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BIRTHDAY WISHES AND TRUANT SISTERS

Hugh

JUNE 9, 1999

W HEN I CLIMBED ON THE BUS AFTER SCHOOL ON W EDNESDAY , I DIDN’T BOTHER TRYING to conceal the way my eyes sought her out. The minute I found Liz halfway down the aisle, on the right-hand side, I made a beeline for her.

Tossing my bag on the floor between the seats, I dropped into the seat beside her and draped an arm over her shoulders. “Happy birthday, Liz.” Feeling brave, I pressed a kiss to her cheek and then dutifully ignored the wolf whistles and teasing from my classmates.

“Thanks, Hugh,” she chuckled, shifting closer until she was snuggled under my arm. “I missed you.”

“Missed you, too,” I replied, relaxing into my seat. “Your present’s in my bag. I’ll give it to you when we get to your place.”

“You know I don’t want presents.”

“And you know I’m still going to give you presents.”

She smiled. “How long do you get to stay at my house for?”

“Half nine,” I replied, fucking delighted at the thought. “Mam said she’ll pick me up after her shift.”

The beamer of a smile that spread across her face assured me that Liz was as delighted as I was about the late pickup.

She was doing so much better since March. The new combination of medication she was taking seemed to be really working for her, and I found myself encouraging her every day to keep going. I knew she hated the pills, but I also knew, without them, she wouldn’t be able to function.

“How are you eleven already?” I mused, shaking my head. “Feels like it was only yesterday that you were six years old and sitting on this bus, sniffing my neck like a little puppy.”

“Oh my God,” she snickered, resting her cheek in the crook of my arm. “I did sniff your neck.”

“At least you only sniffed me,” I shot back, chuckling. “I was a lot luckier than the other kids you decided to bite chunks out of.”

“To be fair, the puppy reference is a lot kinder than I deserve.” She laughed again before adding, “I was feral back then.”

“You’re still feral,” I countered, laughing. “It’s grand, though. I’ve grown fond of your wild streak.”

“Jesus,” I exclaimed when we stepped foot inside Old Hall House and were greeted by the sound of loud screaming. “What’s that about?”

Mike’s voice thundered through the air, joined by Caoimhe’s hysterical wailing, and then the sound of Catherine, who was clearly trying to calm everyone down.

“No clue,” Liz replied with a sigh, edging closer to the closed kitchen door. “But I’m sure we’re about to find out.”

“How could you do this?” Mike demanded from the other side of the door. “You’ve ruined your whole future, Caoimhe!”

“Michael, please calm down.”

“Calm down? How the fuck do you propose I do that, Catherine, when our daughter swanned off to England with her boyfriend instead of sitting her leaving cert exams?”

Holy crap .

Caoimhe skipped her leaving cert exams?

I turned to look at Liz, but she seemed as bewildered as I was, with a wide-eyed expression etched on her face.

“It was one exam, Dad,” Caoimhe tried to plead, though it was muffled from the sheer height of her crying. “I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry, Daddy. I swear I’ll sit the rest of my exams. It’ll be fine, I promise. I’ll ace the rest of my subjects.”

“No, it won’t be fine, Caoimhe,” Catherine chimed in, sounding pissed now. “English is a core subject, and you skipped the exam. Without English, you automatically fail the leaving cert, regardless of how well you do in your other exams!”

“I didn’t know that!” Her screams and wails grew louder. “I didn’t know, I swear!”

“You knew you were supposed to be at Tommen this morning at nine o’clock sharp,” Mike interjected. “You knew that much, Caoimhe, but oh no, you couldn’t do that one simple thing, could ya? No, because instead, you decided to flush your future down the drain for a dirty weekend with that prick Mark Allen!”

Well, shit…

Go Mike .

“I said I’m sorry!” Caoimhe screamed, and the sound of a chair scraping on tiles filled my ears. “But I had to go, Dad, I was running out of time—”

“Don’t you dare say it!” her father roared. “I’m already fully aware why he took you over on the boat to England. I don’t need you verbalizing my worst fucking nightmare out loud!”

“Why, Caoimhe?” Catherine sobbed. “Why didn’t you come to me, love?”

“Because of him!” Caoimhe screamed. “Look at his reaction, Mam. How could I talk to you about what was happening when all he ever does is lose the head and pass judgment? I did the right thing for me , and I thought I was doing what was best for the—”

“Don’t fucking say it!”

“Michael, please try to calm down.”

“How are we going to show our faces at mass, Catherine? She’s brought shame down on the whole family.”

“Nobody knows, Dad, I promise.”

“God knows, Caoimhe!”

“Are you fucking serious, Dad?” Caoimhe screamed. “You’re worried about your God in the sky when your flesh and blood is standing right in front of you, begging for help?”

“No daughter of mine would do what you did,” Mike shouted back. “Don’t you ever bring that prick around here again. Do ya hear me? He’s not to step foot through the front door of this house ever again!”

“Dad, please!”

“No, don’t try to hug me! I can’t stand to look at you right now.”

“Dad, I’m begging you to understand—”

“Just get out of my sight, Caoimhe,” Mike roared. “Please. Go now, before I do something I’ll regret.”

“Quick,” Lizzie whisper-hissed when the sound of footsteps came closer. “Run.”

She didn’t need to tell me twice.

Grabbing her outstretched hand, we bolted for the staircase, quickly retreating upstairs to the safety of her bedroom.

“Holy fuck,” I strangled out, with my back to her closed bedroom door. “Your sister’s in some serious shit.”

“I’ve never heard my father shout at her like that,” Liz agreed, eyes as wide as saucers. “Usually, he saves that up for me.”

Yeah, I knew he did, and that was a huge reason why I disliked her father.

“Even Mam sounded cross,” she continued, moving for her bed. “And she has the patience of a saint.”

“Did you know she was going to England?” I asked, following her over to her bed. “Did she say anything to you about it?”

“No, not me, but I heard her mention something about it when she was talking on the phone to one of her friends,” Liz replied, sitting cross-legged on her bed. “I didn’t take any notice because, honestly, I don’t really care what she does. And when she was gone all weekend, I just presumed she was at a friend’s house studying.” Shrugging, she added, “Her leaving cert exams started today. She was supposed to have English Paper I.”

“Do you think she might have taken the boat over to England because she was pregnant”—pausing, I lowered my voice to a whisper before saying—“and now she’s not?”

While it wasn’t something anyone dared to speak about out loud, everyone in Ireland knew why girls took unexpected boat trips to England, and it wasn’t to take in the sights.

“I don’t know,” Liz replied, chewing on her lip anxiously. “Maybe.”