The Parting Glass (9 page)

“You two settle that later. Right now, I think we need to get you out of here,” Jon said. “The fire department’s on its way. They’ll address the leak, wherever it is, but we don’t want another explosion while we’re in here.”

“Fire…” Inevitably, it followed explosions.

“There’s not much to ignite down here. We can assume the furnace room will be a total loss.”

Niccolo struggled to sit up. At the second try, and with Jon and Megan’s help, he managed. The world spun, but when he opened his eyes again, the Virgin still stared down at him.

“Tell me I’m not imagining her,” he said.

“Nick, you’re not imagining me,” Megan said.

“You’re real. I know. Her.” Niccolo shined his light on the wall again.

Jon and Megan turned to see what he was talking about. Niccolo watched Megan’s face. He watched his bride’s eyes widen. She stared at the wall, then at him. And then Megan, whose relationship with the Church was suspect at best, made the sign of the cross.

chapter 6

C
leveland’s Hopkins airport was open for business, and planes were still flying. That seemed incongruous to Peggy, who only the day before had wondered if she or Cleveland would survive the tornado’s devastation. Now, she stared at the ceiling in Niccolo and Megan’s guest bedroom and wondered how she would feel tomorrow, when she woke up in another strange bed. This time in Ireland.

A faint rapping launched her to her feet. She opened the door a crack to see her sister’s serious face.

“Phil tracked you down,” Megan said softly, so not to wake Kieran. “Nice of him.”

Peggy wasn’t surprised at her sister’s tone. Megan did not like Kieran’s father, nor, for that matter, did Casey. “At least he’s calling, Megan. I should have called him myself last night. There was just so much going on.”

“I suppose even Phil finds it hard to ignore the fact that the saloon was struck by a tornado. We’re the toast of the town. We made statewide news.”

“You’re supposed to be on your honeymoon.” Peggy looked around for something to pull over her T-shirt so that she could take Phil’s call.

“We’ll go after I get the estimates for renovations. I’ll have plenty of time to relax. I won’t be working for months.” Megan shook her head as if she was still adjusting to that thought. “Let me get you a robe. There’s nobody in the kitchen. You can talk to Phil there.”

Peggy checked Kieran, who was sleeping soundly, his tiny body curled in a ball. She wanted him to sleep, since their flight to Ireland was going to be trial enough. When Megan returned, she wrapped the flannel bathrobe around her and secured it; then, with a nod to her sister, she went down to the kitchen and picked up the receiver.

“Phil?”

“I was beginning to think you weren’t going to speak to me.”

She found a chair and tried to make herself comfortable. “Things are in chaos here, but we’re all right. I’m sorry you had to hear about it from somebody else.”

“The
Columbus Dispatch
had a front page article. Kieran’s okay?”

“Fine. We’re all lucky. Just cuts and bruises and one mild concussion. It was one of those freaky things. Lookout Avenue caught the tail of a twister. There were trees down all over the West Side, but it could have been so much worse.”

“The paper says the saloon sustained the worst damage on the street?”

“Let’s just say we won’t be serving Guinness for a while. Luckily it’s not a total loss. And since she has to close and renovate anyway, Megan’s swearing she’ll improve the place while she’s at it.”

“Megan said you’re still planning to leave today.”

“I am.” Peggy considered her next words but decided to go ahead. “I wish you could have come to say goodbye this week, Phil. Kieran will be a whole year older by the time we get back.”

“Tanya’s been sick. I was afraid to leave her.”

Tanya was Phil’s wife. They had married six months ago, and Tanya had wasted no time getting pregnant. Peggy wondered if Kieran was the reason for her haste—and continuing morning sickness. Tanya was young and insecure. Peggy had tried to find ways to assure her that Kieran was no threat to her marriage, but the message had never been received.

“I’m sending an extra check to Ireland,” Phil said, when Peggy didn’t respond. “A good-size one. I know you’ll need some help getting settled.”

Phil was as generous as he could be with child support, and that was one area where Peggy couldn’t fault him. He had little interest in Kieran, but he did take his financial responsibilities seriously. He was a fledgling architect with years of school loans to pay off, but he shared what he could.

“I appreciate it,” she said. “I’m going to buy supplies for Kieran’s classroom once I get there. Whatever you send will go toward that.”

