Bridget
We packed up our things and went to Donegal Town with gran and Uncle Dermot a few days after the funeral. It rained the whole way there. At first glance, Donegal wasn't much different from Belfast. Smaller and cleaner, obviously, but still full of clouds and rain, still plagued with mouldering old castles, still just Ireland. There was a world of difference, of course. Maybe I should have liked it better there, but it wasn't home, and the first time I really cried was the first night I stayed there. Even now I think I'd take Belfast, for all its flaws. Donegal is so small and quiet. It's boring. That's the entire island though, I suppose.
But there was a lot to adjust to. It seemed so much safer there, and we were free to roam about. Not that it mattered much to me at first. I sitll didn't know my way about town and I had no friends in this new place. Colum was my only companion at first, and we didn't make very good playmates. Uncle Dermot tried, but he was much older and he had no notion of how to deal with children. We were forever getting our fingers smashed and stumbled over. Even Colum quickly learned to avoid him in that capacity.
School was also different. We were enrolled in Niall Mor primary and I had to wear a uniform of a blue sweater and a gray skirt. The school was smaller than the one in Belfast, but I didn't know anyone. Believe it or not, I was a bit shy back then and the other girls didn't warm up to me for a while. Of course, the boys were nothing but trouble. Tommy Dempsey pulled my hair, and the teacher had the nerve to write a note to gran just because I punched him. I cried all of the awy home and swore I wouldn't go back. Of course, I did go, personally escorted by Colum, my new body guard.
He took that role on from then on, and no one who knew any better picked on me after that. I'll admit, I liked it at first. It was nice to feel a sort of invincability. But brothers are only tolerable for so long, and he also took on the responsibility of helping me do my homework, making sure I actually go tit done, and making sure I didn't do anything fun, like walking along the ledge of the Bridget Street bridge. Luckily, we both started to find new friends before we got on each other's nerves too much.
Katy White was the first friend there I made. She shared her lunch with me and I let her walk home with Colum and I. It turns out he was the erason for allof that, and the friendship didn't last long after she tried to break his heart years later, but I had no idea when I first met her, did I?