Corlene Holbrook decided that for the first time in her life, and terrible and all as that prospect was, she had no other option. She would simply have to get a job.
She hobbled back to the hotel. Rounding a street corner, she almost tripped over Dylan who had just got off the bus from Cork. ‘Hey Mom. Something amazing just happened. I must find Ellen and Conor to tell them.’
‘How ‘bout you tell me instead?’ Corlene responded coolly.
Dylan looked at her, clearly taken aback. ‘Well, I don’t think it’s really your thing, but OK sure. I went for an interview today to a music college here, well not here exactly, in Cork. That’s where Laoise is from. You know my friend I told you about…’ he blushed as the words tumbled out. ‘Anyway they said I could enrol and learn to play the uilleann pipes. That’s the instrument I was talking about at dinner the other night. Laoise’s dad, Diarmuid, he plays them. They’re just so cool. Anyway, they said they’d help me, Diarmuid and Siobhán, that’s Laoise’s parents. So, they’re gonna help me to get set up and all that and I’m gonna stay here and study music.’
Corlene was temporarily speechless. The fact that her son didn’t feel the need to ask her permission to stay on in this country hit her like a truck. Here was the only person in her life who would notice if she dropped dead, and yet she was such a crap mother it had never occurred to him that certain choices he made would impact on her. He most likely thought she would be delighted to get rid of him. Suddenly, an emotional dam burst inside her. She was his mother, she couldn’t let him go, he was only seventeen, he’d never lived away from her. Surely he didn’t mean it. All her years of neglect came into sharp focus and she finally realised that he had made a sacrifice to leave his friends and his band and come to Ireland with her in order to prevent her from doing something stupid yet again. All his life she dragged him from place to place, from school to school, never once taking into consideration how he felt about it.
The accumulation of the day’s troubling events were by now taking their toll. Corlene had often heard that in order to make a better life for themselves eventually, alcoholics and addicts often had to first go through the experience of hitting rock bottom. Stealing from that young hairdresser, and the encounter with the dreadful Pa and his crone of a mother, and now the prospect of losing Dylan had achieved precisely that for Corlene. She had sunk lower than ever before. Enough was enough.
‘Hey Dylan, I think it’s time we talked, properly I mean’, Corlene said. ‘Let’s go up to my room and order some food’.
While they waited for room service, Corlene began to explain the detail of her dire financial situation. She apologised for being such a lousy mother, admitted to the credit card scam with the hairdresser, and described the full horror of the Pajo’s bar encounter and everything that had led up to it. Hard and all as it might be for him to believe, she added, she loved him and was proud of him. She, on the other hand, had run out of cash and had no skills to fall back on. All they could do was go home, stay with her mother for a while and maybe she could do a computer course or something. It broke her heart to say it, she added tearfully, but there was no way she could afford six thousand euros to let Dylan stay on in Ireland.
Dylan was bitterly disappointed but tried his best to hide it. It was comforting to hear his Mom say she loved him and he felt enormously relieved that she was giving up manhunting and was going to get a real job. But what about him? All this meant that he had to leave Ireland, abandon the prospect of proper music training and, worst of all, abandon Laoise. He felt like a flash of a new, better life had been offered to him and then quickly snatched away again.
Grandma didn’t have the kind of cash he needed, Corlene told him gently. Even if Diarmuid and Siobhán allowed him to stay in their house, there would be college fees, books and materials as well as transport to pay for. Reluctantly, he had to agree she was right. His mother was being honest and kind for the first time in her life, and he believed her when she said that if there was a way she could do help him financially she would do it, but unfortunately there wasn’t. He resolved to not make her feel bad about it. Maybe he could go home, get a job and reapply next year.
Chapter 28
Conor leaned over to silence the persistent trilling of his mobile phone alarm clock on the bedside locker. He had slept badly, for what had seemed like only a few minutes. Now, it was time to get his tour group on the road once again. Running through the itinerary for the day, he squirmed at the prospect of the most immediate drama to be dealt with, and all the logistical and other complications associated with it – Dorothy’s court appearance.
