Read Notes from a Spinning Planet—Ireland for Free Online

continue.
    “Come on,” he urges. “What was weird?”
    So I go ahead and spill the beans about Sid falling apart. “I mean, it wasn’t like just a tear or two. She really came undone.”
    He considers this. “Did you ask her why?”
    “No, not really. It seemed kind of like a private moment, you know, and I felt uncomfortable being there, like I was intruding.”
    He slowly nods and takes another sip, but I can tell by hisexpression that he’s thinking something specific, almost like he knows what was troubling my aunt. And then I remember his mom, and I feel absolutely horrible. Of course, it seems obvious now. Sid must’ve been remembering her best friend and how they’d come to Ireland together more than thirty years ago. And since he’s not saying anything, I decide I should probably just get it out in the open.
    “Do you think she was feeling bad about your mom?”
    “Maybe.”
    Thankfully, the waitress comes out with a little green bottle that really doesn’t look like pop (or a soda), but she sets it in front of me along with a small glass. “Thanks,” I tell her as I pick up the roundish bottle and sniff at the opened top. Then I pour it into the glass and watch as it fizzes, and finally I take a tentative drink. It pretty much tastes like Sierra Mist, only not as sweet and more lemony. By the second sip, I think I might like this even better.
    We both sit there in silence for a few minutes, just sipping our drinks and feeling, I think, uneasy. I’m desperately trying to think of something to say to Ryan, something that will move us past this thing about his mom. But I am coming up totally blank.
    “It’s hard moving on,” he finally says. “I mean, my mom’s been gone for almost four months, and I know I should be over it by now—”
    “Why is that?” I say. “I mean, seriously, if
my
mom died, I doubt I’d ever get over it. Really, how does anyone get over something like that? Why should you feel like you have to move on?”
    He seems honestly relieved at my admission. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Thanks, Maddie.”
    “The truth is, I’m not really that comfortable talking about this kind of thing. I mean, no one close to me has ever died. But I really feel for you, and I can’t even begin to guess how you deal with this.”
    “No one ever does, not until it happens. Sometimes not even then.”
    “Sid told me that your dad died too, back when you were still pretty young.”
    “That wasn’t the same,” he says. “I was just a baby, and I don’t even remember him.”
    “Still, it must be hard having both your parents gone.”
    He nods. “Yeah. I’m not really looking forward to holidays.”
    “Holidays with the family can be highly overrated.”
    He sorta laughs. “Well, maybe I’ll connect with some of my dad’s family while I’m here.”
    “Do you know any of them?”
    He shakes his head. “Not at all. My dad was raised in the U.S. He came over here when he was about my age. That’s when he met my mom.”
    “They met in Ireland?”
    “Northern Ireland.”
    “That’s kind of romantic.”
    He shrugged. “I guess.”
    “But then they went back to America?”
    “Yes, after they got married. Then after I was born, he came back.”
    “Your dad came back here? To Ireland?”
    “Yeah.” He frowns now.
    “Without you and your mom?”
    “Pretty much. It was supposed to be a short trip, some kind of business…not something my mom ever talked about much.”
    “Oh.”
    “Then he never came back.”
    “He never came back? You mean he just abandoned you and your mom, Ryan? I thought he died.”
    “He did die. He died in Northern Ireland.”
    “Wow.” I stare at him. “I had no idea.”
    “Well, it happened a long time ago. I don’t think about it much. It’s not really part of my life, you know. And then the thing with my mom…Well, it was a bigger deal losing her.”
    “Yeah.” Still, I’m thinking its strange that Ryan’s dad returned to Ireland and