Free My Mother's Secret by Sheila O'Flanagan Page B

which from Jenny’s perspective seemed unbearably drab by comparison.
    Shortly afterwards, to celebrate Ireland’s accession to the European Economic Community, her school organised a trip to Rome. It was a sign, she told herself. A sign that she would go there and meet Italian people and make new friends and live a different life, even if it was only for a few days. She brought the information sheet home to show her parents and told them that she’d love to go. That she’d get a Saturday job and pay them back. After all, she reminded them, the trip was educational, and she’d received her first ever A grade for her project. She stood in front of them with her fingers crossed as they read through it, but when they got to the end and saw that the five-day stay cost a whopping £75, Jenny knew there was no chance.
    ‘We can’t afford it,’ Kay said as she folded the information sheet in half. ‘We can’t spend that much money on you and not your sisters and you’ll never get a job that will pay us back.’
    ‘I might,’ protested Jenny. ‘Mrs Murtagh in the newsagent’s is looking for part-time staff.’
    ‘We can’t afford it and that’s that.’ Terry picked up the newspaper he’d put down to glance at the information sheet.
    Jenny had known all along that they’d say no, although she’d longed for them to surprise her by saying yes. She’d hoped that telling them she’d try to find a job would swing it. But Terry and Kay weren’t going to change their minds. They didn’t care how educational the trip might be, although they didn’t see any educational value in it at all. There was no reason for her to go to Rome, Kay said. There was nothing there for her.
    ‘When you’re working and earning your own money you can go wherever you like,’ Terry told her over the top of the paper when she said there were plenty of reasons to go to Rome, that it was a major cultural city. ‘Although why anyone would want to go to a foreign place like that where you can’t drink the water or eat the food, I don’t know.’
    ‘The Italians drink the water and eat the food,’ Jenny murmured, but Terry had already turned his attention back to the paper. And Jenny made up her mind that as soon as she was in a position to travel abroad, Rome would be the first place she visited.
    When she left school and got a job in the Civil Service, she began to put a little money away every week for her travel fund, although it grew so slowly she couldn’t help wondering if she’d be a pensioner before she ever left the country. Kay insisted that she hand over a large chunk of her wages to help with household expenses every week, which put a big dent in her ability to save. Jenny didn’t begrudge her parents the money, but she sometimes wondered if it would be cheaper to live in a flat with one of the other girls in the office. People would think she was weird, though. It was the country girls who lived in flats. No Dubliner wasted money on rent when they could be at home, even if they were contributing to living expenses. But those country girls always seemed to have more money than her!
    Then she met Pascal Sheehan. He also worked in the Department of Agriculture and she’d seen him walking around the office before, but their paths didn’t cross until they got into conversation at a booze-up to celebrate a raft of internal promotions and transfers. It’s mad, she said later that evening when she’d blown that week’s travel fund on an unaccustomed amount of cheap white wine, that the first time I get to talk to you is when you’re moving to Revenue.
    ‘Maybe that’s a good thing,’ he whispered into her ear. ‘After all, it’s hard to go out with someone who works in the same office as you.’
    ‘Are you asking me out?’
    ‘Would you like me to?’
    ‘Yes,’ she said.
    He was easy to get on with. She liked being with him. She didn’t mind that he was more organised and methodical than her. He didn’t mind