Between "Aye, fun" and "Come On Home"... Sile's big revelaton a la Ian
Her breathing was heavy, frightened. Labored. She had been running for some time now. Have to get to the other side of town. Fast. She never really knew exactly what she was carrying every time they called for a runner. She never asked either. She understood the cause, and she understood her role in it. She played her part in the patriot game. She was safer than the others. Who would waste a bullet on a little girl who looked as if she was darting home after a day at school. But the opposition had gotten smarter. She never actually ran as a 'runner'. She was told not to, for the purposes for looking less conspicuous... but now she was flying as fast as her tiny feet could carry her. Fear choked her as the words she had heard behind her replayed in her thirteen year old mind over and over again. "Get that one!" She tried to look innocent, but they didn't buy it. They followed her now. Four soldiers. Regulars. She darted in and out, around and behind buildings, allies, anything that could consiel her for the few seconds she needed to catch her breath before her lungs burst. She was so close to her destination, she could count the bricks in the wall. Sile glanced around, looking for her assailants. No one was to be seen, and she mistook that for safety. She ran again. "There she is!" The call rang in her ears and she tried to speed up. But the explosion rang out the louder and took her off her feet in a yelp and she slammed to the ground. A seering pain shot through her abdomin. She felt the warmth of her blood soaking her shirt and instantly become cold agains the nipping air of an Irish autumn. She laid there, refusing to move. She willed her self to stop breathing as she heard the step and shuffle of eight feet approaching her. "Good shot." One commented. They chuckled. "She dead?" She heard another ask. A foot nudged her hard against her ribs, the side now pierced with a bullet. The agonizing burning became unbearable for a second, but Sile refused to react. "Must be." A voice said. "She was just a child!" One commented. "Don't go soft on us." Silence. "Look, she was running. No one runs for nothing." The voice continied. They turned and began walking away. "The only good one's a dead one , anyway." She heard as they faded from her ears. It echoed over and over again.... a dead one... a dead one... a dead one....
Sile woke with a start to the jingling of keys, and the gate to the holding cell opened. She sat up from the bench she had been sleeping on. Her right side, benieth her ribs throbbed to the rhythm of a now distant but ever terrifying memory. She touched the spot with the tips of her fingers and tried to will it away.
"Thank you, officer. I'm terribly sorry. This won't happen again." Sile glanced over, and saw Ian with the cop that had arrested her in the first place. She frowned at his apology and rolled her eyes. I did nothin' wrong she thought
The officer looked at her. "You're free to go." Sile's expression never changed. Grim. She picked up her cammoflauge jacket, slung it over her shoulder and gingerly walked past him with out a word.
"Thank you again." Ian said. The officer nodded.
"It's a warning this time." The officer said, looking Sile. "But next time, we won't be so lenient. Disrupting the peace isn't something we'll take lightly. This is just like kindergarten. We'll be keeping our hands to ourself from now on, right?" Sile slid her arms through the sleeves of her jacket and shrugged it over her shoulders. "Somethin' like that." Sile replied, and stood with Ian. The two left. *** "You're damn lucky, girl." Ian said with a twinge of irritation. "You need to stop this." The car drove down the darkened road. Soft melodies flowed quietly from the radio. Sile gazed out the window. Ian looked over at her, angeredly. "Are you even listening to me?" He snapped. She kept her eyes glued to the darkness as she lit up a cigarette. Ian's expression went from flustered to concerned. "Why ye actin' out again? What's the matter?" Sile scoffed. "Do I really follow a pattern that closely?" Ian laughed. "Aye! You do!" His laughter quieted. "Your mouth runnith over, dead. And you're lettin' that hot-head of yours take control. And that generally means you've got your feathers all ruffled about something." Sile shrugged and flicked the ash from her cigarette. "I'm... homesick is all." She answered. "I want to go back..." She trailed off. "I actually want to find my family before I die. And in our line of work, ye don't know how long that