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“Lizzie, you need to stop talking,” she warned, covering my mouth with her hand. “Don’t ever say that out loud again.” She looked down at me with angry eyes. “You arefine. There isnothingwrong with you. You don’t hear voices. You aren’t sick. It skipped over you, just like it skipped over me and Dad. You’re just a regular kid, and all these weird, little quirks will fade away.”
I shook my head, feeling confused and hot all over.
My skin was itching.
My fingers were scratchy.
I could feel the hot screams in my throat.
“There isnothingwrong with you,” my sister repeated, keeping her hand over my mouth to stop me from screaming. “So you better start acting like it or you’ll end up whereshedid.”
DECEMBER 31, 1992
Lizzie
“ARE WE THERE YET?” IASKED FROM THE BACK SEAT OFDADDY’S CAR. STRAINING MY NECK, I tried to look over the boxes that were piled around us, but I couldn’t see my parents.
“If you ask that question one more time, I’m going to open your door and throw you out,” my sister grumbled, elbowing my side. The car was so packed with boxes that we had to sit right next to each other. Caoimhe was wedged so close to me that her elbow was resting on top of mine. “I think I preferred it when you were a mute.”
“Caoimhe!” Mam and Dad both scolded from the front seat.
She elbowed me again before switching on her Walkman and resting her arm on top of mine. She turned the volume up so loud that I could hear the song “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” blasting from her headphones.
Narrowing my eyes, I elbowed her back and rested my arm on top of hers before turning my attention to the window.
“It’s snowing,” I cried out excitedly, eyes glued to the white snowflakes falling around us. “Are we there yet?”
“Give me strength,” Dad muttered under his breath, while Mam laughed softly.
“Do you see that signpost, sweetheart? Look out the window.”
I searched until my eyes landed on a huge signpost on the side of the road.
Ballylaggin
County Cork
“I see it,” I exclaimed, bouncing on my seat. “Is this it? Are we here?”
“Nearly,” Mam replied, sounding happy. “Just another few minutes in the car.”
Pressing my face to the window, I looked out and smiled. The snow was sticking to the ground. It was beautiful. “This is where you’re from, Mammy?” I asked, spotting a group of children throwing snowballs at each other in a park.
“Yes, sweetheart,” Mam replied. “I was born and raised here in Ballylaggin.”
“Ballylaggin.” I repeated the word slowly, making sure I said it right.
It was a big town, with long streets of shops and pubs. Christmas lights were everywhere, in the windows of the houses and hanging over the streets. Red-and-white flags hung from all the shops and some of the houses, too. The Cork flag, I remembered. That was Mammy’s flag. Daddy’s flag was blue and yellow for Tipperary.
“There’s a cinema!” Caoimhe yelped. Ripping off her headphones, she leaned over me and pressed her face to the window. “And a leisure center.”
“I know,” Mam laughed, sounding happier than usual.
“Does it have a pool?”
“Yep,” Mam replied. “And a bowling alley.”
Daddy kept driving until we were out of the town and back in the countryside. He turned down a smaller road and then slowed down in front of a giant gate.