“How is he?”

Uncharitable responses rose to her tongue, but she overcame them. “He’s the same, Phil.”

“Is he talking yet?”

“He can say hi. But he’ll be talking up a storm by the time I bring him home.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t…you know.”

She didn’t know. Couldn’t visit? Couldn’t love his beautiful, distant son? Couldn’t promise that he ever would?

“I hope you’ll write him,” she said. “I’ll read him your letters, and I’ll put your photograph in his room.”

“Sure. That’s a good idea. Please do that.”

“Goodbye, Phil. Give Tanya my best wishes and tell her I hope she feels better soon.” She hung up, suspecting that Tanya would feel better the moment Peggy and Kieran’s plane took off for Shannon Airport.

“I’m making coffee.” Megan stumbled into the room. “One cup or two?”

“I’ll take a pot.” Peggy watched her sister wander the room trying to find her wits and the coffee filters at the same time. Megan was usually a morning person, but she’d used up a year’s worth of energy yesterday, and it showed.

“Nick’s still doing okay?” Peggy asked.

“His skull must be made of titanium. I woke him up all through the night like the E. R. doc told me to, until he said if I woke him up one more time he’d start divorce proceedings.”

“A little edgy, huh?”

“He claims he doesn’t even have a headache.”

“It’s really something of a miracle, huh?”

“Peggy…” Megan filled the glass pot with water. She turned off the tap and faced her sister. “I’ve got to tell you something. But only if you promise not to laugh.”

“Any chance I can keep that promise?”

“Maybe.” Megan seemed to realize she was clutching the pot of water to her chest. She turned and poured it in the coffeemaker and installed the coffee filter. “When we found Nick yesterday?”

Peggy felt her skin growing cold. She hadn’t slept well, despite true exhaustion. Every time she’d closed her eyes she’d felt the house rocking the way the saloon had rocked when the twister touched down. Or she’d heard the explosion and felt the same stab of terror she’d felt when she realized Niccolo might have been caught inside.

“I was sure he was dead,” Peggy said.

“I know. He should have been. He was blown ten yards or more.”

“You were going to tell me something funny. I could use it.”

Megan measured the coffee into the pot and flipped the switch. “It’s only funny coming from me. When we found him, Peggy, I couldn’t believe he was alive. Talking, too, like nothing much had happened. We told him we had to get him outside, and he sat up. Then he shined his flashlight on the wall right under where he’d landed.”

Peggy was waiting for the punch line. “And?”

“There was an image there.”

Peggy waited. She had no idea what her sister meant.

“I don’t know how to explain it,” Megan went on. “An impression of some kind, I guess. A stain? But it looks like the Virgin.”

For a moment Peggy didn’t understand. “Virgin?”

“Holy statues of our lady. She’s facing the other wall, robed, and her arms are out like this.” Megan demonstrated, as if she were welcoming guests. “And, well, here’s the thing. The face has no features, not really, but where her eyes should be…” Megan looked away. “Tears. It looks like she’s crying. Nick woke up, and that’s what he saw.”

Peggy didn’t know what to say. “Well…” She frowned. “Megan, you don’t think this is some sort of a miracle, do you? That doesn’t sound like you.”

“I think it’s a coincidence, and for that matter, so does Nick. It was just, well, spooky.” She shook her head. “No, that’s not right. It wasn’t spooky. It was lovely. Comforting, as if…” She shrugged. “For just a second there I felt like I used to when I was a little girl and we’d go to St. Brigid’s as a family. Sometimes, when everything was very quiet and the candlelight flickered on the wall and you knew the organ music was about to start. In that moment, you know, that’s how it felt.”

Megan rarely talked about religion and never in a positive way. She’d been born a Catholic and would die one. Like all of them, she loved Father Brady, and she understood her new husband’s devotion to the Church, but without Niccolo in her life she would have remained only nominally involved. She was a Holy Days Catholic, and her sisters were the same.

“You had a spiritual experience,” Peggy said. “I think that’s wonderful. Treasure it.”

Megan seemed to shake off the moment. She opened a cupboard and got down coffee mugs. “Yes? Well, I’m not looking for another one. Not if Nick gets blown down a tunnel first. That’s the real miracle. He’s alive.”

