The only clue my dad gave me as to who Octavia was and what she looked like was a tall, slender woman with crazy orange hair and vibrant green eyes - she’ll most likely be very fashionable and will have a rather large grin. This is all I had to think of my entire eight hour plane ride over here, along with a one hour layover in England.
Closing in on six in the evening, I was ready to just sleep and wake up in twelve days. I hated flying, I hated airports, I hated crowded places - Jesus, I hated everything. I sighed and trailed my one suitcase behind me and my other firmly in my hand. Where did I even look for her? Should I call my dad? I noticed that other people were starting to look at me, or at least it seemed that way. Was something wrong with my clothing? Was I obviously an American? I felt the heat flush to my cheeks and my stomach start to stretch and squeeze at once. I took a breath and kept my head low, plowing through the crowd until I reached the pick-up area.
So far, I counted over ten redheads - it is Ireland, after all - but none of them were tall, slender and had wild hair all together…except one. She was in the far corner near the empty leather seats, chatting enthusiastically with some woman in scrubs. Her hands moved frantically as her rather wide mouth described a story worth telling from the looks of it. Her hair was like a large afro that came down around her jaw line, her bangs pinned back in the middle of the poof. Silver earrings looped their way up her ears and matching silver bracelets jingle-jangled on her slender wrists. It had to be her.
Making my way up to her, I went over all the different ways I could approach this woman. What if it wasn’t her? What if she said she was Octavia but really, she was some crazy lady who was going to kidnap me and kill me? I should call my dad - I stopped my anxiety from overwhelming myself and just kept ahead, closing in on her. I was about to speak when those bright, bright green eyes flickered to me and widened.
“Celeste!” She jumped up and clapped, all her jewelry clashing together in a bunch of chimes. I was a little startled, noticing all the people around me staring. “Oh, yay!” She got excited, her raspy voice loud among the airport’s noisy crowds. Arms stretched out, Octavia came for me and my instant reaction was to coward away. She noticed and instantly dropped her arms, confused before saying, “Oh dear, I’m sorry…you’re not Celeste, are you?”
“No,” I squeaked and cleared my throat, “No I am.” I nodded, “I just- I’ve never met you, I wasn’t sure if you were actually Octavia.” I explained, my rapid breathing increasing as the woman in the scrubs rose an eyebrow at us.
“It was nice to meet you, ma’am.” The woman patted Octavia’s shoulder before nodding at me and turning away. Octavia acknowledged her before returning to me.
“Oh sweetheart, it’s me!” This time, there was no hesitation as she pulled me into her long arms for a bear hug, “I can’t believe how big you are, and how much you resemble your mother!” She took my suitcases out of my hands and started for the doors.
“Oh…really? Most people say I look like my dad.” I looked around at the world moving around us, still feeling like I was naked and exposed.
“Psh, that’s rubbish. You clearly have your mother’s face shape and I could recognize that nose anywhere. I was jealous of that nose all throughout school.” She winked at me as we walked out to the sidewalk where a deep green wrangler was parked and waiting. She tossed my suitcases in the back and rounded the rear end of the jeep, climbing in with such ease, My first time in a jeep and I’m looking at it like it’s Mount Everest. I hopped in and got my jeans snagged on the door, tugging until a soft rip allowed my pants free. I closed the door and instantly looked around.
“Looking for anything in particular?” Octavia asked as she buckled herself in.
“No, sorry,” I weakly smiled, “force of habit. I try and get to know people by looking around their personal spaces.” I glanced down at my hands that started to fidget underneath her intense gaze.
“Don’t be so nervous, Celeste.” She softly suggested, placing a manicured hand on my fidgeting fingers. I peered up at her light smile, “Your mother was like my other half. We impacted each other’s lives immensely, and if for a second you’re viewing me as a stranger, I hope we can get to know each other well enough that you’ll see that I’m not very different from her. Honestly.” She rose her thin eyebrows at me and I smiled back. “Good.” She started the ignition and pulled off the parkway.