He had spoken to her solicitor who seemed to think that the charges against her were serious. She couldn’t go into any detail without her client’s permission, but she needed him to know that Juliet and Anna could be called as witnesses and there would most likely be a preliminary and possibly even a full hearing of the case that day. By God, this had turned into a right fiasco he said to himself as he stood under the shower.
And that wasn’t the only fiasco on his hands. There was the whole Sinéad situation to contend with. In her latest email she was going on as if they were already a couple, and he wasn’t at all sure how he felt about that. Neither Ellen, Bert nor Anastasia seemed overly enthusiastic about it either: to a man and to a woman, they reckoned she was an opportunist. And then there was this whole business about the cancer. She had mentioned in one of her early emails that it wasn’t looking good but, despite him asking repeatedly her how she was doing, and if she was having treatment, she just ignored these questions. Maybe she just doesn’t want to talk about it, he thought. But, moving countries in the middle of cancer treatment surely cannot be advisable. On the other hand, maybe it’s too late…maybe she’s come home to die.
This realization struck him forcefully. God Almighty, how was he supposed to deal with that? Not to mention deal with the young lad. Conor wasn’t at all sure he was the right person to take this boy on. Sure they were related but he only found out he existed last week!
If she was coming home to die, she wouldn’t be writing emails hinting at coupledom. Would she? Conor thought his head would explode with the worry of it all.
In the meantime he had no option but to head to the dining room, round up as many of his charges as he could find, and take it from there. As he put on his jacket, he heard his mobile beep with an incoming text message. It was from Anastasia.
‘Have a good day! :) X’
Well, at least she was still talking to him. She had obviously put their somewhat strange conversation of the previous day behind her. Maybe she had patched things up with her boyfriend. He wondered who he was, couldn’t remember ever seeing her with anyone. Well, he was a lucky man whoever he was anyhow.
‘You too x’ he replied
At least that was one less thing to worry about, he sighed, as he gathered up his wallet, keys and phone. It was going to be a long day, he groaned inwardly.
As he walked into the small private dining room reserved for his tour group, his eyes alighted on Cynthia. She was chatting away animatedly to Patrick. Aha, so that’s what’s been going on, Conor said to himself. That’s where Patrick disappeared to on his free day!
Corlene, Bert and Dylan were finishing breakfast. Dylan looked completely different. So did Corlene, come to think of it.
Anna and Juliet appeared in the doorway behind him. ‘Juliet! How are you doing? God love you, you must have got a terrible fright altogether. I’m so sorry I wasn’t here to help, but I was driving Ellen over to West Cork, to see where her ancestors came from. I feel terrible for abandoning you.’
Juliet smiled. ‘Conor don’t be silly, I’m fine…a bit battered and bruised but I’ll live. You …nobody could have predicted what happened. Have you heard any news of Dorothy?’
‘Only from her solicitor. Spoke to her last night. She said Dorothy is in serious trouble. There’s a court hearing this morning. They don’t usually deal with things this quic
kly, but I suppose it’s because you’re all here for such a short time. Anna, I’m afraid both you and Juliet are to be called as witnesses. The solicitor asked me to tell you to be in court at 10am this morning. Lord save us, I can’t believe how things have turned out.’
Anna put her hand on his shoulder. ‘Conor please stop blaming yourself. None of this is your fault. Dorothy just flipped. We should be grateful that Juliet needed nothing more than a few stitches. It could have been so much worse.’
‘What about the tour?’ Juliet asked. ‘I don’t want everyone else put out because of this’
‘I think the best thing to do is to get everyone together, and have a chat about it. If the hearing is this morning, who knows, maybe it will be all over by lunchtime and then we can just carry on. I suggest we just see how things go this morning and we’ll make a decision at lunchtime when we know more.’
Bert finished his breakfast and observed Corlene as she sat, staring into her coffee despondently. She looked different. She was wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, her face devoid of make-up. Her hair was scraped back into a clip of some kind. Bert thought she looked much nicer that way although she probably wouldn’t have believed him if he told her. He strolled over to her table.
