Where Rainbows End (37 page)

The day lived up to the expectation (and standards) of
“Social Lives”
and it was clear for all who witnessed the newlyweds dancing for the first time as husband and wife that this marriage was forever. May they live a long, happy, rich, and fashionable married life together. As for me, your favorite wedding columnist, I’m off with my bouquet, to find myself a beau.

320

Cecelia Ahern

TO ALEX

HAPPY 34TH BIRTHDAY YOU GRAND DAD!

YOUR LOVING GODDAUGHTER,

KATIE

DEAR ROSIE,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAUGHTER!

LOVE MUM AND DAD XXX

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIS,

GETTING ANCIENT NOW AT THE RIPE OLD AGE OF 33!

ENJOY THE NIGHT (STAY AWAY FROM HARD-BOILED EGGS!) KEV

ROSIE,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FRIEND.

ANOTHER YEAR, HERE WE GO AGAIN.

RUBY

from:

Stephanie

to:

Rosie

subject:

Your visit

Can’t wait for you to come over and meet Sophia next month, she’s excited to meet you too and Jean-Louis is as hyper as always.

Happy 33rd sis, no doubt you and Ruby will be out until the early hours.

Enjoy!

from:

Josh

to:

Katie

subject:

Coming over

Dad is bringing me over to Ireland next month to stay with Uncle Phil and Aunt Margaret and their three hundred kids. Bethany is coming too and love, rosie

321

I’m gonna meet her family too. Hopefully we can meet up with you and your mom. It’s so stupid that they don’t talk anymore. And it’ll get real boring just being with the adults all the time.

Can’t wait to come over though. Hope I can meet up with you and Toby.

from:

Katie

to:

Josh

subject:

Re: Coming over

We’re not going to be here when you come over! That’s really crap!

We’re going over to France to meet my new little cousin, Sophia. She’s only a few months old. It would have been great to set Mum and Alex up.

Maybe next time.

DEAR ALEX AND BETHANY,

CONGRATULATIONS ON THE BIRTH OF YOUR BABY BOY.

WE WISH YOU EVERY HAPPINESS FOR THE FUTURE AND ARE DELIGHTED

THAT JOSH HAS THE BROTHER HE WISHED FOR!

ROSIE AND KATIE

HAPPY 14TH, MY LITTLE ANGEL,

HAVE A GOOD NIGHT AT THE DISCO TONIGHT AND REMEMBER NO

DRINKING, NO SEX, AND NO DRUGS. BE GOOD AND REMEMBER TO PLAY

HARD TO GET! (JOKE)

LOTS OF LOVE,

MUM

You have an instant message from: ROSIE

Rosie:

Who is this boy I heard you were kissing and slow dancing with on Friday night, Katie Dunne?

Katie:

Can’t talk Mum, Mr. Simpson is teaching something extremely important for the end of year exams and it’s vital that I listen.

322

Cecelia Ahern

Rosie:

Liar.

Katie:

I’m not lying. I’m sure it is important whatever it is.

Rosie:

Come on spill the beans, who was the boy?

Toby:

Hi Rosie.

Rosie:

Oh Toby, good timing. I was just quizzing my daughter on the mys-tery man at the disco on Friday night.

Toby:

Oh ha ha. News travels fast.

Katie:

Don’t tell her, Toby.

Rosie:

So it’s true?

Toby:

Yep.

Katie:

Yeah and Toby was snogging the face off Monica all night as well.

Rosie:

Oh no Toby, not moany Monica.

Katie:

Ha ha.

Toby:

Why do you two always call her that? She’s not a moaner when she’s with me.

Rosie:

That’s because we don’t kiss her in front of everyone at school discos.

Katie:

Ha ha.

Rosie:

So come on darling daughter, bond with me and share details of this budding romance.

Katie:

His name is John McKenna, he’s fifteen, he’s in the year ahead of me, and he’s really nice.

Rosie:

Ooooh an older man.

Katie:

I know Mum, I’ve got taste.

Rosie:

What do you think of him Toby?

Toby:

He’s OK; he’s on the school football team. He’s good.

Rosie:

You’ll have to keep an eye on him for me, won’t you?

Toby:

Absolutely!

Katie:

Mum! Now he’ll never shut up!