“So, what part of Ireland do you live in?” I broke the air-conditioned silence as we started off the highway and onto empty, one lane roads around the countryside.
“Right outside the village of Dalkey, thirty minutes away from the city of Dublin.” She smiled at me, “Didn’t your father tell you this?”
“I probably didn’t hear him…” I trailed off, the silence slowly creeping back into the small space between us.
“Well, what do you like to do in your spare time, Celeste?” Octavia asked me, keeping her eyes on the road ahead of us as it twist and turned beyond the small hills in the grassland.
“Um,” I thought for a minute before I came to a blank, “I’m kind of a boring person.”
“You’re Kris’ daughter…nothing about you is boring. Kris could make watching TV for thirteen hours straight an exciting time.” Octavia laughed to herself at an old memory before smiling over at me.
“Well, I like to read.” I thought of all ten books I recently purchased for the trip, hoping to finish the first one that I started on the plane.
“Yeah? Me too.” She grinned, “There’s a great two-story bookstore in Dublin, I’ll take you some time.” She tapped her fingers on the steering wheel to her own tune.
“That sounds fun,” I smiled back before looking out at the distant hills where the sun was setting, “I also used to run track.” I added onto my list of fun things Celeste Leaosta did in her leisure time.
“Used to?”
“I lost interest soon after I graduated.” After my mom died is what I was actually going to say, but I opted for the not-so-depressing reason.
“Oh, that’s right. You’re nineteen, correct?”
“I’ll be twenty in September.” I nodded.
“Are you a Virgo like me? My birthday’s in September as well.” She grinned.
“Yeah, I am. I never really paid attention to astrology, though. My mom used to tell me all these things that she actually learned from you and would always tell me when you emailed her something about our signs.” I laughed at the memory of my mom busting into my room with her laptop to tell me some interesting thing her friend in Ireland sent her.
“Yeah, I did do that!” Octavia laughed, “I used to write horoscopes when I first moved here and when we were in high school, too. You see, Kris was never interested in researching anything but she did like to learn new things whether it was something I told her or something on the TV.”
“Yup, that’s mom.” I chuckled, the tension between us easing as we talked of my deceased mother.
“So, what about college?” She continued the questioning. “You are in college, right?”
“Ah…not quite,” I sighed, “I had the grades for somewhere good but I just never got around to applying anywhere and then my dad told me to just take a year off and find out what I wanted to do.”
“Hey, at least you’re clearing your head before wasting money just to have the status of being in college but being undeclared.” She shrugged, finding reasoning behind my logic. I felt myself slowly warming up to this woman.
“What about you, what do you like to do?” I asked back, turning towards her.
“Besides writing and reading?” She smiled- Octavia was a journalist and a published author, “I like to take photos. Meet new people, whatever I can do for a little adventure.” She shrugged, “I rather enjoy change and the exotic aspect of life.” God, this woman was my complete polar. How do I even compare? And if I was just like my mom…then how did these two get along?
“How were you and my mom friends?” I blurted out, shocked at myself for such an intruding question.
“What?” She asked, raising an eyebrow in my direction.
“What I mean is, I can’t decipher what it is that could have made you guys be such good friends when you seem like such different people.”
“Well, you see Celeste, when your mom and I met? We were younger than ten years old. Who I am today was probably not the same little girl I was then, same with Kris. We grew up with each other and when I went away for college, I started to change and grow into an adult. But, when Kris and I talked, we were still the same school girls we once were. It was just an instant bond, you get me?” She shrugged, trying to piece together the words to describe their friendship.
“That makes sense.” I hugged my knees to my chest, feeling stupid for asking the question in the first place. The stupidity grew into anxiety and before I knew it, the wall between Octavia and I was slowly growing once more.
“We’re almost to my house, if you’re wondering.” She switched the topic, probably catching onto my awkwardness.
“Sounds good,” I yawned, jetlag slowly creeping up on me as the moon started to take it’s place in the open sky.
