Where Rainbows End (43 page)

Katie:

Brown cords and long hair then, and you can listen to Bob Dylan all day while you’re flaked out on the grass, man. I’m actually beginning to think that double computer class on a Monday morning could actually be easy compared to moving away from Mum and Grandma. Oh my god, what about John?

Toby:

John has legs, he’ll be able to walk on to a plane, sit down, fly to Ibiza or wherever you may be, get off the plane, and see you. I noticed you didn’t mention me there. Will life be that easy without me?

Katie:

Yes of course it will. No but honestly, aren’t there any dentistry colleges in Ibiza?

Toby:

Not where you’re going, unless you include extracting people’s teeth using your fist.

Katie:

Well then I guess it’s Ibiza for just me and Dad then.

To Katie and Rosie,

Good luck to the both of you in your exams, I’m praying for my girls.

Love Mum/Grandma

To Rosie and Katie,

Good luck!

Love Steph, Pierre, JeAN-LOuiS, and Sophia To Rosie and Katie,

My best friend and goddaughter, best of luck in your exams. You will both excel as you always do. Let me no how the first one goes.

Love,

Alex

368

Cecelia Ahern

To Rosie,

After these exams can you start going out again? You’re becoming an awful bore and an intelligent bore at that which is even worse. The quality of conversation with Teddy and Gary is declining week by week and last week I was forced to listen to hours and hours of “discussion” about whether the Aston Martin DB7 is as good or as fast as a Ferrari 575. Oh yes my family likes to get down to the nitty-gritty and discuss the important things in life.

I know I encouraged you to go for this degree but if you fail these exams this year and have to repeat I’m giving you the official warning that I have the firm intention of making a new friend. One that won’t be so ambitious.

You do know that ambition was Macbeth’s downfall don’t you? (It was either that or the crazy wife.)

So absolutely no pressure there. Good luck, Ruby

To Mum,

Here we go, in a fortnight we’ll both be free.

Best of luck,

Katie

To Katie,

Good luck honey, thanks for being my study partner. No matter how you do I’m proud of you.

Love,

Mum

Exam results: Rosie Dunne.

Student number: 4553901-L

Course: BA in Hotel Business Management

Recognized by Irish Hotel & Catering Institute (MIMCI) & Catering Managers Association of Ireland (MCMA)

love, rosie

369

Subject

Grade

Accounting

B

Computer Applications and Data Summary

B

Economics

B

Hospitality Ethical and Legal Studies

B

Financial Control and Marketing

B

Human Resource Management

A

Enterprise Development

A

Languages (Irish)

A

Tourism and Hospitality Industry Studies A

Graduates qualify for membership for a period of professional internship in the hospitality industry.

YES! YES! YES! YES! YEEEEEESSSSSS! ALEX I DID IT! I FINALLY DID

IT!!

Rosie I’m so happy for you! Congratulations!

from:

Rosie

to:

Ruby

subject:

Let’s celebrate!

Now
we can definitely go out! By the way, Katie is coming out with us too so get your dancing shoes on (of course in your case I don’t mean that literally. No one wants to see salsa shoes in a nightclub). She did brilliantly in her exams and got accepted to a few college business courses but she’s going to stick to her original idea of trying out DJ-ing.

Toby got enough points for dentistry in Trinity College which is wonderful news so overall everyone is happy, happy, happy!

You know when I was 18 I missed out on going to Boston and I thought my world had ended. While all my friends were partying and studying I was cleaning dirty nappies. I thought my dream was lost. Never in a million years 370

Cecelia Ahern

did I think that I would be able to share this special moment with my teenage daughter.

Everything does happen for a reason. I’ll just be so sad to see my baby go away. The day I’ve been preparing for has finally arrived, Katie is spreading her wings and moving on and I must do the same. I think I might be close to gathering enough money to buy that train ticket out of here.

Rosie Dunne is leaving the station and moving on.
Finally.

