Getting out of the car I head straight for her, she’s too focussed on putting one foot in front of the other that she doesn’t see me until she runs right into me “Oh bloody hell sor…Oh Jesus Rory, my boy” She drops her bags on the floor and wraps her arms around me, pulling me in for a bone crushing hug.
I wrap my arms around her, pulling her in just as tight. “Hey Aunt Bernie.”
“What the hell are you doing here?” Bending to pick up her bags and the spilled shopping, I stop her pulling her back to her full height, and hand her my car keys.
“You go get in the car, and I’ll grab the bags…don’t look at me like that, just do as you’re bloody well told.” She laughs at my use of the phrase she used to say to us boys whenever we were pushing our luck with Ma.
Once I’ve loaded everything into the car and we’re headed back to her house, she turns in her seat to face me. “Is everything OK Rory, why are you here? Where are the others?”
I reach over and grab her hand giving it a reassuring squeeze. “Easy Aunt B, I’m here on business, I just wanted to catch up with you that’s all.”
“Hmmm,” she hums. She isn’t daft, she knows there is more too it, but I’m not here to upset her. I just want to know if she has answers to some of the questions I have.
Once we get back to hers, she puts the shopping away while I make us both a coffee. “So how come you were walking to the supermarket, where’s the car?” I ask as I place our mugs down on the dining table.
Wrapping her hands around the mug, she blows on the hot liquid and takes a quick sip before she answers, “It’s in the shop, it wouldn’t bloody start last week so I had to get it towed to Murphy’s”
“Hold up, that was last week?” Fuck me I’m angry, she hasn’t had her car for a week. How the fuck has she been getting to work and back?
She laughs. “Easy son, they are busy, said they’d get to it as soon as they could.”
“Who? Who said they would get to it?”
“Now don’t you go causing shit for me Rory O’Farrell, I’m too old to be cleaning up your bloody messes.”
I pull out my phone and hit call knowing she won’t tell me who’s meant to be looking at her car, Niall answers on the second ring.
“Rory, mate, what’s up?”
“Aunt B’s car is in your shop and has been since last week, red Toyota RAV4, they told her they were busy and would get to it as soon as they could…”
“I’ll sort it mate, she’ll have it back tomorrow night, and if she needs a lift anywhere tell her to call me our Colin can drive her around”
“Appreciate that, thanks.”
“No problem, and tell Bernie sorry for the delay.”
We hang up without another word, and just as I’m about to tell Aunt B her car will be ready tomorrow, she blindsides me and clips me across the ear. “Ouch, what the fuck was that for?”
“You know full well what that was for you little shit.” Despite the slap she’s smiling at me. “So, care to tell me why you’re really here?”
I watch my aunt for a minute, this is what I came here for, but I don’t want to upset her, and I know talking about Uncle Michael will do that. I take a large drink of my coffee and then let out a sigh. “Can I talk to you about Uncle Michael?”
I see a flicker of sadness cross her face, before she smiles and give me a nod. “What do you want to know?”
“Do you know who his family was? Where he came from?”
“I don’t, he never knew where he came from either. I asked him a few times, if he wanted to try and look for any records on him to see if we could try and track down any family, but he used to get really mad, says that he didn’t want anything to do with a family who just discarded him like he was trash.”
“Why did he take the O’Farrell name when you guys got married rather than use his?”
“His surname was Byrne; it was given to him by the foster family he’d been living with when he was younger. While they were a nice family, he said that he didn’t really feel like he was part of their family, said he just felt like a guest.”
“And you never met them, right?”
“What is this about son?”
“Nothing, I just found some old journals of Da’s and I was curious about our family and where we’re all from that’s all. I have information on Gran and Pop, I just thought it might be nice to see if we couldn’t find anything out about Uncle Michael, for our Liam.”
