(Part I)
It had been during the incident with Brandon and Chase that she had brought him to Ireland.
Ireland. A place of so much beauty and woe. Shane could not help but smile with melancholy whenever he met a fellow survivor of the island. It was different for those who had not endured the famine, Ireland could be newer to them, full of more wonder of delicious decay. It was thin for him, it was bones and blood and watching his siblings, too young to speak, pass away because his mother could not produce enough milk. It was working in the mines with his father and barely escaping them because he learned to be a tailor. Ireland was an early marriage wrought with mental illness and stress.
Ireland, for him, had been a place to love but above all, a place he had had to escape.
Why was she... bringing him here now?
The issue began with that wife, with Maria Michael, the girl he married when he was a boy and everyone rejoiced because maybe the family wouldn't make it and their union might be the last celebration the family had the strength to celebrate. Perhaps they had rejoiced because maybe that one other person would keep them alive a bit longer. He had been keen on her in the beginning but, thrown into the faminine with all of the other families, the tenderness of a new love did not survive the stress of survival.
Her mind, Maria Michael's, did not survive the stress. His mother held on with hope like all good Catholic mothers but Shane could handle it no more. Facilities at the time were far from ideal or even hopeful, but it was the only place to put her. She'd begun hearing things and soon she had begun to hear orders being told to her. Strange orders, ones that led him to believe that his siblings and himself were not sleeping in a safe household. There were too many times when he looked back, when he reconsidered his past and wondered how much of a coward he had been to drop her off in an institution. Was he a coward or was he smart for it? When Shane thought about it, he chewed on his nail much in the way he was now.
"Skullz..." He spoke her name and looked at her, wanting to reach out but not sure. As they got off the ship and began walking he realized that he both recognized and did not recognize where he was.
It was strange to see the face of a rock he had known his whole life, mighty and unchangeable, become something that was changed. He tilted his head to the side, stopping in his tracks to stare at it, "I've been here before."
His gaze went to her and he smiled distantly. It was a smile to warm himself but it didn't do much good. He shouldered his bag and walked on with her further. They shared small conversation together and there were times that he felt she was trying to say something to him without saying it.
What was it, then? They rented a room at a hotel and though she protested, he slept on the floor and let her take the bed. After all... as he stared up at the ceiling... they were there because of him.
It had been during the incident with Brandon and Chase that she had brought him to Ireland.
Ireland. A place of so much beauty and woe. Shane could not help but smile with melancholy whenever he met a fellow survivor of the island. It was different for those who had not endured the famine, Ireland could be newer to them, full of more wonder of delicious decay. It was thin for him, it was bones and blood and watching his siblings, too young to speak, pass away because his mother could not produce enough milk. It was working in the mines with his father and barely escaping them because he learned to be a tailor. Ireland was an early marriage wrought with mental illness and stress.
Ireland, for him, had been a place to love but above all, a place he had had to escape.
Why was she... bringing him here now?
The issue began with that wife, with Maria Michael, the girl he married when he was a boy and everyone rejoiced because maybe the family wouldn't make it and their union might be the last celebration the family had the strength to celebrate. Perhaps they had rejoiced because maybe that one other person would keep them alive a bit longer. He had been keen on her in the beginning but, thrown into the faminine with all of the other families, the tenderness of a new love did not survive the stress of survival.
Her mind, Maria Michael's, did not survive the stress. His mother held on with hope like all good Catholic mothers but Shane could handle it no more. Facilities at the time were far from ideal or even hopeful, but it was the only place to put her. She'd begun hearing things and soon she had begun to hear orders being told to her. Strange orders, ones that led him to believe that his siblings and himself were not sleeping in a safe household. There were too many times when he looked back, when he reconsidered his past and wondered how much of a coward he had been to drop her off in an institution. Was he a coward or was he smart for it? When Shane thought about it, he chewed on his nail much in the way he was now.
"Skullz..." He spoke her name and looked at her, wanting to reach out but not sure. As they got off the ship and began walking he realized that he both recognized and did not recognize where he was.
It was strange to see the face of a rock he had known his whole life, mighty and unchangeable, become something that was changed. He tilted his head to the side, stopping in his tracks to stare at it, "I've been here before."
His gaze went to her and he smiled distantly. It was a smile to warm himself but it didn't do much good. He shouldered his bag and walked on with her further. They shared small conversation together and there were times that he felt she was trying to say something to him without saying it.
What was it, then? They rented a room at a hotel and though she protested, he slept on the floor and let her take the bed. After all... as he stared up at the ceiling... they were there because of him.