Rosie:

Did you have sex with him?

Katie:

Mum! I’m 14!

Rosie:

I see 14-year-old girls on the TV who are pregnant these days.

Katie:

Well not me!

Rosie:

Good. Did you take any drugs?

Katie:

Mum! Stop! Where the hell would I get drugs from??!

love, rosie

323

Rosie:

I don’t know, well you see 14-year-old pregnant girls on TV who are on drugs these days.

Katie:

Well not me!

Rosie:

Good. Did you drink alcohol?

Katie:

Mum! Toby’s mum drove us to the school and collected us, when would we have had time to drink?

Rosie:

I don’t know. You see drunken pregnant 14-year-olds who are on drugs on the TV these days.

Katie:

Well that’s definitely not me!

Toby:

What TV programs are you watching?

Rosie:

Mainly the news.

Katie:

Well don’t worry; you’ve lectured me enough to know that it’s stupid to do all of those things. OK?

Rosie:

OK but remember kisses are nice but that’s as far as it should go.

Ok?

Katie:

Mum! That’s all I want!!

Rosie:

Good, now you two get back to your work. I expect you to get A’s in this subject!

Katie:

Well we won’t if you keep bothering us!

Ruby:

So what are you going to do for the next two months now that the kids are off school? You’re so lucky getting such long holidays.

Randy Andy told me I’d used up all my holidays already which is ridiculous because all those days were supposed to be sick days. He said there’s no way someone could have been sick for 65 days of the working year and still be alive.

Rosie:

Oh no, so you can’t take any holidays?

Ruby:

I can now, I told him that if he’ll give me two weeks off that I’d mention Randy Andy’s Paperclip Company when Oprah invites me on her TV show after me and Gary win the World Salsa Championship. What are you going to do?

Rosie: I’m not too sure. Julie mentioned something about being able to do adult courses at the school. She says I should take a course in hotel management like I always wanted to do. Like it’s that simple.

324

Cecelia Ahern

Ruby:

Why can’t it be that simple? Look Rosie, you don’t know until you try. Ever since I met you you’ve been going on about working in a hotel. You’re obsessed with them; your home is like a tribute to hotel merchandise. You can barely open the bathroom door for all the stolen mats in the way. I can’t claim to understand your fascination with them but I know that working in one is an absolute dream for you.

Most people dream of becoming millionaires or of traveling to space. Most people’s dreams are unattainable. Yours isn’t. It’s a very normal, everyday person’s kind of job.

Rosie: Julie said that if I don’t take the course she’ll fire me. And she said that when I finish the course she’s firing me anyway.

Ruby:

You need to listen to her; she’s been a good teacher to you over the years.

Rosie: But Ruby, it takes three years to get a degree, and it’s expensive, and I’ll have to work by day and study by night. It’ll be tough.

Ruby:

Oh but, but, but Rosie Dunne. What’s the problem, have you got anything better planned for the next three years of your life?

Dear Rosie,

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you, the past few months have been very busy for Alex and me indeed. Adjusting to married life and a new-born baby all in a matter of months is hard work.

We were delighted to receive your little card and we hope you and Katie are keeping well over in Ireland.

Best wishes,

Bethany (and Alex, Theo, and Josh too)

You have an instant message from: ROSIE

Rosie: You’re right Ruby, it doesn’t look like I’ll be getting up to all that much for the next three years of my life. Why not educate myself?

I’ve nothing better to do.

Hi Mum,

Winter
again
. You would think once in a lifetime would be enough, nobody even
likes
it. It’s scary how the months fly by so fast. They turn into years without me even noticing. Katie is like my calendar, watching her grow and change. She is growing up so fast, learning to have opinions of her own, learning that I don’t have the answers to everything. And the moment a child begins to understand that, you know you’re in trouble.

I’m still on my journey, Mum, still caught in that in-between stage of life where I’ve just come from somewhere, have left it well and truly behind and I’m now working my way toward something new.

I suppose what I’m trying to say is that my mind isn’t settled yet. Still. I mean, you and Dad have done nothing but travel for the past year, you haven’t been in one country for more than a few weeks at a time but you are both more settled than me, and I haven’t left for the past year. You both know where you want to be. I suppose that’s because you have each other and anywhere Dad is feels like home to you.

