i don't own nothing! and again...hope you like :D
"Busy, Busy!" Dade was screaming my name frantically as he shook me, "Vada if you don...don't wake up th...thi...this instant..." Veronica said weakly to me between sobs.
"Papi...put it down quick...go get Dade and Vera. I want to show Dade and Vera it" I said wearily.
"No Busy it IS Dade and Vera! Wake up before you fall off." Dade can be quite loud when he wants to be. I open my eyes, "Where are we guys? Where's my rock?"
"Vada, wake up all the way. If you're not awake it's dangerous, we'll lose you again." Dade started to shake me more which fully woke me up.
"Where are we Dade?" I asked looking around...nothing but the waves starting to calm down and the black and grey which was in the sky being replaced by blue with white clouds.
"We're in the middle of the ocean Busy, but don't worry...we'll find someone soon." Dade reassured me, he didn't sound like he even believed it though.
Soon after Dade and Vera decided that they would rotate sleep watch turns as we floated across the water. It must've been hours later when I was woken up by the taste of dirt in my mouth. I shot up and started spitting out the dirt, bleh .. worst thing I've ever tasted.
"Wait a second ... OH MY GOODNESS, LAND! DADE, WE'RE ON LAND ... WAKE UP, WE'RE GONNA BE OKAY!" I yelled out excitedly. Dade had always been the first person I called out to when I'm being overwhelmed with any emotion, we've just always been extremely close. I'm just happy we can finally get home, but this might be a problem. As I looked around, Dade was missing ... only a crying Veronica was in front of me. A million and two thoughts must've rushed through my head the moment I saw Vera, all ending not so well for my brother.
"Vera, where's Dade!?!?" I yelled in panic as I stood up on weak legs and tried to run towards the near by forest, only to be hit by the cold dirty ground, my legs had given out underneath me.
"Vada, it's okay," Veronica slowly said between her small sobs quite calmly. "He's over there talking with that young boy. We can't make sense of anything he is saying." Veronica further explained the situation to me. The little boy, her tears, our location ... all that stuff. She was only crying because, like me, she immediately got up, ran away from the water and her legs gave out making her hit a large pointy rock very hard. There wasn't even any blood ... Veronica overreacts too much. It also seemed we were in Ireland...I think that Papi once told me that this place was all the way up and not attached to land, just like us. I was startled after a long silence of watching Dade try to figure out what the young blond haired boy was saying, when Veronica spoke up,
"I have no idea how we wound up here...the Acores isn't close to Ireland...it just isn't logical, we should be in the middle of the ocean right now. The tide pushed us in a way which it doesn't normally push. Currents don't push Portuguese waters straight to Ireland, I remember Papi told me so back when he was still with Mama and us.." Her voice lowered down to a whisper for the last few words. She doesn't need to be sensitive to me about that anymore, I'm almost all grown up, I'm nine years old.
We sat on the dirty bank and watched Dade try to understand the little boy was saying for a few more minutes, so far all we know is that Irish people are crazy and his name is Flit McKail. I know for a fact that he knows what we're saying because Papi taught us all so hard to speak English, he always said it would help us in the future and whenever he had business people over.
"Busy, Veronica, come here. I think he wants to bring us to his Daeemah...whatever that means...hopefully it'll help us." Dade said as he waved us over as the blond boy was nodding with a wide grin on his face.
"Dade, he must have been saying Dad and Mom...not Daeemah, that's not even a word." Vera explained matter-of-factly.
"Well ALL words coming out of his mouth aren't real words!" Dade threw up his hands in frustration. Me and Veronica just ignored him as Flit led us through the forest. We all wound up in front of a small white house (small compared to ours anyways) with a big red barn behind it, a girl around my age was sitting on the front porch,
"Flih, oo're eese uns ooo gah wih ya?"
Dade turned around to face Vera and me, we all just looked at each other confused and laughed, "Now you see what I've had to put up with."
That was probably the first time I had laughed since Dade, Johnny (his best friend) and me made a boat and sailed Vera's rag dolls into the ocean back when I was three...It's probably been just about that long for all of us.
"Flit! Bridget! Suppertime!" A man with a big bushy mustache stuck on a round face yelled from the front door. Why doesn't he sound funny too? "Oh, we've got company ... Eileen, set three more plates!"
Flit had told our story to his sister, then ran over and told it to his Da (I think that's what he called him) being interrupted by Bridget adding in words every here and there. Luckily their Da invited us all to eat because boy was I hungry. It felt like years since we last ate.
Over the course of dinner a shaky Veronica had spilled out our whole life story to the McKail's speaking in and out of Portuguese (she does that a lot when she's emotional). Ryan (Flit and Bridget's Da) assessed with his wife Eileen what they were to do and explained it all to us, "Well, you see kids, I'm from New York, Queen's to be more specific ... ever heard of it?"
We all shook our heads, a Queen isn't a place. He continued anyways, "I know a few people over there, and I think I could arrange for you three to live with them while you look for your dad in Harl..."
