The Wanderers Beginning: The Wanderers, Reborn, & Unforgiven (118 page)

             
He didn’t answer me. Instead he just said, “I have to go. Someone’s coming.”

             
“Wait, Roman, I love you,” I spit out quickly.

             
“Goodbye Ella,” were his final words before I heard a click on the phone. Those two words felt like a crushing wave. I had a feeling this was the end of our relationship. My heart hurt so badly. I felt like someone had squeezed it until there was nothing left. I could no longer hold in my tears. No reason to hold back any longer I let them fall. I didn’t blame him for being mad at me. I brought this on myself. I didn’t deserve him. I tried to convince myself he was better off, but the pain I felt inside was too much. I crawled into bed and covered myself with the blankets and balled my eyes out.

             
“Hey Ella,” Josie said, coming into the room. “Ella?” She pulled back the blanket. She took one look at my tear streaked face and that was enough. She climbed into the bed with me without another word and wrapped her arms around me while I cried. “You wanna talk about it?”

             
“Roman called,” I blubbered.

             
“Doesn’t he always?”

             
“I answered this time,” I said, wiping hastily at my tears. “It’s over Josie. It’s really over. I screwed up.”

             
“Ella, you did nothing wrong,” she said, trying to comfort me.

             
I heard the door open and turned my head slightly to see who it was. Cameron stopped, not sure if she should proceed. I sat up knowing I’d have to tell her. “Roman knows. He hates me,” I said as I started to cry hysterically again.

             
“He doesn’t hate you,” Cameron replied, joining us on the bed. “He’s just upset. I’m sure once he calms down and lets the information sink in he will be fine.”

             
“No he won’t and who could blame him? I left him to search for an ex-love. No word, no explanation. I wouldn’t want to forgive me either.”

             
“Ella, you can’t beat yourself up over this,” Josie said.

             
“Can we just not talk about it anymore?” I asked, desperate to make the pain stop. Cameron and Josie wrapped their arms around me in a silent comfort as I cried.

We spent the next week continuing our search for Tristan.

             
On Friday, after hours of searching and not coming any closer than we were before, Josie suggested we quit for the day. I wanted to keep looking but Josie had reminded me we had plenty of time to look tomorrow. Feeling defeated, I agreed and headed back to the hotel. We said goodbye to Josef and headed up to our room.

April 28

              It has been a month since we’ve been in Ireland and still nothing. Every time we come close it just ends up being another dead end. Even with the help of Tristan’s family we weren’t any closer than we were before. I can tell everyone is slowly starting to lose faith, but I refuse to give up. I kno
w
in my heart Tristan is alive. A part of me always knew, but it just seemed too crazy of an idea to accept. Mom called several times after dad left, but I refused to talk to him. She begged me to come home and talk to my father saying he didn’t really mean what he said, but I don’t care. I’m done living under my father’s rule. I can tell Dean and Cameron are getting tired of this little adventure and would rather go back to their normal lives. I told them they didn’t have to help anymore and could go home, but they insisted on staying. I think they’re hoping I’ll eventually give up and go home with them, but obviously they don’t know me very well. Josie told me she’d stick with me for as long as it took, but I knew even she was losing hope…

              “Hey, whacha doin'?” Josie asked, plopping down on the bed beside me.

             
“Nothing,” I replied, tucking my journal aside. “Where’s everyone else?”

             
“Billy’s following some leads and Cameron and Dean went to get some food.”

             
“Food for everyone or for themselves?”

             
“Everyone, I think Dean learned his lesson after last time,” Josie laughed.

             
Of all people Dean should have known better. I get very cranky when I’m hungry and when Dean showed up with food for only himself, I chewed him out for being selfish. I think the outburst had more to do with all the frustration and stress that was building up and not to mention the major case of PMS I was suffering from.

             
“So what’s on the agenda for today?” Josie asked, like there might be an actual change from what we have been doing for the past month.

             
“I guess we wait until Billy gets back and go from there. If he hasn’t found anything there’s a town about an hour away I want to check out.”

             
“Okay,” she smiled and then lied back on the bed swiping the remote from the nightstand and clicking on the TV. With nothing else to do but wait, I joined Josie in her never ending channel surfing while we waited for Cameron and Dean to come back with the food.

Halfway through dinner, Dean put his plate aside, and looked at me sincerely. “Ella, we need to talk.” I stopped. The tone of his voice gave me a feeling I wasn’t going to like this. “We’ve been here for a month and still found nothing.”

             
“I told you. You don’t have to stay. You are free to leave whenever you want. There is nothing keeping you here.” 

             
Dean gave Cameron a quick glance before he spoke and I wondered what that was about. “I just think we need to get some outside help.”

             
“What do you mean?”

             
“I think we should give Uncle Bobby a call.”

             
“Uncle Bobby,” I said skeptically. The only stories I heard about him consisted of him being drunk most of the time.

             
“He knows the ins and outs of this town and let’s not forget he’s a frequent flyer at the local pubs.”

             
“What about Josef though? He’s a townie and even he hasn’t had any luck,” I said, not too open with the idea of calling an uncle I’ve never met and who was a lush.

             
“Josef was helpful in the beginning, but he’s only sixteen. Bobby’s been here for ages. He can go to these places and get info from people who aren’t willing to talk to out-of-towners and children.”