might be. We're less inclined to be dying in our beds, old and with our family standing around us." Ian nodded at that. Her words were very true. Sile sighed. "I mean, christ. I want to know what my Christian name is. I mean, how do I even know 'Sile' is the name I was born with, or was it somethin' they just stuck me with in the orphanage? What's my last name? When's my birthday?" She railed on as she smoked her cigarette, finally venting the emotions that caused her temper to be so short-fused of late, that was the catalyst for this evening's festivities. Well, I wouldn't have to beat men up if they just stopped pissing me off, she rationalized. Ian's face continued to look more and more troubled by the product of her honesty. There was a long pause of silence. "Ian?" She asked. He looked as if he could vomit at any minute. He took a deep breath and pulled over. Sile looked perplexed. He had begun to shake. "Sile... is your real name." He said. Sile was still confused. "How do you know?" She asked. He looked at her. "I need you to close this" he said touching her lips, "and open these." He touched her ears. "Give me a few minutes to explain. And then I'll be more than happy to take questions." Sile, becoming more befuddled by the second agreed to the silent listening. "Sile is your real name. Your name is Sile Hannlan." Sile jumped but remained quiet. He took another deep breath. "Do you remember John? He was in the orphanage with you, then left? You knew him as you got older through your work with the Provisionals." Sile nodded. "He was my only friend in the orphanage." She said quietly. Ian took a moment to collect himself. "He was my best friend." He paused. "And your brother, John Hannlan." The color from Sile's face drained completely. "Twenty-two years, and I never knew I had a brother." She whispered in a nausiated shock. "Eightteen." Ian corrected. Her eyes got wide. She felt faint. "What?" She gasped. "You're not twenty two. You're eighteen." He answered. Tears began to slip down her face, inspite of herself. "What the fuck is going on here?" She cried. "Christ! I might not have known my family twenty minutes ago, but at least I knew how fuckin old I was!" Ian tried to find the right words to convey such an impactful message. How does one say "here's your life you never knew" in a nut shell? "When John left and came to live with me, we got involved in the fight. The two of us learned everything we know from your Da and mine." "You knew my Da?" Sile gasped. Ian nodded sadly. "Aye. Very well. Richard Hannlan. He was a good man." He lowered his head. "You and John were sent to the orphanage to protect you." He paused. "It took me losing a wife and an infant to understand what they did. What John did to you." Ian looked into Sile's eyes. "John died six years ago. But he made me swear on his dying breath that I'd take care of you. He loved you so much, kid." Sile's face as soaked with her tears as she listened to this. Shocked. "He never wanted you involved in this. He lied about who you were in relation to him, he disconnected from you completely and put you in with your foster family, who were really a safe house family. John fought with their son." Sile wiped her face and frantically tried to light another cigarette with her shaking hands. "Alot of damned good that all did." She cried with the lit, smoldering thing between her lips. Ian chuckled a bit. "Yea. That's exactly what John said when we called for a runner and you showed up. We leave for two months..." He laughed again. "And poof!" It went silent for a second. Sile looked up at Ian, and surrendered to hysterics. "Fuck you!" She cried. "I had a family! And you knew and never told me!" She sobbed into the night. "Fuck you!" Ian tried desperately to comfort her. He tried to embrace her but was weary of her arms that could flail at any moment. He drew her close as soon as he found a safe way to do so. She continued to cry into his shirt. "I find out I had a brother just in time to put flowers on his grave!" Ian stroked her hair as Sile's muffled sobs continued. "John wanted to tell you. He just never knew when it was safe. And he told me to tell you when the time was right... I figured... you're almost eighteen. You should know now." She sat up, rage in her eyes. "YOU THINK!?" She bellowed. "I'm not even eight-fuckin'-teen?!" Ian shook his head. "No. Your birthday is right. But John made it so the math never worked out with your ages incase anyone got ahold of records or something." She shuddered. "I took my first bullet at... eleven?" She asked.