This weird life we’re in is getting weirder and weirder. Yesterday, Uncle Dock got the surprise of his life when he found Rosalie at his—and her—friend’s house in Ireland. I didn’t think we were ever going to tear the two of them apart.
Dock’s friend let us use the phone, so we all called home and everybody was jumping up and down on both sides of the ocean, and people were shouting and laughing, and then we all flopped down on the floor in a used-up heap.
Sophie kept saying, “I can’t believe it. I didn’t ever think I was going to hear their voices again. I’m not dreaming, right? I called and they were there, right?”
The only not-so-good news in the day was that Sophie’s mother said Bompie hadn’t been well, and that if we hadn’t called her by tomorrow to say that we were nearly to Bompie, she was going to get on a plane and go see him herself.
So then we were all rushing around, hurrying to get on to Bompie’s, and Dock didn’t want to leave Rosalie, and we practically had to pull him out the door. The only reason Dock left at all is that Rosalie promised to join him at Bompie’s in a couple days.
As soon as we were all back in the car, everyone started saying, “Rosalie! Oh, Rosalie!” and Uncle Dock was blushing, but he was so happy he didn’t even mind us teasing him.
Now we’re on the ferry, steaming across the Irish Sea toward Wales. I keep looking for the sails, feeling as if I’m supposed to be doing something. None of us were too eager to get back on a boat, I can tell you that.
“Isn’t there a bridge?” my father kept asking. “Are you sure there isn’t a bridge over to Wales?”
“Doofus,” Uncle Stew said.
“Don’t start up with me,” my father warned.
Brian keeps bugging Sophie. He said, “So, you think Bompie will recognize—us?”
“Of course he’ll recognize us,” Sophie said.
“All of us?”
“Of course,” Sophie said.
But there’s something different in the way Brian is bugging Sophie now. It doesn’t seem as mean as before; it’s more like he is trying very hard to figure her out and he’s worried about her, too. He likes truth and facts and lists, and I think he is very bothered by someone like Sophie who sees the world differently than he does. Brian keeps asking me what is going on with Sophie and what’s going to happen once we reach Bompie’s. I told him I wasn’t a mind reader or a fortune-teller.