Colum
Donegal Town was much better than Belfast, that was obvious right away. There were no murals painted on buildings, there wasn't the graffiti everywhere, and there wasn't that terrible, frightening "Peace Wall" looming over us anymore. That's not to say we didn't have our problems, but they weren't as easy to see with the naked eye.
Gran did her best to take care of us, but though we didn't know it, she was sick even then. She probably wasn't up to taking care of two gombeen children. Especially with Uncle Dermot's help. It didn't take long to notice the man was a bit of a drunk. A cheerful drunk, but a drunk all the same.
For a while, Bridget was almost like my shadow. She followed me to school and home from school and gloated at the boys in her class when we walked by them. I was her protector fora short time, though it really was her I think they were scared of after she bloodied Tommy's nose, but I gave them an excuse to stay away.
Eventually, things changed until it was me following Bridget and not the other way around. Then I would follow Bridget and Katy, and then Bridget and Katy and Mary. When she finally did start making friends, she made several, and tagging along with a bunch of giggling girls did not take long at all to get old.
So I tried to make my own friends. I have a few, of course, but I don't think I was meant to get along with most of the other boys. The only thing we had in common was football, and they only dragged me into a few half-hearted games before I gave it up entirely. Past that, they had little interest in talking to me. The last time I did talk to them, in fact, I got into a fight with Charlie Abbott, the leader of the group. I don't remember what he said to me, but the next anyone knew, we were rolling around on the ground, throwing punches at each other. I got a few good scrapes, but I gave him a few more, and that was the end of that friendship. I was so angry, I threw my U of Belfast jersey that he admired so much right into the river.
When Bridget came home that night, she went straight to my room to gawk at my battle scars.
"Katy heard from her brother that you got into a fight with Charlie, and her brother said that Charlie beat you something terrible, but Katy and I said that amadan Charlie couldn't beat you. What happened Colum? Did you destroy him altogether?"
The girl did go on soemtimes. I stared at her for a while. "Well, he was on the worst end of it."
"I knew it! I knew that eejit Charlie couldn't beat any brother of mine!" She hugged me and then frowned at a gash on my cheek. "Did he do that?"
"He did." I nodded.
"I'll never speak to that Charlie Abbott again!" She spat forcefully, and I had no doubt she meant it.
The next day, she walked with me to school and, I was embarrassed to see, gave Charlie Abbot the coldest stare he'd probably ever seen, or will see again. Five years later, when I had all but forgotten it, he asked her to the movies with him and what do you think herself told him but, "I wouldn't be seen with a nine-fingered gobshite like you. And be glad I'm not after telling my brother about this or wouldn't he stomp a mudhole in your arse all over again?"
God bless the girl, but she does hold a grudge.