             
He just had to throw that last one in there. I let out a sigh not seeing another choice. “I guess we could give him a try,” I said,  regretting every word. “Give him a call.”

             
“I don’t have his number, but I know where he lives.”

             
“Shouldn’t we look him up then? I don’t want to show up unannounced.”

             
“Trust me. Just showing up is better.”

             
I agreed to give Uncle Bobby a shot. I never met the man and my curiosity was getting the best of me. We decided to go over after dinner. Dean told us he lived in Belfast which was only twenty minutes away from where we were at.

             
When we arrived at his house later that evening, I thought maybe we were at the wrong address. His house looked like a rundown shack. The garden, if you could call it that, was overrun with weeds and I think I even saw a rat. The window shudders were dilapidated and chipping paint. Except for the raccoons digging through the garbage it didn’t look like there were any other signs of life. “Are you sure this is the place?” I asked Dean, sidestepping the overgrown vines.

             
“Yep, this is it.” He pounded on the door and more paint chips fell off the paneling. “Bobby…hey Bobby, open up!”

             
I heard some bottles rattle and then a thud, followed by some grumbling and locks clicking on the door. A middle aged man with dark gray, shaggy hair and full beard answered the door. His white tank top was covered in stains and his trousers had tears and holes in them. He looked up at me with his gold eyes. “I didn’t know hookers delivered,” he said, grabbing me.

             
I smacked his hand. “Eww gross, I am not a hooker,” I said appalled.

             
“Uncle Bobby,” Dean jumped in. He shifted his attention to Dean, squinting. “Uncle Bobby it’s me, Dean.”

             
“Dean my boy,” he cheered, giving him a hug. “I see you brought me some lovely ladies.” He reached for Cameron but she quickly jumped out of the way.

             
“No Bobby. These are my friends and this is Ella, my sister.”

             
His eyes widened in surprise and he took a step back. “Ella,” he smiled, exposing his yellowing teeth. “You look just like your mother.”

             
“Thank you,” I said, trying to remain polite which was hard with the way he was staring at me. He started to creep me out and when I met his eyes again they were different. They looked almost purple. I blinked and they were back to gold.

             
“Come inside,” he said, quickly averting his eyes. Something told me to be very leery of him. I waited for Dean to go first.

             
The inside of his house was just as bad as the outside. There were beer bottles and whiskey bottles all over the floor and tables. The little furniture he had was either held together by duct tape or covered in stains. The couch slash bed looked like it might fall apart any minute. I was afraid to sit down anywhere.

             
Bobby took a seat on the couch and picked up a pack of cigarettes offering me one. I politely declined and carefully took a seat on the duct tape covered chair. We all sat there silently for a moment. Uncle Bobby’s eyes wandered around the room at all my friends. He stopped at Josie and sniffed the air. Although I didn’t know how he could smell anything over the stench in this place. He couldn’t seem to take his eyes off of Josie. I could tell he knew something was off about her. Josie shifted uncomfortably in her seat and grabbed Billy’s hand. I kept my eyes on him and I could swear I saw them change from gold to green, blue, and then back to gold again. I sat back in my seat. I knew those eyes. I had seen them before.

             
Noticing a slight tension in the air Dean spoke up. “So Uncle Bobby, we need your help.”

             
“All business with this one. Relax, have a drink,” he offered.

             
“We’re kinda in a rush,” I said, cringing as a cockroach scurried across the floor. “We’re looking for someone. Dean suggested we contact you since you’re a local and all.” I couldn’t shake this feeling that I’ve seen him before. “When’s the last time you’ve been to the states?” I asked, needing to know where I knew him.

             
“Haven’t been outside of Ireland for years now,” he said a little guarded. “Who is it you seek?” he asked quickly, trying to divert me from my last question.

             
I had a feeling he was hiding something, but I couldn’t get in his head. I didn’t want to waste too much time and energy on him though. The longer I stayed the more creeped out I got. I was hoping to get this over with as soon as possible. I took Tristan’s picture from my back pocket and handed it to him. He looked it over for a bit then handed it back. “Sorry, don’t know’em.” I put the picture back in my pocket. “Sorry I couldn’t help you out.”

             
“We were hoping you could also help us get in with the locals. Most of them won’t talk to us because we’re not from here. So we were thinking…” I trailed off looking at Dean.

             
“I can tell you now it’s the way you’re dressed. It screams outsider,” Bobby said, getting up and walking into the small kitchenette to grab another beer. I gave Josie a quick look to check Bobby out. She looked at me confused and I just rolled my eyes. I tried again, but he was already on his way back out. He popped off the cap and took a seat. “I’ll help you. When do you want to start?”

             
“Tonight,” I said, hoping to get this over with. Despite him being a so called friend of the family I didn’t trust him. Plus I thought better to get him while he was somewhat sober.

             
“I got an idea of where we can start, but you ladies are going to have to change. I think I may have something you girls can wear,” he said, elbowing Dean and laughing before he got up again. He came back out with a pile of clothes. “Here, my lady friends left these behind. I don’t think they’ll need them anymore.”

             
I saw a glint of malice in his eyes and I shivered. “I don’t think that is necessary. I’m sure we can find something on our own.”

             
“Trust me darling, you wanna take these. It’s the best way you’ll fit in.”