Bloody Sunday

I'm up to the chapter dealing with the British massacre of 14 civilians during a peaceful march on January 30, 1972...three days before Brendan's 16th birthday. He's part of the march and caught in the shooting, sees one boy shot in the back while running away, is almost shot himself, and is profoundly altered by it all. His first thought, after coming out of the shock, is to leave Derry...so starts making preparations.

He's trying to find out where Joanna plans to attend university so he can move there, but she's being indecisive. Maybe Queens, which would not work for Brendan, it being in Belfast and surrounded by The Troubles. Maybe St. Andrews, which Brendan thinks is in Edinburgh but is actually 35 miles from there, in Fife. The University of Edinburgh is a possibility because she has family who live close by, but she's definitely ruled out Trinity College in Dublin because the buildings are dingy.

Something that's bothering me is, there are hints coming out in their relationship that she is not as enamored of him as he is of her, and he's blinded himself to that. She almost seems to view him as a bit of rebel fun. Proving her independence to mommy and daddy, but he's not someone to take seriously as a boyfriend. Which I'm not sure will work for the story...and yet...I can't discount it.

Which I hate. Because he has her name tattooed on his arm, now, and that raises a complication unto itself.

That's not to say she doesn't care for him. She shows up at his shop a few weeks after Bloody Sunday to be with him and comfort him, and he takes her to the circle fort just across the border in the Republic and they talk and he begins to form a plan...get his passport, get a job on a passenger liner or freighter out of Cork, make money for a year and, once Joanna's ready for her university years, move to be near her. He'd send money home, as well, like so many or Ireland's youth did after leaving to find decent jobs off the island.

He knows she's safe from the hate on his side of the River Foyle, and this would free him, as well. So...