Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 82767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 331(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 331(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
“See ya, Freya,” she called out as the taxi pulled away.
Effie looked at me and smiled. “I’m not on Clover House time…”
“I didn’t know you knew anyone here in Dublin,” I said, ignoring that the woman called Effie by her proper name.
“I didn’t, she sort of adopted me,” she smiled.
“Hmmm.” I must have sounded cynical because she rolled her eyes.
“She was just being friendly to someone on her own. She showed me around and introduced me to people. She bought the drinks, and I was supposed to buy us food after…”
“Are you hungry?” I asked suddenly, realizing that I was starving. “The hotel can sort something.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” she said, and then brightening she pointed at a chip shop. “Can we get fries – I mean, chips?”
I laughed. “The cultural experience of late-night chips after a drinking session, that’s very Irish. I think I can approve that per diem.”
And so we bought huge steaming bags of freshly fried potatoes sprinkled with salt and vinegar and stopped by one of the many bridges over the River Liffey to eat them and look down into the inky black water, reflecting the lights of the city around us.
Chapter 27
FREYA
I DIDN’T KNOW what to think as we walked back to the hotel. Sitting on a bench, shivering in the cold air, I felt totally lost for words. I was glad we were eating; it meant there was less need for conversation. I wracked my brain for small talk, glancing along the elegant Georgian façade of the buildings, with their arched doors and elaborate door knockers.
“The… architecture is so beautiful,” I said, trying to sound casual.
“Yeah.” He looked up as if he had never seen the place before. “I suppose it is.”
“I guess it looks different when you’ve been away a while,” I added.
“You know,” he said, sitting up and looking around him, “I think cities are a lot like people; you never really know them. Or at least, the version you think you know can change into something completely different.”
I was glad he couldn’t see me blush. This was all a little close to home, and for a second I panicked that he had found me out and knew that I wasn’t who I said I was after all. I considered telling him the truth, and even tried to find a way to put it so that it didn’t sound so bad. But every way I framed it in my mind, it came down to the fact that I had lied to him, and snooped through his files, and that the whole reason for my being there was that I thought he had done something that I could never forgive. My heart was pounding, and I felt butterflies in my stomach, but now, they were a symptom of my growing anxiety.
“I guess it’s a case of perspective. It’s the same city, but you see it differently,” I suggested, not looking at him in case he could see the worry in my eyes.
“Maybe,” he nodded. “Cities and people, they’re never quite what they seem. I mean, I’m not quite the person everyone at Clover House thinks I am.”
I blinked. Wasn’t that my line? I couldn’t trust myself to speak, so I just sat and listened to him as he continued. He told me, quietly at first but then with increasing passion, what his life had been like before he had come to Boston to work at Clover House. He told me about growing up on the wealthy side of the city, and how he had rejected his expensive boys’ school and moved into a run-down apartment in the rougher end of the city with his two best friends – Mick and Kevin. Things had been good, and then things had gone bad. He didn’t go into details, but I knew from his tone that he had regrets. There was a long silence.
“It’s hard to look back at the past, but you’ve done well now, right?” I encouraged him.
“No, you don’t understand. Things went really bad. We started out fine, we had all kinds of plans, and we had a band that would play in pubs like the one we were in tonight, so we made enough money to just about get by. Mick’s parents loaned him some cash, always hoping he would come home. But my parents pretty much cut me off. It wasn’t their fault. I got into trouble, mainly because I was loyal to my friends. But they were angry and hurt.”
“And Kevin?” I had never heard of a Kevin, and I suspected that there was a good reason for it, for when Keegan said his name, there was pain in his voice.
“Kevin was the wildest of the three of us. He just hadn’t a care in the world, you know? Lived for the minute. His parents were abroad, he was a boarder at the school, and he just went AWOL. They didn’t come to look for him, thought he would see sense. He started dealing drugs to make some cash. But he was taking as much as he was selling. It wasn’t my scene, nor Mick’s.”