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The city she drove me through was a tangled mass of homes, commercial buildings, wide car parks and massive streets. Aunt Mari pointed out everything she could as we went, but my head was pounding and the cloth with ice got paid more attention to. At least it had stopped the bleeding.
I know we passed Rice University, and that it was across the road from a large, shabby park cut through by another boulevard. Behind us was the city center with its sudden office towers and cranes aiming to build even taller ones. Ahead of us was another mass of high-rises she referred to as the medical center, and I couldn't believe the size of it. Altnagelvin was a county clinic in comparison. But what struck me hardest was how flat the land was. Never-ending flat. Streets that went on forever and drove straight into nothingness.
This is to be my new home? That, I was not yet so sure of.
There was room enough in her barge of a car for me to lie flat in the rear seat, if I’d wanted, and it floated like we were riding on water. The seats were as fine as I’d ever sat in and the air conditioning blasted icy enough to give you a chill.
Aunt Mari was not exactly forthcoming with the information, telling only enough to calm my questions. She thought. What she actually did was provide me with a path into understanding what had happened.
To start, while she never said so, I figured my rucksack was still around my shoulder when I was dragged away and, in fact, it was the reason I was not more severely injured. For I hit that wall hard, breaking my left arm and three ribs, so it cushioned me, somewhat. I also had plenty of cuts and bruises but here's the stunner -- I was halfway into a heart attack. Colm striking me cold probably saved my life.
The reason I know this happened? It was my passport used to take me out of the country. No need to mention the hundred-and-fifty pounds I'd also had; without question that wound up in someone else's pocket.
I was taken to a safe house that had a doctor available, and despite arguments from others, I was attended to. Given a nitroglycerin tablet! Little bomber boy. And I was kept there to heal. Under medication because I was still close to hysterics, until I was finally nothing but numb.
It was a passing comment Aunt Mari made that told me why I'd been given the opportunity to live and not be buried.
"When Mairead called with the news," she said, "I had your uncle talk to some people."
I'm sure my shock registered in my voice as I said, "He has contacts in PIRA?"
"NORAID. Then I flew over, and when you were ready we were taken across by the ferry and down to Ringway to fly you here."
"Taken?"
"Father Jack drove us."
Of course. Cannot avoid him, can we? "You had no problem with the army or customs or...?"
"Not between your British passport and my American one. It was something of a shock to your mother that you had it. And she showed me your letter. Brendan, what did you think you were doing?"
"Off to work on a ship. I had an offer."
"Without a word till you were off?"
"Seemed a good idea at the time. And I could've sent money home."
"How? The way the British are being with the mail?"
To be honest, I hadn't really thought about it beyond that. So I just shrugged.
"Well, it's better that you're here. And I think I've talked your mother into opening a bank account so I can transfer money it. It's expensive and is reported, but if it's needed..."
I nodded, which was a mistake. It made me feel a bit weak in the stomach. So I swallowed and said, "Ask Mr. O'Faelan or his missus about that. They have one with the savings...um...the Catholic, no, credit union...I can't think of the name..." And my head was back to pounding.
"Is that the one set up by John Hume?"
"Yeah. Yeah."
"Father Jack mentioned them. He sent me their information and said he'd work with Bernadette on it."
"Aunt Mari, it's been six month."
She sighed and nodded, then said, "I know."
Good ol' Ma. Won't be pushed into a thing she doesn't want to do, no matter how smart it might be, or helpful. And money should never be sent through the church, for they'd surely take their part. Something Ma seemed to finally understand.
My head was back to merely hurting, so I asked, "When you brought me...I feel like I was...well, was drugged up the whole time?"
"You were on sedatives. For the pain."
That last sentence was said a bit too quickly for me not to understand it was just to let me know enough said about that.
"So how'd you put me over?" I asked. "Coming into America?"
"Told them you were simple." Then she cast me a wink.
And that did shut me up. Details not needed. Just bringing the idiot child with me for a bit of a change.
However, what all of this told me was, the Brits did not know I'd been caught in the blast. Perhaps not even that I was there. Which was a massive relief. They couldn't have used me to get to Eamonn. Something else must have happened and the bomb was their excuse. Obviously, Scott and the B-girls, as I now called them, had been filled in on none of it beyond I had suffered a shock that had brought on a heart condition, so I was here to let that be handled. In fact, the doctor we were off to see was a heart specialist who'd been treating me. But the divorce from my past now seemed to now be permanent and the smile on my face was not from relief, as I'm sure Aunt Mari supposed, but joy. Still there was one last thing needed to be known.
"You said Eamonn's in jail," I said. "Do you know the names of the other two lads?"
Aunt Mari sighed. "It was in one of Mairead's letters, but I paid it little mind."
"May I read them?"
"If you like." Again, said in a voice meant to silence me on the matter.