I’ve learned that home isn’t a place, it’s a feeling. I can make the flat look as pretty as I can, put as many flower boxes on the window sills as I want, put a welcome mat outside the front door, hang a Home Sweet Home sign over the fireplace, and take to wearing aprons and baking cookies, but the truth is that I know I don’t want to stay here forever.

326

Cecelia Ahern

It’s like I’m waiting at the train station, busking to make a few quid, just enough to catch the next train out of here. And of course the most important thing to me is Katie and everywhere I am with her should feel like home, but it doesn’t because it’s up to me to make the home for her. I know that Katie is going to leave in a few years and she won’t need me like she does now.

I have to set my own life up for when Katie goes. I
need
to set my own life up for when Katie goes because I don’t see any Prince Charmings coming along to rescue me. Fairy tales are such evil little stories for young children.

Every time I’m in a mess I expect a long-haired posh-speaking man to come trotting into my life (on a horse of course, literally trotting himself . . . ) Then you realize you don’t want a long-haired posh-speaking man trotting into your life because he’s the one who put you in the bloody mess in the first place.

I’m like Katie’s coach right now, gearing her up for the big fight. She’s hardly thinking of life after me, sure she has her dreams of traveling the world and DJ-ing for a living
without me
but the
without me
part hasn’t hit her yet. And so it shouldn’t, she’s only fourteen. Anyway she is not up to making her own decisions yet, and I’ve put my foot down on the quitting school idea.

Although lately I haven’t had to force her out of bed in the mornings because of John, this new boyfriend of hers. The pair of them are inseparable; they go to discos every Friday night in the GAA club near where he lives.

He’s a real GAA man and plays hurling for the Dublin minors. In fact we’re going to see Dublin v. Meath in Croke park on Sunday. It’s tricky for me because I obviously don’t have a car nor can drive so I sometimes put Ruby on driving duties. She calls it Driving Ms. Lazy. John’s mother is a very nice lady though and she’s kind enough to collect Katie and drop her home some weeks. I haven’t seen or heard much of Toby but I met his mother at the school when she was dropping off her youngest and she told me he was acting more or less the same as Katie with his new love, Monica.

I never dated when I was fourteen. The youth of today are really changing . . . (I sounded SO OLD there!) OK, OK mum I can hear you fuming from here, I did become pregnant at the age of eighteen without having a job or education or man and almost gave you a nervous breakdown, but in some love, rosie

327

countries of the world that’s old, so you should thank your lucky stars that I didn’t get started even sooner.

Kevin called up for the weekend; he brought his girlfriend with him. She’s very sweet but I don’t know what she sees in Kevin. Did you know that they’ve been going out for a year now? Honestly that brother of mine is so secretive; you practically have to beat the information out of him. You never know, there could be more wedding bells in the air for the Dunne family! Tell Dad to get that dirty old tuxedo out of the attic and to brush the cobwebs and mothballs off in preparation. He’ll be happy to know he won’t have to walk down the aisle this time. (Honestly he had
me
nervous at my wedding!) As for my North Strand Palace, we might as well have no windows here at all for all the wind they let in. It’s so cold and windy tonight, the rain is pelting off the windows. That lamppost from outside shines directly into this flat, if only it could be moved a bit to the right then it could annoy Rupert instead. Although it does save me money on the electricity. I’m half-expecting Gene Kelly to be standing outside dancing around with his umbrella. Why is it movies can make everything look fun?

Every morning I rise when it is pitch black outside (and you know it’s not natural to be up if the sun couldn’t even be bothered to get up), the flat is freezing, I hop from the shower to my bedroom shivering like hell, I make my way outside to the world where I have to walk ten minutes to my bus stop in the wind and rain. My ears ache and my hair is in strings around my head, I may as well not wash and blow-dry it at all. My mascara is running down my face, my umbrella has blown inside out, and I look like a disheveled Mary Poppins. Then the bus is late. Or too full to stop. And I end up late for work, looking like a drowned rat with clothes completely soaked through after having at least a few fights with a few bus drivers already, while everyone else has their makeup, clothes, and hair all perfect because they all got out of bed an hour later than me, hopped into their cars, drove to work, arrived at the school fifteen minutes before classes started, and have a cup of coffee as a nice start to their day.