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"You mean Mary Coyne?" I smirk Dad knows her name, so I don’t knohy he pretends that he doesn’t remember her I’m pretty sure he had a crush on her, back when she was thirty years old and teaching me freshman science So did every other pubescent boy and half thewo in silky waves down her back, her skin porcelain s She madebeen here She’s one of the reasons why I’htest student, and her favorite, she toldletter of recoe and we’ve kept in touch over the years,time to meet for coffee at Poppa’s Diner on Main Street at least twice a year I loved listening to her regale e student in Ireland, hopping all over Europe and Asia and eventually North America, where she met Arnold Coyne, the man ould later beco this trip, and that Ireland would be one of the countries that I visited, she insisted on reaching out to her brother, a doctor in Dublin who spends severalhands to Doctors Without Borders It just so happened that he’d be away on one of his aze drifts over the lazed black fireplace and a spectacular view of a timeworn church tower from the"You should see this place, Dad" When the taxi dropped me off out front, I didn’t think much of the semidetached house crammed into this quiet urban side street Fro the way--all brick and boxy, with tall, rectangular s By no n, compared to the hundred acres of open fields and ranch-style house overlooking an Oregon e that I call home

I should have known better

The hbor and stepped inside the three-story house, I began to appreciate just how utted and rerays The bathroo marble and tile, the floors in rich honeyed wood planks, the final details opulent and old-world char I’ve never met her brother, but I can see that he has an appreciation for the finer things when he isn’t helping the poor

"SoWhat have you seen so far?"

"Ue, the Guinness factory" I start rhys I should have seen by now, had I not sequestered , both mentally and physically I lost track of how hts, after a loud thu on the streets below "You know, stuff" I shove a piece of bacon into ether breakfast stares back at ht the evening that I arrived here, hoping to avoid eating out as much as possible I’ve barely touched it

"Stuff," he repeats, and I can al his lips "Sounds like a once-in-a-lifetiht" Gabe Welles never traveled in his youth, joining the Deschutes County Police Departon for their honey trip in the wilderness To say he doesn’t understand es and see the world outside of Sisters, Oregon would be accurate He tried to dissuadeabout hoasn’t being responsible

My dad sighs I think he’s tired of trying to understandfat and lazy without you to ride them"

I smile at the mention of the horses next door It’s been almost four weeks since I left home with one turquoise suitcase and plans to ive them a run"

A deep chuckle fills est that to him"

My twin brother, Jesse, has avoided the stalls since a horse hip-checked him and he landed in a pile of manure that had yet to be uessing he still wouldn’t step inside that barn today, fourteen years later

"Moet on time It’s still yesterday back home Here, it’s five am and I’ve already been up for an hour, unable to sleep