Things changed very slowly in Shanagolden, but they did change, just like in any other town.
When Corrigan O'Keefe was on the verge of turning 12 and was excelling in school and football and life in general, Vanessa suddenly disappeared. Her absense in the pub was immediately noticed, and speculation started to spread about where she could have gone off to.
Tallulah responded by going briskly about her normal work and seeing to it that her worried, sulking grandson was kept busy as well. It would be better to keep him occupied, she decided, than to have him go home alone to his father, who everyone knew had gone on a drinking spree.
So, after school he would either go to soccer practice or go to the pub, where he would sit at the bar and work on his homework and then help Tallulah. The arrangement suited Corrigan very well. He liked the distraction and he found it easier to concentrate in the relaxed, friendly atmosphere of the pub, even if it was noisy, than at home where he was bout to do nothing but argue with Brendan O'Keefe. Though it did help, he couldn't avoid the fights altogether. In fact, before long he could outline most of them and all of the points his father would touch on: you drove her away, you know where she is, you plan on following her, you spend all of your time with your nose in those damned books or at the pub or playing football . . .
Any time he spent away from home was because of the fights, and the tearing apart of an already fragile relationship, and any thoughts of leaving home were for the same reason. The rest just wan't true. At least at first.
Six months after she left, Corrigan came home to find a letter addressed to him. The envelope was expensive, pristine white paper with long, elegant hand writing spelling out his name. In the upper right hand corner was a blue stamp with some frilly English queen covered by a London postmark. Not even the postmark had a smudge or imperfection on it. He stared at it for a long time, not sure he wanted to open it, but finally he locked himself in his room and tore the top, pulling out a single, neatly folded piece of paper.
It was from his mother. A letter saying how much she missed him, and telling him about her new life in London with "Phillip." Phillip had proposed and she was very happy, and Phillip wanted to meet him, of course, and wouldn't they like him to come to the wedding? Once the divorce was final, of course.
She may have been very happy, he thought, but it did him no good at all, and going to see her married off to some Englishman seemed like a very bad idea. He put the letter back in its envelope and the envelope in his school bag and walked downstairs. he glanced at the mail again and noticed this time a bulky envelope addressed to his father from a law firm, also with a London postmark. Probably not a good sign, he concluded, and made his way to the pub for the night.