Rosie Dunne,

Principal Julie Casey,

Apt. 3, St. Patrick’s Primary School,

Northstrand

Dublin 1,

Ireland

Dear Rosie,

Congratulations on your recent exam results, you have proved yourself to be a true achiever and should feel proud.

Keeping my promise, I am delighted to inform you on behalf of all of us here at St. Patrick’s Primary School that your services are no longer required.

Your contract with us will not be up for renewal in August.

We are sorry to see you go but you have to. My retirement was one year later than planned but it was worth hanging around to see you succeed.

Rosie Dunne, you have been the longest project of my life, my eldest and longest-serving student, and although we may have had a rocky start and an even rockier middle, I am so glad to see you succeed at the end.

Your hard work and dedication are an inspiration to us all and I wish you all the best for the future. I do hope you keep in touch and I would love to see you attend my retirement party for which you will receive an invitation shortly. I ask that you forward on an invitation to Alex Stewart too.

After years of separating the two of you it would be nice to see you both in the same room again after so many years. I do hope that he can make it.

Congratulations again.

Keep in touch,

Julie (Big Nose Smelly Breath) Casey

love, rosie

371

Katie,

My baby girl is moving away! I’m so proud of you, love, you are so brave to be doing this. Make sure your dad doesn’t forget to feed and clothe you.

I’ll miss you so much, I loved having you here with me but I hope I’m welcome to visit you lots!

If you need me, just call and I’ll come running.

Lots of love,

Mum

Dear Brian,

This is a huge responsibility, please take care of Katie and don’t let her get up to anything stupid over there. You know what eighteen-year-old males are like, you yourself were one. Keep her away from them as best you can.

She’s over there to learn, not party and make babies.

Let me know
everything
that’s going on with her. Even the stuff she’s afraid to tell me. A mother needs to know. Please listen to her and be there for her all the time. If you even sense that something is wrong and she won’t confide in you, just let me know and I’ll subtly find out.

And last but not least, thank you so much for giving my baby,
our
baby her dream.

Best wishes,

Rosie

Dear Rosie Dunne,

Congratulations on completing your BA in Hotel Business Management.

We are pleased to inform you that your professional internship in the hospitality industry will be undertaken at the beginning of August. Each graduate’s employment has been randomly selected and chosen by a computer without discrimination or prejudice and all jobs are on an equal par with one another. Once a placement has been made the graduate cannot change or demand another.

The contract of twelve months is for the position of assistant manager and is to be held at the Grand Tower Hotel in Dublin’s city center.

You are to begin on Monday, 1st of August at nine a.m. For more infor-372

Cecelia Ahern

mation regarding your placement please contact Cronin Ui Cheallaigh, manager and owner of the Grand Tower Hotel. The phone number, details, and map of directions to the hotel are provided overleaf.

We wish you luck in your new venture and hope it brings you success in the future.

Yours sincerely,

Keith Richards

Hotel Business Management Course Director, St. Patrick’s Primary School Night Courses

Alex:

Very impressive Rosie, the Grand Tower Hotel? Sounds very prestigious indeed.

Rosie:

Oooh I know! That’s what I thought! I’m not familiar with the hotel though are you?

Alex:

Oh you’re asking the wrong person Rosie. Every time I’m back in Dublin some new building, office block, or apartment block has popped up where there was nothing. I don’t no where anything is anymore. You should go down and take a look yourself.

Rosie:

No! I couldn’t do that! What if they caught me snooping around and then I arrived the next day claiming to be the manager. They’ll think I’m a freak.

Alex:

A freak? No. Interested and eager? Yes.

Rosie:

Nobody likes an eager beaver Alex. After we hung up the other night, I was thinking and do you know you’re losing your accent?

Alex:

Rosie I have been here 20 years. I’ve spent more years here than in Ireland. My kids are American; I have to keep up with the lingo!

(Irish expression added entirely for you.) Of course I’m going to lose an accent.

