Page 32 of Chaos Theory

THIRTY

We’ve been driving in silence for about an hour, Shane at the wheel, Kobi in the back seat.

Kobi is the one to break the tension. Break it, then build it back again.

‘I know that humans believe there are different types of silence. For example: comfortable, frosty, deafening. This last one in particular is difficult to compute, but I grow accustomed to the many contradictions of humans. Right now, I categorise the silence between you two as “icy”.’

After the meeting with JP, Shane and I had a very heated debate in the corridor, although I tried to rein it in a bit in front of Kobi, who I could tell seemed distressed.

It wasn’t much of a debate though – just Shane mumbling apologies while I fired out unanswerable questions like ‘How could you?’ and ‘Are you for real?’

Eventually, I had to get practical and figure out how to get Kobi out of Go Ireland – out of JP’s sight, out of Trish’s way and definitely out of Padraig Hetherington’s warpath.

I tried to call Josh for advice, see if maybe someone at RoboTron could take Kobi back for a few days, but I wasn’t able to reach him, probably because of time zones.

So I made the decision to bring Kobi with us to County Clare.

I did consider leaving him in sleep mode at my apartment, but I hated the idea of him being home alone.

I asked Jen if she thought I was doing the right thing and she said she’d want to go on a rural retreat if she’d been terrorised by a gang of teenagers too.

Seeing as I don’t have a car, Shane went home and got his yesterday afternoon, then drove me and Kobi to my place, where I tried to get organised for this impromptu trip. At least I already had a backup charging station for Kobi, which can function as a portable sleep pod while we’re on the road.

Shane returned to get us this morning and now here we all are.

‘Please can you tell me more about our journey?’ Kobi asks.

He’s determined to break that ice. ‘I believe this may be considered a road trip. In popular culture, road trips are both symbolic and literal journeys, wherein a set of characters bond through a shared series of adventures, often experiencing personal growth.’

Shane laughs a short laugh. ‘Ha!’

I don’t laugh. I turn my face to the window and mutter, ‘Personal growth – that’ll be the day.’

‘Maeve, please may I know where we are going and what to expect, so that I may best prepare myself for the days ahead?’

Kobi must be finding all this quite stressful. He’s hardly ever been outside, as far as I can tell, and his recent excursions have ended in pranks and misdemeanours.

I exhale, feel my shoulders drop a couple of inches.

‘Sorry, Kobi, there wasn’t time to get you up to speed yesterday.

Everything’s happening quite fast, isn’t it?

On the bright side, you’re going to get a chance to work on your adaptability over the next few days.

We’re bringing you into new terrain, in every sense. ’

‘I still say we could’ve left him at home,’ Shane says. ‘No offence, Kobi. My housemate, Alek, would’ve babysat, for a few lids.’

‘Everything’s just a joke to you, isn’t it?’ I say sharply.

‘Perhaps there is an itinerary I can download?’ Kobi suggests .

‘Sorry, I’ll fill you in now.’ I look at my phone.

‘So – we should get to Clare in a couple of hours. Tonight we’re staying at the Clare Arms Hotel.

Tomorrow morning we’re doing a Burren walk, which ends at an open farm where you can feed the animals by hand.

We’ll be met there by the host, and we’re staying at their farmhouse on Thursday night.

Then on Friday morning we’re visiting the Cliffs of Moher, and after that – oh… ’

‘Is something the matter, Maeve?’ asks Kobi.

‘Err,’ I say.

‘Err?’

‘Ah, it’s fine. It’s just…on Friday night, we’ve to stay in a luxury hotel in Lisdoonvarna that wants us to have, and I quote, “the full honeymoon experience”.’

There’s silence for a moment. Then Shane starts to chuckle. I can’t help it – I start to laugh too. Kobi joins in with a quiet robot laugh. The idea of me and Shane together in a honeymoon suite is so patently ridiculous – even Kobi knows it. Shane’s laugh gets louder. So does mine.

When the laughter stops, Shane says, ‘All told, that doesn’t seem too bad – for a punishment, like.’

I look at my phone again. ‘Oh, JP wants us to write a 5,000-word report on the whole thing. Plus, we’ve to do a presentation to all staff first thing on Monday morning.’

‘Ah feck,’ says Shane.

Nobody speaks for a long time after that.