Escape From Home Read Online Free PDF Page B

now?” Patrick asked.
    â€œ Queen of the West leaving for Liverpool in thirty minutes.”
    â€œMaura, if we wait too long, we won’t be able to board,” the boy worried. He could not believe the numbers of people clambering onto the boat.
    â€œAs soon as Mother is ready.”
    Mrs. O’Connell, who had hardly spoken that morning, suddenly said, “I’ll not be going.”
    A spasm of fear stabbed Maura. Patrick stared at his mother, the boat forgotten.
    â€œNow, Mother,” Maura said, trying to make light of what she’d heard, “you’ll wear my heart down to a pip with all your nay-saying. Am I to push you every inch of the way?”
    â€œI’ll not be going,” the woman said again, her voice firmer.
    â€œ Queen of the West leaving for Liverpool in twenty minutes.”
    â€œBut we have to!” Patrick cried. “We can’t stay here.”
    â€œIt’s you and Maura who will go,” Annie O’Connell said. “I’ll go back to Kilonny, and there I’ll stay.”
    â€œOh, Mother,” Maura cried in exasperation. “You know as well as anyone, there’s no Kilonny to go back to!”
    Mrs. O’Connell stood up. The look on her face was of grief and exhaustion. Maura recognized it as the same as when her brother Timothy died.
    â€œBut what about us? And Da?” Maura asked, feeling full of tears.
    â€œYou’ll ask my husband to forgive me. I cannot do it. God grant him power to understand.”
    Patrick, clutching his bundle, looked anxiously from his mother to Maura. “But, Mother, you have to! We can’t go without you!”
    â€œ Queen of the West leaving for Liverpool in fifteen minutes.”
    â€œGo, and Jesus bless you both,” Mrs. O’Connell said, gazing at each of her children, touching their stunned faces with the palm of her hard hand. Abruptly, she turned away and set off with an urgency and energy she had not shown in weeks.
    Maura ran forward and grabbed one of her mother’s arms. “Mother, you can’t do this!”
    â€œLet me be!” Mrs. O’Connell cried as she pulled away with a strength that caught Maura off guard. “I’m telling you to go.”
    â€œ Queen of the West leaving for Liverpool in ten minutes.”
    â€œMother!” Patrick choked, tears starting. “You have to come. You have to! You do!”
    But Mrs. O’Connell was running, her black shawl fluttering behind like the broken wings of a frightened bird.
    The boat whistle let forth an ear-piercing screech. “ Queen of the West leaving for Liverpool in five minutes.”
    Maura turned back from the sight of her retreating mother to where Patrick stood. “ Mother! ” the boy screamed. “ Mother! ”
    Maura made her decision. She rushed to her brother’s side, scooped up the other bundle, and all but dragged him—weeping, straining to see back over his shoulder—to the man at the table. He was already standing, stuffing his watch into a pocket. Maura and Patrick were the last ones.
    Fumbling frantically, she tore the tickets from her dress and offered the crumbled wad to the man. With a grunt of disgust he sorted through them, plucked out two tickets, and flung the other papers back at Maura.
    â€œMove yerselves!” he ordered.
    Still pulling at Patrick, Maura lunged for the boat and ran up the steep ramp. Even as they stepped on deck, the gangway was yanked free with a rattle of chains. The boat whistle shrieked. Black smoke surged from the funnels. The two great side wheels began to turn while overhead gulls screamed hideously.
    Patrick, wrenching free from his sister, broke through the crowd, shoving and pushing until he reached the outer rail. “Mother!” he screamed again. “Mother!”
    Mrs. O’Connell was nowhere in sight. And the Queen of the West was sliding down the river Lee.

G ulls coasted and turned, now and