“Your father?” Kelly finally asked. “I know you don’t talk much about your family, but…”
“Yeah.” Shiobhan sighed and unconsciously twisted a curl of hair around one finger. “This shop has been in my family for generations, on my mother’s side. It’s a longstanding tradition that it’s passed from mother to daughter. In my case, that happened a bit earlier than usual when my mother died.”
Kelly gave her a hug, feeling her body shuddering slightly against her. “I was in college at the time, going to Johnston and Wales. We were out together, coming home from a Sabbat gathering, and a drunk driver hit our car. I lived, but Mom didn’t.” Her eyes misted over with unshed tears, and she looked down, taking a drink from her chai until she regained her composure.
“James took Mairi’s death hard. He went searching for answers, and the therapy counselor the insurance company provided convinced him that he needed a new start. Put things into perspective, something like that. Anyways, he found God and didn’t want to be around me or the shop anymore. My younger sister Sorcha went with him when he decided to move.”
Taz slowly said, “I might be out of line, but that seems pretty cold of him, to leave you alone after losing you mother like that.”
“I don’t blame him,” Shiobhan said. “I know why he feels the way he does. He sees her in me, especially since I share her beliefs, the beliefs that he blames for her death. We’ve talked a few times since they moved, but it always ends in the same argument, and one of us ends up hanging up.”
“That’s still not good enough,” Kelley said, hugging her tightly. “I wish you’d said something about this before.”
“It’s not exactly something I like to think much about, let alone talk about.” Wiping a few tears from her eyes, she said, “I think you can understand why.” The other two both nodded, and the three of them froze as the phone began to ring.
With obvious trepidation, Taz picked it up and answered, “Good morning, this is The Wild Rose, how can I help you?” Listening for a moment, he started to say, “She’s not available right now,” but Shiobhan shook her head and reached for the cordless phone. “One moment please.” Covering the base with his hand, he asked, “Are you sure?”
Shiobhan nodded. “There aren’t many reasons for him to call, especially twice in the same day. I should find out why. I’ll be in the back, handle any customers for me, will you?”
“Sure thing, boss,” Kelly said.
Shiobhan took the phone from Taz and headed through the back room, sitting down in the chair before speaking. “Hi, dad.”
“Joan? Is that you?” he asked.
“It’s Shiobhan, dad, not Joan.”
“We named you Joan. That’s what it says on the birth certificate. It’s a fine Christian name… I still don’t understand why you felt you needed to change it to your nickname.”
“We’ve had that argument too many times before for me to want to have it again right now.” She mentally counted to one hundred, trying to keep calm. For some reason, he always manages to push just the right buttons to piss me off faster than almost anybody else. “Why are you calling? Is Sorcha all right?”
He sighed, and she realized with the sound that he was getting old. It wasn’t a sigh of frustration or anger, but the sigh of a man past his prime, faced with something he didn’t know how to handle. “Yes and no. It’s hard to explain. I’m not even where to start.” Pausing for a moment, he added, “Or if I even should. Look, there have been some things I kept from you when we’ve talked lately… not that we’ve talked much at all, lately.”
“I know.” Silence stretched across the phone, growing more awkward by the moment. “I live my life the way I believe, and you don’t approve. You’ve made that clear on virtually every occasion that you’ve had the opportunity to do so since Mom died. It’s hard to talk to you when your first reaction is to criticize who I am and what I do.” Tears sprung back up in her eyes, tracing down her cheeks again as she reached for a tissue on the receiving table.
“I know, kid. I haven’t been a good father to you. It’s hard for me to see you living her life when…” His voice started to break, and she could hear him coughing, knowing he was wiping away tears on the other end of the phone as well. “I don’t want to go into all that right now. There’s a time and a place for that conversation, but I don’t think that right now is the right time.” He drew in a breath, and said, “I need your help, Shiobhan.” Her name sounded odd coming from his lips, unused for years.
“Sarah’s off at college. You probably figured that by now, given her age. She had a lot of colleges interested in her, but she narrowed it down to a handful and then made her decision. She could have gone to Harvard, but she chose otherwise. She chose Brown University. Full scholarship and all. She said she missed New England. She missed visiting Mom.”
Sorcha’s going to college right here and neither of them told me? In the same city as me, right down the road from our mother’s shop? And I didn’t even hear about it? “When were you planning on telling me that my own sister is living right down the street from me? Or did you even plan to do so? Were you going to keep me in the dark until I ran into her on the street corner?” Her voice rang with bitterness, gaining in volume. She found herself standing, pacing, trying to shake the anger building inside her.
“I didn’t want her to go there, but it was her life, her choice. I didn’t want her to slip back into old habits and fall into your crowd, but when she made up her mind, I eventually came to support it. It is a good college, and she does have family nearby. I was going to write you a letter and see if you wanted to help her move and settle in… but she asked me not to.” Shiobhan fell back into the chair, stunned. “You may have noticed she hasn’t written much over the last few years. It’s my fault, I’m afraid. She’s become even less tolerant than I am about people of other faiths. She didn’t want you to know because she didn’t want to see you. She planned to avoid the shop and avoid you.”
It took several long moments before Shiobhan’s mind stopped spinning enough to stammer out a response. “So why are you calling me? Since I seem to be the black sheep of the family, why look to me for help?”
“I had a dream. It involved Sarah.” The words came slowly, as if he was fighting himself to speak them aloud. “She was in danger… or someone close to her was. I don’t know from what, but all I can tell you was that it was evil. Pure, unadulterated, reeking evil. I called this morning to check in on her, but she didn’t answer. She’s probably off at class, or forgot to charge her cellphone again, but I’m worried for her.”
“It’s been a long time since you walked the dreams, dad.” Since you turned your back on the heritage of your ancestors, she added silently.
“I know. You know me well enough to know that I’m really not comfortable with this. But I can’t deny this. It’s not something I chose to do. Sometimes it happens even when I’ve tried not to. I don’t think the Lord will punish me for acting on something like this. I think He’ll forgive me this weakness.”
“It could just as easily be a gift from Him,” she countered. “You don’t really know for certain that He disapproves… only what that minister told you.”
“I’m not going to debate this, Jo– Shiobhan. Right or wrong, I’m asking you to check in on your sister. For me. For a father’s fears and worries.” After a long pause, he added, “And truth be told, while I don’t agree with your actions, I know what you stand against. And we may not agree on many things, but neither of us stand for evil. Not like that. Not ever.”
“That’s one point we do agree on, dad.” It felt good to hear him make that concession, after years of him damning her beliefs. “It doesn’t sound like she’s going to be happy if I pop in for a visit, though.”
“If everything is ok, then I’ll take the heat for that. Her room is in East Andrews Hall, Room 110. And to be honest, I’d rather the two of you found some way to get along anyways. It’s been lonely for her without you, even if she won’t admit it.”
Bitter words rose in her throat, clamoring to be spoken, but she forced them aside. “I know.”
“I miss you too, kid. I love you.”
“Love you, too, dad.” She stared at the phone after he hung up, listening to the hum of the dial tone, confused and somewhat afraid. What would scare her father enough to ask her to look into matters? The phone started beeping at her after a while, and she hung up, shaking her head. And if that’s the way Sorcha feels… this isn’t going to be a fun visit, either. Joy. Goddess above and below, what am I getting into now?
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