(Untitled)

[theravenboy]

Bran will have to leave Clwyd for the spring term soon, but at the moment he's still at the farm, reviewing his classnotes, preparing the next semester's work, helping out his father and the other farmworkers, and remaining infuriated at the local news

Comments

[ever_noteful]

Meghan is still here. She's still mostly keeping to her room, but she's come down tonight for dinner.

"Hi, Bran."

[theravenboy]

Bran smiles warmly at her as he comes to her table. "Hello, Meg. Noswaith dda -- that is 'good evening,' in Welsh. How are you?"

[ever_noteful]

She smiles back. "I'd try to repeat that, but it would probably just hurt your ears.

"I'm okay. I think it was Christmas here, but I wasn't really paying attention."

It's a rotten time to be stuck away from home in a place you don't want to be.

"How are you?"

[theravenboy]

"Wise of you," Bran laughs. "My friend Will tries to speak Welsh, and his tongue always tangles up on the consonants. Only what is to be expected from an Englishman, of course.

"And I am also well. Christmas at home, too, last week, and it was very good. Of course there is all the work to be done for school yet."

[ever_noteful]

"Well," says Meg, "if you're used to English, Welsh does have kind of a lot of consonants to get tangled in.

"I'm glad you're well. Though it has never seemed quite fair to me to have work over breaks."

[theravenboy]

"If I did not have to study," Bran smiles, "I would only be helping more with the sheep. There is always more work to be done, back at the farm."

Bran pauses, watching Meg carefully. "I met your sister here, a little while ago. I do not know whether you had a chance to see her."

[ever_noteful]

He probably wouldn't have to watch carefully to see this reaction -- any trace of ease or happiness is gone.

"I don't want to talk about Kim," she says, mouth tight.

And then, because her previous statement is about as inaccurate as it could be, she goes on, "I've seen my sister once in . . . oh, well over a year now.

"You probably know her better than I do at this point."

[theravenboy]

Nothing that Kim said suggested an estrangement this severe. Bran goes still, and then his expression turns gentle. "Well," he says. "I can always tell you more about the farm, if you would like."

[ever_noteful]

Eighteen months pass more slowly when you're just the little sister left behind, perhaps.

"That would be nice. Thank you."

[theravenboy]

"Quiet there, this time of year, mostly," Bran begins, still gentle, "but there are quite a lot of sheep to feed. We have the sheep from some other farms wintering with us, and it is always work, moving them from one pasture to the next."

[ever_noteful]

"They're not the brightest animals in the world, are they?

"But it sounds very peaceful, even with the work."

She looks down at her hand and back up at him.

"What did Kim say?"

[theravenboy]

"No, but that is what we have the dogs for," Bran laughs.

"As for Kim, she was surprised to think of you here." That is perhaps everything Bran can say about Kim's own words without betraying a confidence. "And she listened to me talk about the fools who think of dynamite and gasoline as political tools."

[ever_noteful]

"So she knows I'm here," says Meg, very quietly.

And then follows up on the other topic, because what more is there to say about Kim?

"How is that going, the Welsh revolutionaries? Has it gotten any better?"

[theravenboy]

"She does," Bran answers just as quietly, "because I told her. Kim is a friend of sorts, and I thought that she needed to know."

He shakes his head. "No, I am afraid not. There has been one bombing after another, these days. No one hurt yet, but it is only a matter of time."

[ever_noteful]

Meg nods, and doesn't ask how long Kim has known. She doesn't really want the answer, anyway.

"I'm sorry, Bran. They don't sound like the brightest animals in the world, either."

There's a pause, and then Meg laughs.

"Have you tried sending the dogs to herd them back into line?"

[theravenboy]

Bran follows Meg's lead and says no more of Kim. "Not a bad idea, that. The trick would be figuring out where the perpetrators are. No one is saying, although there are certainly people expressing sympathy with the perpetrators."