‘Well good morning Miss Corlene. Do you mind if I join you?’
‘Sure,’ she sighed, all trace of the coquettish charm gone. ‘No Dylan today?’ asked Bert kindly.
‘He’s upstairs I guess,’ ‘Is everything OK?
Corlene sat back, weighing up whether or not she should confide in this man.
‘We had a big talk last night. First one in, oh I don’t know, maybe ever. It seems he has decided that he wants to stay here and learn to play some unpronounceable Irish musical instrument. It’s strange really. I’m the one who came to Ireland looking for something, but he’s the one who’s actually found it.’
‘He’s a nice kid. I must admit, however, that when I saw him first I thought he looked like something from a fright movie. But, over the past few days, I’ve gotten to know him a little bit. Ellen gets on so well with him so I just kinda tagged along. He’s really fired up about this music you know. You can hear it in his voice when he talks about it.’
‘Yes I know. The thing about it is this Bert…you see...eh…I haven’t been a great mom to him and that’s the truth. He’s been the one taking care of me if I’m honest with you. He only came on this trip to try to stop me doing something dumb like finding a rich new husband.
‘Well maybe a husband isn’t what you need.’
‘Ain’t that the truth. It’s just that I’ve never done anything remotely useful so it’s hard to know where to start. Having Dylan was an accident, and as I said, I’ve been a pretty crap role model. I want to let him stay here but he’s so young. I know he’s got more sense in his little finger than I do in my whole stupid body, but I still can’t let him stay in a foreign country on his own, even if I had the money for the fees and everything, which I don’t.’
‘Well I don’t know much about your situation Miss Corlene, but maybe you could stay here with him?’
‘And live on what? Fresh air?’ she smiled. ‘Naw, that is most definitely not an option. It’s a pity though, I would have liked to have done something good for him for a change.’
Dylan approached the table. ‘Hi Mom, hi Bert.’
Bert couldn’t get over the transformation. Gone were the tattoos and the scary-looking spikes on one side of his head. Dylan’s hair was now cut short all over. Like his mother, he was devoid of make-up and he was wearing a normal looking t-shirt and jeans.
‘Wow Dylan, you look so…so different!’ Bert exclaimed. ‘Yeah, I went to a hair place this morning to get it cut. They were open extra early because of a wedding or something. At first, the lady didn’t want to take me but then she said she would be doing the whole world a favour if she got rid of the spikes. My God she was funny. Oh Mom, I left the envelope in there like you asked, but I don’t think I spelled the name right. Ashlynn I think I wrote. Anyway she was the one who cut my hair. She asked me who the envelope was from. I said I didn’t know and she opened it and took out the money.’
Bert noticed the glance Corlene gave her son, one that suggested he shut up.
‘What about those tattoos? Surely you didn’t get them removed overnight too?’ Bert asked jokingly.
‘Nah, they were just temporary. I might put them back on again sometime but I just felt like a change of image. Laoise, she’s my friend, she’s got a little tattoo of a treble clef on her neck, and it’s like totally awesome. So I might get something like that,’ Dylan said as he wolfed his breakfast. As he exchanged a shared smile with Corlene over Dylan’s bent head, Bert’s eyes were drawn to the door. Ellen walked in looking bright and happy. He was relieved. He knew she wouldn’t be cross about the fact that he had returned to Killarney without her. But at the same time, he would have hated her to feel that he had deserted her. He walked over and gave her a hug.
‘Hello Bert. Well, here I am. In one piece. Mary very kindly drove me back this morning. I have so much to tell you. Such an incredible day.’
Their chat was interrupted by Conor’s voice addressing them all. ‘Well folks, I have a few things to tell you. I must say this has been the most eventful trip I’ve ever had. I’ll cut to the chase. There was an incident yesterday involving an assault. I’m sorry to say that it seems Dorothy attacked Juliet, who spent last night in hospital.’
The group looked shocked and gathered round Juliet asking if she was OK.