Peggy took her mug and held it up high. “I’ll drink to that.”

“What will you drink to?” Niccolo came into the room, looking sleepy-eyed but completely well.

“Your health.” Peggy held out her mug, and Megan filled it.

“Then I’m going to drink to a safe trip today for you and Kieran.” Niccolo crossed the room and gave Megan a bear hug before he got a mug for himself.

Peggy felt right at home. The room was lovely. Simple bird’s-eye maple cabinets, white tile countertops and backsplash, capped off with rich dark red wallpaper Megan had put up last month. Niccolo’s oil paintings of Tuscan villages harmonized with Megan’s quirky farm animal canisters. Her sister had upholstered the kitchen table chairs with remnants of old quilts. Niccolo had crafted the table from a black walnut tree that had been cut down to make room for a neighbor’s addition.

“You’re sure you want to go today?” Megan asked her. “I mean, the airline will let you change your ticket, won’t they?”

“Do you need me here?” Peggy said. “Be honest.”

Megan looked torn, but in the end she shook her head. “There’s nothing you can do. We’ve got inspectors coming, insurance adjusters, and later there’ll be contractors. It’s going to be a zoo, but at least it will give me something to do so I don’t have to think about what happened.”

“It’s another piece of luck that Aunt Dee already had our suitcases,” Peggy said. “And I guess there won’t be any hurry on cleaning out what’s left in the apartment….”

“We won’t be renting it out for a while, that’s for sure.”

“A delay would be hard to explain to Irene. She’s made special arrangements to have me picked up at Shannon.”

“I wish we knew this woman. I wish somebody in the family had met her.”

“She
is
family,” Peggy said. She had expected this last-ditch effort on Megan’s part to get her to reconsider, and she settled in for it.

“But what do we know about her? Her grandfather was the brother of our great-great grandfather. That’s not much of a tie. And until she found us on the Internet, we didn’t even know there
were
relatives on that side of the family. We were supposed to be the last of the line.”

“Well, we will be soon enough.” There was little that Peggy knew about Irene Tierney, but she did know that the old woman wasn’t well. She was eighty-one, had never been married and had no family in the small village of Shanmullin or in all of Ireland. She lived in the thatched cottage that had once been the home of Terence Tierney, the sisters’ great-great grandfather, and sadly, her life was drawing to a close, most of it lived without knowledge of their existence.

“And I don’t really understand what she wanted with us in the first place,” Megan said. “Information about her father, who we never even knew existed? I don’t know what we can tell her.”

Peggy thought Irene’s story was intriguing. In her first contact Irene had written that her mother and father had brought her to Cleveland as a small child. There had been no future for the family in Ireland, and there had been some hope there might be relatives remaining in Cleveland. They’d found none, as it turned out, and after Irene’s father died just a few years later, her mother had taken her young daughter back to Ireland to eke out a living on the Tierney land. Not until four months ago, when Irene, surfing the Internet, had come across mention of Terence Tierney in a newspaper article about the Whiskey Island Saloon, did she realize the Tierney family had indeed lived on in Ohio.

“She wants to find out how her father died here,” Peggy said. “That’s natural. You of all people should be able to understand that. When Rooney was missing all those years, we wanted to know what had happened to him.”

“I just don’t understand why her own mother didn’t tell her. Or how she thinks we’re going to find out anything.”

Peggy didn’t know herself. She had done a little research at City Hall for Irene but hadn’t found anything. She hoped her sisters would continue while she was in Ireland.

“It just seems like so much to take on,” Megan said. “Kieran, caring for an old woman you don’t know…”

Peggy didn’t repeat what she’d told Megan so many times before, but it hung unspoken between them. She was determined to help her son, and that meant hours of work with Kieran every day. Irene needed a companion, but not constant care. Going to Ireland was the only way Peggy could afford not to work at a full-time job. Irene was giving her free room and board, and with Phil’s monthly check, Peggy could manage their other expenses if she lived simply. And what other way was there in rural Ireland? The arrangement was ideal, a surprising and wonderful gift.

“She’s excited about having Kieran there.” Peggy got to her feet. “She’s never had a child in the house. She needs help, she needs family. It’s an opportunity I can’t afford to ignore. I’ve talked to her enough to know we’ll get along. Trust me a little, okay?”