Floe de Lir

Chapter 5

He had received a lava lamp the summer his mother had returned.

Eight years she had been out of his life, and she had believed a lava lamp would be a sufficient gift to make up for all the monumental events she had missed.

He had his first drink that autumn, to cope with a vicious fight between him and his father.

The gleam of the beer bottle had reflected within the lava, until Dylan had taken that lamp and smashed it against the garage door.

Water and wax blobs had cascaded down the driveway, looping through shards of glass that had caught the day's sunlight.

He felt a little like that wax blob himself as his stomach churned at an alarming rate.

He tossed about, unable to open his eyes from the sheer force of the wind around him.

Then, it stopped.

He braced himself for the fall, his hands sinking into the dewy grass.

Dylan opened his eyes.

"Where are we?" asked Kelly.

Recognizable words were printed across a paper tacked to a pole.

"France, I think," said Dylan.

"France?" asked Kelly. "Why are we in France?"

"When are we in France is the more important question," said Dylan, "and if it's the same year we were just in, then we're going directly back to Cork." Dylan stood. "We'll need to find a newspaper."

"A little help here?" Kelly thrust out her hands.

"I was getting to it."

Dylan helped Kelly off of the ground.

"Do you think they can see us?" Kelly steadied herself, looking at the crowds of people and then down at her clothing to presumably compare ensembles.

"If they can, we better figure out how to change," said Dylan, who was in his standard uniform of jeans.

Not a single individual in the crowd wore jeans.

"Are we really in the past?" asked Kelly.

"Maybe it's just too warm for jeans," said Dylan, though the climate didn't feel warm. "Hurry up. I'm gonna find a newsstand."

Kelly scanned the faces around them.

"You can search every face," said Dylan, "but the more you don't see Brandon, the more disappointed you'll be."

"I know he's here," said Kelly. "He feels close, like he's just around the corner. Don't you feel that?"

He did, with both twins, but Dylan didn't want to subject himself to false hope.

He had experienced that enough for a lifetime.

"We can't be sure they're here," he told her instead.

"Your mom said the coin would lead us to where they were."

"The coin got us from Ireland to France, I'll admit that much. It isn't a total crock. At the very least, it's proven teleportation exists."

"You're such a cynic."

"Until I see a newspaper, I'm not believing anything. For all I know, I could be dreaming this whole thing up."

Kelly shot her hand out towards Dylan's upper arm and pinched him, hard.

"Fuck!" Dylan grabbed his arm. "Kelly! What the hell?"

"Is that real enough for you?" she snipped. "Do you want to find Brenda or not?"