We turned off the paved road and onto a dirt path between some trees, going far back until a clearing up ahead gave light onto a round dirt patch to park on in front of a split level home. It looked like a shack and a cabin mixed together, a front door no where in sight. A tall fence boxed in an area to the left and to the right was the second story where elongated windows rested above a flat-level roof.
“Nice house.” I breathed as she placed the jeep into park.
“Thanks, it’s kid of a shit hole on the outside…kind of on the inside as well, I guess, but it’s what I call home.” She grinned as she busted out of the jeep and started for my bags. My feet hit the dirt with a soft thud and raised a dust cloud, the fresh air of Ireland infatuating my lungs with envy - to breathe air this clean every day was a miracle to think about. No scent of a restaurant near by, or anyone for that matter. Just crisp, crystal clean oxygen.
“How long have you lived here?” I asked as I picked up my other suitcase that Octavia left behind. I followed her up to a sliding piece of wood that she used as a front door - really? I gawked at her as she closed it behind us where we stood in the vestibule. In front of me was an adorable kitchen that rounded the left corner and to my right were a few stairs heading up, and next to the stairs was a hallway.
“For…six years, now. Almost seven!” She locked something on the slab of wood that acted as her front door and then turned to give me a tour. “Up these stairs is two guest bedrooms, you will stay to the bedroom on the right. A bathroom is connected between the two so feel free to use that. Down this hallway is my bedroom an up ahead is the kitchen,” She guided me back to the rounded island where tons of books and papers lay astray. “Sorry for the mess,” She smiled. “And over here is the living room.” She walked past a small four-seated table into a TV area where bookshelves lined one side of the wall and a glass wall lined the other.
“This is really nice.” I looked out on the patio where the fence opened up to a bunch of hills and great, green grass. “Is all this land yours?” I turned to her.
“Yup, all 350 acres of it.” She grinned as she organized some of the magazines and newspapers on the coffee table.
“Wow!” I exclaimed, my eyes popping out of my skull. “How did you ever acquire so much?”
“This was a fixer upper home, most of the money I put down on it was for the land and when I bought it, the guys who took care of the land didn’t want to run out of a job so I allow them to keep their equipment here and eat whenever they pleased as long as my land looks nice.”
“Nice arrangement.” I walked out onto the roofed patio and onto the open field.
“Are you hungry? I can whip up some pasta, cabbage and potatoes, a sandwich?” She headed for the kitchen.
“Um, not really I ate on the plane. I am a little sleepy, though.” I glanced at my wrist watch and noticed it was still on Michigan time. “What time is it?” I looked around as I followed her back inside.
“It’s almost seven.” She leaned on the counter. “Want to catch up on some sleep?”
“That would be great.” I sighed in relief, I didn’t get any sleep on the plane because I was too scared to trust closing my eyes around a bunch of strangers, and I definitely didn’t get any sleep before the plane. “If I don’t awake for the rest of the night, I just want to say it was really good to meet you and that…that I’m pretty excited to stay here.” I fidgeted with my fingers once more.
“Of course, sweetheart. It’ll be nice to have some female company besides my cats, anyways.” She winked.
“Cats?” I stopped and looked over at her. “How many cats do you have?” I glanced around. Besides my one pain in the ass feline, I wasn’t a huge fan of cats.
“I have eight.” She smiled, “They come in from time to time to eat, sleep and get some lovin’ before they go back out on adventures.” She pointed towards the patio.
“…Eight?”
“Are you allergic?” She looked worriedly at me.
“No! No…that’s just- that’s a lot of cats.” I peeped, swallowing my fear.
“Yeah, I like me some cats.” She grinned wildly, bending over to pick up a big metal bowl with a few bites of cat food left in it, “Well, you go along and get some sleep. Tomorrow we’ll hang out.”
“Okay,” I pushed my hair behind my ears, “Goodnight, Ms. Octavia.”
“Sweetie, please, just call me Octavia.” She smiled sweetly, “’Night.”
