Page 2 of The Escape Plan

“Don’t mention it,” I say dryly. “And on that note, I have my bags now, so I should probably get going.”

“Text the family group chat when you get there,” Aoife instructs.

“Aye, and take photos of some trucks for me,” Callan adds.

“Will do,” I say. Easier than reminding Callan that he’s twenty-three years old and perfectly capable of googling pictures of whatever specific truck it is that he wants to see.

After about seventeen rounds of goodbyes and a parting piece of advice from Aoife to “see if I can find myself a local Dallas Cowboys cheerleader to date,” I hang up feeling equal parts despair for my siblings’ appalling geography knowledge, excitement for my adventure ahead, and homesickness for my family.

Or, more accurately, guilt about being here.

Ireland suddenly feels very far away.

I’ve never left them before. Not like this.

But they’re all grown up now and busy with their own lives—Aoife’s married with a baby on the way, Callan’s finished his apprenticeship and is working as an electrician, Eoin’s happy as can be working at a local animal rescue, and Niamh’s in college training to be a midwife.

Everyone is fine.

Nobody needs me in any kind of urgent way.

And as Mam told me a few weeks ago before she set off on her honeymoon in Greece with her new husband Paul, it was about time I stopped looking after everyone else and started worrying about myself.

She told me I should take a holiday, go see the world. Do somethingIwanted for a change.

To which I replied that I was absolutely fine, thank you very much. Of course, this opened the entire McCarthy family floodgates ofopinions.

So. Many. Opinions.

Since Gran died and my long-term girlfriend Roisin left me, I’d been feeling a bit aimless. Like I was living a kind of Groundhog Day of work, eat, sleep, repeat, with no real end in sight. No real purpose.

I didn’t think it was a huge problem, to be honest. But between my siblings, Mam, Paul (who gets a family opinion now that their nuptials are complete), and Eoin’s one-eyed dog, Enya (who Eoin firmly considers a voting member of the McCarthy clan), a consensus from my family soon formed:they just want to see me happy.

And currently, I’m apparently not happy enough for their liking.

So, here I am. Off on an apparent pursuit of happiness—AKA, on holiday in America for the rest of the summer.

Because I didn’t have the heart to tell them that a change in my location would do nothing to change the way I feel. Or didn’t feel, more like.

I step outside the airport and am greeted with the type of glorious, blazing sunshine that is about a once-a-year occurrence back home.

Standing still, I close my eyes and tilt my head upwards, letting the early morning rays dance over my skin, warming it.

I’m snapped out of my celestial-adjacent moment all too soon, though, as a man dressed in a suit and carrying a briefcase barrels into the back of me, almost knocking us both over.

“Move it, moron!” he yells in a nasally voice, his thick Boston accent making him sound extra angry.

Which makes me smile.

“Top of the morning to you, too,” I respond brightly. We don’t actually say this to each other back home but I felt like leaning into a stereotype for this rude man’s benefit.

However, the man simply rolls his eyes at me before hurrying on his way, and I chuckle to myself over my first real encounter with a member of the American population.

Mr. Bernard Prenchenko, who I am house sitting for this summer, warned me that Bostonians can err on the side of rude. But once I hit the road and drive the one-and-a-half hours west to his apartment in Serendipity Springs, he says I will be likely to find nothing but hospitality, kindness, and a warm welcome from the locals.

I pick up my guitar case in one hand and my suitcase in the other and head towards short-term parking, where Mr. Prenchenko has parked his vehicle in area 4C and left the keys sitting in the left front wheel well, trusting fella that he seems to be.

When I find the correct number plate, I have to laugh as I discover that Prenchenko drives a Ford F150 truck.

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