Chapter 15 blonde boy

There was only one unpleasant surprise in this great evening of music.After the band played for half an hour, an old man came to the bar and sat on a high stool.It seemed to Larry that he had seen the man before, but age changed people's appearance, and since Larry sometimes couldn't remember his own name, it was unlikely that he would remember anyone else's. The bagpiper began to play a hornpipe tune.As soon as the music started, Larry forgot everything. When he looked up again, the old man was still sitting there, staring straight at him.After the second bar of the tune sounded, the old man got off the stool and walked across the bar to where the band was standing.One of the listeners closest to him offered him a low stool, which he declined.He pushed his way through the crowd, went straight to the corner, and sat on the padded bench next to Larry O'Donnell.

"How are you?" he asked. "Fine," Larry replied. "And you?" "It's okay." The old man said.He took an old tin whistle from his pocket, and politely joined in when the others began to play.After playing several pieces in succession, the old man didn't speak to Larry or anyone else. It wasn't until the bagpiper left early, which caused a little commotion among his companions and when others' attention was diverted, that he approached Larry and asked, "What are you doing this time?" What name was used?" It took a while for Larry to recover from his panic. "O'Dole," he replied in a slightly alarmed but mysterious tone, "Larry O'Donnell."

The old man held out his great dry hand and took Larry's. "Patrick O'Hare," he said. "Even after all these years, my name is Patrick O'Hare." "Of course," said Larry, though he still couldn't remember who it was. "Why the name change?" But Patrick O'Hare had withdrawn his hand and began to whistle an old and beautiful reel.Many people also joined in one after another. The name Gigi Barry didn't last long, and after his mother told him what had happened, Gigi was called Gigi Liddy again.He began actively rehearsing pieces, and the house was filled with music again.

"You don't move, okay?" he said. "I don't care what you do now. This is my first birthday present for you." Helen sat there obediently.Jiji made tea and took out the instruments, including his flute.Although he barely practices these days, the flute seems to have brought him closer to his maligned great-grandfather. Gigi played her great-grandfather's jig on the flute, along with other tunes that Helen planned to teach him.He switched to the violin again while they rehearsed some of the pieces they were going to play the next night.Gigi doesn't think about the club anymore. Someday he'll be there, but not tomorrow.

As usual, time flies, but because of the opportunity to play their favorite pieces together, they keep rehearsing until they are too tired to stop.Gigi picked up the photo again. "Who are those children?" Helen looked over his shoulder: "The one with the concertina was my mother, and the other two were her brothers. They both died and my mother inherited the farm. She was the only child who survived. It was a tough time." .” There are more photographs clasped face down on battered envelopes.Helen reached out to stop Gigi, but he had already got the photo.He looked into his mother's eyes and got tacit approval.He knew that the last secret of Liddy's house had not been revealed yet, and he wondered if there would be more surprises waiting for him.He turned the picture over.The first, without any secrets, shows a woman standing in front of a gray donkey, and behind the donkey stands a barefooted little girl in a cart.

"This is my mother and grandmother." Helen introduced. The next one is a very formal photo taken by a couple in a photo studio. The man is standing with a hat in his hand, and the woman is sitting on an armchair. Both of them are looking at the camera seriously. "This is my grandparents," Helen said, "Gigi and Helen." Gigi grinned at the two having the same name as them, and turned to the last photo.The photo was taken on a meadow in midsummer, with many haystacks in the background, two musicians standing near a neat haystack, a young woman with a concertina at the end of an empty hay cart, a man standing next to her holding with a violin.The woman's dark ponytail was loose and messy.Her face is either red or tanned, and she has a big smile on her face.But the violinist's face is turned away in the camera, revealing only the curve of his handsome eyebrows and cheekbones beneath his tousled blond hair.

"This is my mother," said Helen, "and she is a fine musician." "Who is this man?" Helen hesitated.In silence, the red-hot coals collapsed and began to burn again. "It's my father." Helen finally said.Gigi had already guessed this.He leans back in his chair, holding the photograph in one hand and the violin in the other. "This is the only picture of him," Helen went on. "My mother never talked about him, at least not when she was dying, although she liked to talk. You know, her mind..." She slowly Slowly recalling, "Anyway, before she gave me this photo, I was pregnant with you. Even then, she was still madly in love with him."

"What kind of man is he?" Gigi asked. Mom laughs and shrugs. "He's kind of wild, from what I know. He likes to wander around. For a while, he was like Garrett Barry. People called him 'Handsome Boy.' My mother never heard of him." There were other names, but this one. He was a brilliant violinist, the best violinist my grandparents ever knew, and he was very handsome and charming." She took the photo from Gigi and stared at it wistfully. "I wish he hadn't gone," she said. "You know, I can only dream about him. I never know what he looks like."

"What's up with him?" Helen shrugged and said: "Sometimes he came to live for a while, and then left. Later, he and my mother began to fall in love, and finally became lovers. One day, he left and never came back." "Another case of disappearance," Gigi said. "Yes. But it wasn't a big deal. The priest -- another priest, of course -- found out my mother was pregnant and tried to convince my grandparents to send her away for adoption when the baby was born. Those days , single mothers are discriminated against.” Gigi nodded.Women's shelters are everywhere now, and girls who have done stupid things are taken there.

"My grandparents didn't do that, thank God," said Helen, "and that's another reason why the Liddy family gets pointed at—it's better to have someone in the family." `Stand w W w.`F v`a L .c `n "Having children without getting married." "And now one more." Gigi said. Helen smiled: "In fact, they always believed that the 'handsome boy' would come back. Before he left for the last time, he left one thing, which was his only property, and they believed that he would definitely come back to get it." "What is it?" Gigi asked.

"His violin," said Helen, "is in your hand."