Rosie:

Well you’re not so much losing an accent as gaining an accent. Anyway 20 years . . . how did that happen?

Alex:

I no, time flies when you’re having fun.

Rosie:

If you call the last 20 years fun, then I don’t want to know how fast time goes by when you’re really enjoying yourself.

Alex:

It hasn’t been so bad for you, has it Rosie?

love, rosie

373

Rosie:

Define bad.

Alex:

Oh come on . . .

Rosie:

No it hasn’t but I wouldn’t complain if it became a whole lot better.

Alex:

Well, none of us would . . . the job must be exciting for you.

Rosie:

It really, really is. I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve! I haven’t felt like that for a long, long time. I know the job is temporary and that I’m only in training but I’ve waited a long time for this opportunity.

Alex:

You’ve waited too long for it. I of all people no how much you’ve wanted this. I used to hate it when you made me play Hotel.

Rosie:

Ha ha, I remember that. I was always the person in charge and you had to be the customer!

Alex:

I hated being the customer because you would never leave me alone.

You kept fluffing my pillows and lifting my feet up on stools for the customer’s “comfort.”

Rosie:

My god, I’d forgotten all about that! I used to try to be like the guy on
Fantasy Island
who looked after his guests so much he would use magic to give them their dreams.

Alex:

I don’t call forcing me to go to bed at two in the day, tucking me in so tight that I could hardly breathe a comfort/dream-providing service! I don’t no what type of manager you were trying to be but if you behave like that with your real customers then a few of them will have restraining orders against you.

These days people don’t generally like being given daily schedules by their manager of what they
have
to do for their day in the hotel. (And if they don’t obey the list, their manager will go home in a sulk and stay that way all day until the customer apologizes.) The phrase “The customer is always right” is one you’ll need to remember Rosie.

Rosie:

At least it wasn’t as bad as playing Hospital.

Alex:

Now that was a game and a half!

Rosie:

It was a stupid game Alex. All it involved was you trying to trip me up in the school yard so I would cut myself and you would have to tend to me. Mum and Dad used to wonder where I was getting all the cuts and bruises from.

374

Cecelia Ahern

Alex:

Yeah it was fun wasn’t it?

Rosie:

Well you have a distorted idea of what fun is. Like the last 20 years for example.

Alex:

Obviously not
all
fun for either of us.

Rosie:

No . . .

Alex:

Hospitals and Hotels eh? Sounds like some kind of porn movie.

Rosie:

You wish.

Alex:

I
do
wish. I have a 4-year-old son who likes to get out of bed at 5 a.m. and sleep in between me and Beth. Any sex at all is like porn for me these days.

Rosie:

Well a man smiled at me the other day and I crossed my legs. That’s porn enough for me. I could join the nunnery and I don’t think it would bother me in the slightest.

Alex:

Oh I disagree!

Rosie:

No really,
trust
me Alex. After the men I’ve been with, celibacy would be like a
gift
.

Alex:

It wasn’t the celibacy I was referring to; it was the vow of silence that would kill you.

Rosie: Funny. Well believe me Alex, there are certain kinds of silences that make you walk on air.

Alex:

That, I no.

Hi Mum,

Just a quick note to wish you luck (not that you need it) on your first day of work tomorrow. Your new suit sounds gorgeous so I’m sure you’ll knock ’em all dead!

Best of luck,

Love,

Katie

You have an instant message from: RUBY

Ruby:

Well Ms. Assistant Manager, tell me all about it. How’s work going?

Rosie:

Very very sl o o o o o wly.

Ruby:

Should I ask why?

Rosie:

Are you ready for a rant? Because if you’re not I’m giving you the opportunity now to get out of this conversation while you can.

Ruby:

Believe it or not I came into this conversation prepared. Fire ahead.

Rosie:

OK
so I arrived on the road the hotel was situated on nice and early and proceeded to walk up and down the street for three quarters of an hour trying to find the very beautiful and
Grand
Tower Hotel. I 376