‘I’m fine,’ she assured them ‘just a few stitches…I’m right as rain.’
Conor continued: ‘Elliot Heller has left the tour, and won’t be rejoining us.’
Anna smiled gratefully as Juliet squeezed her hand and Patrick patted her on the back.
‘In addition to that, Dorothy Crane is in the local Garda station awaiting a court hearing which is due to take place this morning. So, if no one else has any big news, I was going to suggest that we wait until lunchtime to move on with the tour. Anna and Juliet are both to be called as witnesses for the court hearing. If Dorothy’s case is called first, then we can base our next move on the outcome of the court case. Is that OK with everyone?’
General murmurs of agreement emanated from the group, most of whom were stunned at the news of Dorothy’s situation.
As Conor turned to leave, Patrick approached him. ‘Everything OK Patrick? I see you went back to Cork yesterday,’ he added with a smile.
Patrick struggled to find the words. ‘Eh yeah. I sure did. Conor…I was wondering if…now it may not be allowed…and I totally understand…but eh…would it be OK if Cynthia joined us for the end of the tour? I will pay of course…It’s just that I’d like to…’ Patrick blushed beetroot red with embarrassment.
Conor resisted the urge to tease him. ‘Well Patrick, I’m only insured to carry the originally booked members of the tour with me, but so much off the wall stuff has gone on this tour, I can probably bend the rules a bit since it’s only for two more nights. Anyway, the departure of Elliot Heller means that we now have one free space. On the money front, don’t worry about it. I won’t say anything if you don’t. On the hotel thing, well if you need another room I’m sure the Dunshane can oblige. Just pay for any extra meals. I’ll square it with the manager.’
Patrick’s wide grin almost cracked his face in two. ‘That’s great, Conor, really great! Thanks Buddy!’ he said, giving Conor a high five.
Chapter 29
Diarmuid, Laoise and Siobhán arrived into the dining room just as everyone was about to leave. They spotted Dylan’s table and waved.
‘Oh hi guys,’ Dylan said, introducing them to Corlene and Bert.
‘These are my friends from Cork who offered to help me with the music college,’ he said by way of explanation.
‘I’m so sorry to have to say this and I’m really, really grateful. It’s totally amazing that you would offer to help me like that, but I spoke to my
Mom last night and it’s just not gonna be doable. I really do want to learn the pipes and stay here, but even if I stayed with you guys, we don’t have the money for the fees or to buy books or anything. But I was thinking maybe I could get a job back in the States for a year or two, and save hard, and then come back and try to get in again.’
‘What? Ah no!’ cried Laoise. ‘Surely you can find the money somehow?’
‘No Laoise, Mom and I talked about it all night. There’s just no way. Believe me no one is sorrier about this than me,’ he said, visibly upset. ‘But...’ Laoise began
Siobhán interrupted her. ‘Laoise, it’s really not our business. Well Dylan, the offer is there. I do understand it’s a lot of money and I’m not sure I’d allow Laoise to go and live in America if the situation was reversed, so it’s Corlene and Dylan’s decision.’
Corlene gazed at this extraordinary Irish woman. She was dressed like a yoga teacher, she thought, floor-length skirt and a tie-died T-shirt that Corlene wouldn’t be seen dead in but she seemed nice, trustworthy.
‘Can I get you a coffee?’ Corlene asked her. ‘We all have to wait around here in the hotel until lunchtime, for a reason that I just couldn’t begin to explain. So, you might as well.’
Dylan and Laoise looked at each other. ‘Er, we might just go for a walk OK?’ Laoise announced, and without waiting for an answer, grabbed Dylan by the hand and dragged him away.
Diarmuid’s mobile rang and he moved out to the corridor to take his call.
Corlene continued her assessment of the woman sitting opposite her. She had lived her entire life in a world where nobody gave anybody anything for nothing. She wondered what was in it for this Irish family. This woman “Shove-on”, or whatever she was called, struck her as someone who liked straight talking.
The Tour Page 21
