around any more than I had to. The last thing I needed was Bridget accusing me of snooping. So I sat and waited. It probably wasn't long, but it seemed like it, sitting there alone and anticipating the fight we would have when she got back. With Bridget there was no doubt there would be a fight. And she wasn't happy at all when she walked in and saw me, but I wasn't entirely right about the fight. We didn't yell at each other, did we? I got right to the point and told her she had a week. She didn't like that, or that I would be staying with her for that week.
"How can I find someone in a week?" She had her hands on her hips and she was glaring at me something terrible.
"I don't know. You're the one who will find them, not me." I stood and picked up my bag. "Should I put this away in the closet for now?"
"No!" She stomped her foot and tears came to her eyes. She must have been really angry. Normallyl she knows how childish she looks when she does that. "You can't stay with me!"
I looked at her evenly. "Where else would I stay? It's not my fault I'm not home in my own room studying, is it now?" I was a bit annoyed still at having to miss a week of classes, and that I'd been set back in saving for my motorcycle, not to mention university and seminary after I graduated. The numbers were starting to run through my head again.
"I didn't ask you to come ehre," she said, interrupting my thoughts.
"You might as well have asked," I said. "I can't just let you go off on your own. You'll find a place to stay or you'll go home."
"I will not!" Her temper was getting up and so was mine. If I wasn't careful, any minute now we'd have a terrible fight on our hands.
"Then you can go stay with Aunt Maggie." I hadn't dared mention that to Dermot, but a person needs a backup plan, and Maggie was mine. "You're not living alone." I could just imagine the sort of things that would happen to her on her own, and I didn't like it.
"Fine." She had a pout on her face, but I had just given her an answer she could live with, whether she liked it or not.