"Papi's gone, he doesn't love Mama and us anymore. Mama told me!" I interrupted creating quite the awkward moment for us all. Ryan cleared his throat, "Didn't I hear something from your sister Veronica about how Papi writes to you guys sometimes twice a month? I'm sure he still loves you." I softened my expression a little. "How about your Mom, where does she live exactly?" Only Veronica would answer, "She lives at our big home on Portugal's third island." With this Eileen's face saddened and she whispered something in her husband's ear, he spoke up, "Well you see kids, there's not ships going to the islands except from the homeland..." he paused a moment to let us take in the information. "There's conflict going on right now between Portugal and Spain, land conflict ... which means nobody will be allowed to cross any borders any time soon ... " He finished, waiting for our reactions. Ryan was given two blank expressions from Vera and Dade, but mine was more along the lines of a grumpy grandma.
"Ooo tree awh 'ecome ta s'ay heah fa..." Started Eileen, probably the only words she's said outloud the whole evening ... she seemed a bit odd, but Veronica started to take charge and cut her off, " Okay, then we can get on a ship and go off to New York to live with your friends until we find Papi. Then we can live with him until we're allowed to cross Portuguese borders again, then he can take us home!" Veronica finished with a smile.
" Then it's settled! You three can live with us and work on the farm for money for your tickets. Once you get there you can live with my brother's family." Ryan said happily.
"Is your brother nice?" I asked. Ryan looked down and so did the rest of his family, oh no ... why do I always ask the wrong questions.
"Ian was a great man, but ... a few years ago he passed away," Ryan paused but shook it off. "His family is great though. His wife, Mrs.. Kaylee McKail, she may seem a little strict at times but she'll warm up to you, Katherine Rose McKail ... I think she's about eleven right now ... oh well, you'll just love her she's very sweet and you'll find her lots of fun. Oh and there's Gordon, he may drop in periodically to check up on Katherine, they're twins, he and Mrs. Kaylee don't get along to well...but don't you worry about that. I'll write to her and see what she says. It may take just about a week ... oh my it's getting late, Flit, Bridget show Dade, Veronica and Vada to the guest room." He finished.
"Thank you for everything Ryan, Eileen." Veronica said sleepily while me and Dade just nodded, wiping ours eyes. It sure was getting late.
"Don't worry about a thing. Just remember, we start our day bright and early. Breakfast is at 6:30, good night." Ryan finished with a smile as we began to follow Flit and Bridget who ran out of the kitchen and up some stairs. When we caught up with them they were standing outside of a room in the middle of two others. Bridget opened the door and said goodnight to us and her and Flit each ran to one of the rooms beside ours.
"Things can only get better for us." Veronica said ending it with a yawn. The three off us lazily kicked off our shoes and flopped down on the large bed. Veronica seemed to have fallen asleep immediately because I could hear her light snores, it didn't seem that Dade was asleep yet.
"Dade?" I had so many questions that I wanted answered, that falling asleep was the last thing on my mind.
"Yea Busy ... what is it?" He sounded as if he was already asleep and was unaware of the words coming out of his mouth. I didn't want to bug him, he'd been on lookout for most of our horrible floating.
"Never mind, goodnight." I said slowly as I slid quietly out of the bed, put my shoes back on and crept to the large window which was grabbing my attention. I moved the thick heavy curtain covering it and stared out and got lost in thought. There was a small balcony on it just like the Dade's window at home, just the sight of it made me relaxed. Dade would always sneak me to it at night and tell me the most wonderful stories as we listened to the soothing sound of the tide hitting the beach and were surrounded by the soft clean smell of ocean air as we looked up at the stars. That was the only good part about night, shortly after the stories were interrupted every time by Papi. He got so angry whenever Dade would sneak me out of my room to go out on his balcony. Papi would yell and yell at us, he used to be red in the face, all wet, out of breath ... and always smelled like "his special drink" as Mama called it. That man was not MY Papi, Papi only came in the morning when we'd go on walks or play at the beach together. The man at night was called the Badman, he was mad at me and Dade all the time at night and would be sure to let us know it. Every time it would happen, after about the first twenty times I knew this man was definitely NOT my Papi. Papi would never hurt his Busy or his Dade like this, so I would just close my eyes and remember my morning Papi, my real Papi, reading his book as we sat by my rock ... waiting for the fairies.
Without knowing what I was doing, I had opened the window, slid through it to the small balcony and closed the curtain and window behind me. The first night away from home at the McKail's house I slept in that spot (I love that word ... spot ... makes me feel like I'm safe and relaxed, like i'm with my real Papi or Dade) with nothing but the clothes on my back and my shoes under my head. This week might not be so bad here at all.
there's chapter two :) i'm hoping to be posting up chapter three later today, i'm stuck watching my little brother for the day so there's more time for writing (thumbs up)
thanks for reading, don't forget to review!