I frowned. “Yeah, it’s not a movie, true.”
I looked at my phone.“I should try to call my Uncle Dylan, finally... I’m furious, you know, he’s lied to me my whole life, but… I also feel sorry for him. He’s been in exile too...” I sighed. “We’re all such a tragedy. He needs to know we’re trying to fix it.” I dialed his number.
While it rang I asked Torin, “…are you hungry?”
“Aye, I am famished.”
My uncle’s phone rang and rang. “Darn it, he’s not home.”
His answering machine picked up and I left a message. “Uncle Dylan, I hope you’re okay, it’s been forever since we talked, I have a lot to tell you, I just… Iknow.”
Then I said, “Again, Iknowand Uncle Ryan said for you to ‘check the spot.’ He said they’re ‘trying to get you one.’ I really hope you know what that means. Check the spot. I hope you’re okay, I forgive you, I mean, if you get this, thank you for keeping me safe. I just wanted you to know that we’re okay. They didn’t fix anything, not yet, not really, but there’s a plan.”
I glanced at Torin as he was dressing. “I think we might win.”
The answering machine beeped.
I sighed, hanging up the phone. “Well, that’s that.” I sat on the edge of the bed and frowned. “That feels sad, kinda like the very last end of my past.”
Torin looked down on me sadly. “When he gets that message from ye, twill set his heart at ease. I am sure he has been distressed at havin’ tae lie tae ye all these years.”
I nodded, staring down at the phone.
He said, “I am certain ye will see him soon, ye will hae a great many questions. He will hae answers.”
“Yeah, I do, I have so many questions… But, I can’t think about that, my stomach is growling. If I sit here, like you said, we might convince ourselves not to go — can we not go? It sounds like a lot of work.”
“Twill be, twill be death defyin’ and we daena ken if twill work, but we ought tae mount up, Princess, the sooner we do it, the sooner we ken whether twill win yer throne.”
I pulled myself up to sit. “Can we have some pizza before we go?”
“I am famished, but we ought tae go faster than waitin’ for the Visigoths tae bring it.”
I chuckled. “How about if I take you through a drive-thru? There’s one five minutes away. It will be your next favorite kind of food after pizza.”
We gotin my car and I drove us through the local burger place, ordering two burgers: a single, a double with bacon, two fries, and a large Diet Coke for me, a water for Torin.
We were too hungry to wait, so I pulled into a parking spot and he hungrily and happily ate, loving every bite. Yet again he wondered if he ought tae save some to share with Max.
I said, “This is a nice quality in you, that you want to share all the things you love with Max.”
“Growin’ up we rarely had food in these quantities. There were times on long journeys when we went verra hungry. I winna forget what it is like tae hae days on end without enough food, a burning hole of hunger in the pit of m’stomach. Ever since then, Max and I hae sworn that if we hae a full plate before us we would share it, tis our way, unless we are angry with each other.”
“Like the pizza, but that didn’t last long, as soon as you saw him you shared.”
He chuckled, wrapping the last few bits of double bacon burger in the paper. “I knew I would share with him, I canna hold a grudge for long.”
I droveus back to the house, with Dave Matthews blaring.
He bounced his head along. Then he sang a line of the song along with it.
“Ah, this is wonderful, you know the words?”
“Aye.”
“That made me fall in love with you even more.”
He joked, running his hand through his hair. “Good, ye will need tae feel verra fondly on me as I tell ye I am goin’ tae eat the last bit of the burger.”
