O'Connell Bridge - Pt. 8

Low level activities and boredom are common for night workers. Sleep patterns are askew and normal social life is often abridged. On his day off, LC found his way to BoJangles for lunch after his usual morning nap. Working at the ER was so mentally exhausting that he often went to his apartment and crashed for a couple of hours. “I need a sweet tea fix,” he told the cashier when he paid for his chicken biscuit and sweet tea.

LC sat in a booth, sipped his tea, and pulled up med schools on his laptop. He read his email, deleted most of it, and spent an hour looking at everything from Facebook to ESPN. He was expecting a notice from O’Connell Bridge, but none occurred while he was at BoJos. “It’s almost disappointing.”

He dumped his tray and walked to his truck. On the wiper blade was a Barnes and Noble advertisement. Written across the face of the paper were the words, “Liam, Go B&N.”

LC took the folded sheet into his truck and stared at it for a few minutes. “Who put that on my window?” Finally, he drove to MayFaire shopping center and to Barnes and Noble bookstore. As he walked into the store, the clerk at the desk hailed him.

“Sir, are you Mr. Brennan?”

LC looked back at the clerk. “Yeah, why?”

“There’re some books here for you.”

LC stared at the clerk. “What books?”

“The ones which you ordered, or at least paid for, or maybe someone else bought them. I don’t know. The ticket is here on the desk with a note to give them to a tall, red-headed white man by the name of Liam Brennan.”

LC walked to the desk and picked up a book from the stack of books. “Oh.”

On the stack were a half dozen books titled Ireland. There was a street map of Dublin and map of the Irish Republic; also a colorful map of England and a street map of London and Edinburgh, Scotland. Included in the stack were novels and other texts by Joyce, Wilde, O’Conner, Chaucer, Wordsworth, Austin, and several others including a book on Cognition.

“I can put them in large shopping bags if you wish.” The clerk held up a big Barnes and Noble cloth bag. “Like this one.”

“I suppose that would be a good idea. Obviously, I’m not going to sit here and read them.”

The clerk looked strangely at LC. “Oh, I see, no I wouldn’t expect you to. Can I ask? This is a lot of material, largely available at the Library, are you building a collection or something?”

“Appears so.” LC handed the clerk a couple of the free bookmarks. “Stick these in.”

The clerk gave LC a book. “This was included.”

LC looked at the cover. “Dating Irish Girls, an Idiots Guide. Really?”

“It was in the stack. I thought maybe it was joke somebody at the store put in.”

“Don’t put it in my stuff. I can find anything like that on the internet.” LC took the first sack of books from the clerk. “I assume these bags will hold all the material.”

“That’s why I gave you the cloth bags. Can I help tote these to your car?”

LC picked up the second bag. “I can handle it.”

He drove straight to the apartment and carried the books upstairs. A look in the girl’s apartment only indicated that nobody was home.

Additionally, LC’s roommates were not lurking about. “Good.” He set the books on the floor of his small bedroom and then LC looked at his alarm clock. “I got to get some sleep.” He dropped his jeans on the floor and added his knit shirt and socks. After tossing and turning for a few minutes, LC turned on his radio to a light rock station and seconds later he dozed off. At 7 PM, Arthur came into the apartment and slammed the door.

“Oops, sorry.” He called out.

“LC picked up his noise suppression headphones and again he fell asleep until he woke by the feeling of a body in his presence. Caitlin was sitting on his floor going through the book collection. He opened one eye and tried to concentrate.

“Where’d you get all these?” Caitlin picked up a Dickens and held it up to the ambient light spilling in from the living room.

“Barnes and Noble. Like, I got a note on my window and when I got to B&N they had all that stuff ready for me.”

She giggled. “Speaking of windows. Your flap is open.”

LC quickly pulled the sheet up. “Mind in the gutter, are you sure you’re not reading porn.”

“There’s a lot of classic titles here.” Caitlin continued through the books without commenting on his remark. “You should build a bookshelf.”

“Cait, I’m moving. I’m almost sure of it. If nothing else I’ll go to Carolina and take a couple of grad classes as an independent student and try to qualify for their med school program. If not Carolina, then ECU or somewhere else.”

“I could go with you and help you search. Be like your correspondence clerk.”

“Yeah, and give up your college career short a few classes and one semester. Not happening Cait. I wouldn’t allow it and neither should you.”

Caitlin hung her head and started to walk out the door. “I just thought,” she whimpered.

“I know, and I love the thought. I’m just thinking of you.”

“I’m thinking of us.” She left the room with the Cognition book laying open to the chapter discussing commitment.

To be continued...