Chase is on

Chapter 2

I wanted to solve my mystery, the tap man mystery. But I wasn’t Sherlock Holmes. I was Amelie Gallagher, the normal acting woman with no friends, who at the moment was throwing a pity-party for herself. I decided to go to mama; she’d have answers, even if visiting her was absolutely unpleasant. She lived two blocks away. You might think I would visit her often because she was so close. Wrong. I coincidentally live close to her only because I got pushed out of Williamsburg due to extreme rent raises and I am now I’m adding to the gentrification of Bushwick. Yay. It’s actually really embarrassing.

“Mama” I said, opening the door to her apartment, eggs whites and shells littered the floor, milk was spilled cereal covered the kitchen counter. This was one of the reasons I didn’t like visiting her. It made me feel bad, that she lived so sadly and I only added to her sadness for not visiting. My reasoning made no sense, I’m aware.

“It’s me” I called out.

“I can’t frickin know who’s at the door by it’s me.”

“Amelie”

“Oh, hi darling.” My mother said changing her tone of voice knowing it was me.

I walked into the living room and saw that she rested on the dirty armchair, as she usually did the whole day watching TV.

Dammit Amelie, visit your mother! She lives in an armchair!

“Hi”

“What do you want? You’re interrupting The Big Bang Theory.” My mother changes moods with everything she says.

“Umm…”

“Come on honey I don’t have all frickin day!”

“Wondering about tap shoe man.”

Blunt is good, I got straight to the point.

 She turned the TV off and turned to look at me with sad eyes. I knelt down next to her to show that I was ready to listen to anything she had to say. It was probably the most bonding we’ve ever had since she turned completely insane when I turned 13.

“Look up the meaning of your last name.”

What the hell does my last name have anything to do with anything!

 “Umm…”

“Just do it. I don’t mean to sound so dark and mysterious” she chuckled “but it has a lot to do with anything.”

I was disappointed I was waiting for “he’s your long lost brother” or “he’s a demon from another world” but no I got a command; to look up the meaning of my last name Gallagher.

I pulled out my Iphone and two minutes I had the answer.

“I got it mom”

“Gosh phones these days, nobody goes to libraries these days for research!”

“Mom” I said hoping to pull her back to the problem at hand.

“Tell me”

“It says that Gallagher is a VERY popular name, it’s the 14th most common surname in Ireland.”

“Ok, how so very interesting, but we need the meaning.”

“It says it means foreign help or foreign helper.”

“Very good”

“How does that help us?”

“The last name itself means nothing at all, nada, but the meaning has much to do with it.”

“Umm…. Our family helped foreigners?”

“Duh”

“But that doesn’t explain the tap shoe man.”

“The tap shoe man’s last name means O’Doherty.”

“What does his last name mean?”

“Hurtful”

“So…” I said, having no idea what all of this meant.

“His family and our family are at war with each other.” She said, not explaining further.

“How coincidental that his families’ last name means hurtful.”

“They’re not the only ones who did harsh and hurtful things to those around them.”

What the hell is going on?

“Ok, so our last names themselves don’t mean anything, but the meaning do?” I asked

“Correct”

“Are you going to tell me more?”

“No”

“Mama please, I’m so confused, I need to know what’s going on.” I said pleading. There was no hope though when mom didn’t want to talk there was no way of getting her to.

I left the apartment and walked home. How can a person’s life just change overnight? My life wasn't so normal anymore and I was excited at the prospect of being special and having a quest. No I wasn't Sherlock Holmes but I was capable of settling this confusion. I just needed to find tap shoe man.

Let me know what you guys think! I know, there's a lot of dialogue, sorry.