Jenny

I'm going to murder my best friend (right after I kiss her on the head). I know exactly what she's up to. I look around at our group and find Walker. He's looking at me nervously, breaking a twig into smaller pieces. I understand the apprehension he's feeling; I feel the same way. Are we really going to play truth or dare with all these people?

I've played this game before. The last time was at a sleepover at my house with the girls, when most of us were still wearing training bras. This is different, though. We have a much bigger, much less innocent audience tonight. And I'm a terrible liar. Worse, I can't turn down a dare. If I say I'll take one, I will.

I tentatively sit down and join in, not wanting to be the only one to bug out.

I take a seat next to Fionn and Cian. Walker's next to Cian, on his other side. At least I have them with me tonight. Siofra sits down next to Fionn and the game begins.

"Who wants to start?" Courtney asks.

"I will," Siofra replies. "Nick, truth or dare?"

Nick raises his eyebrows. I guess he didn't expect to go first.

"Ah, truth." He answers.

"I know," Courtney jumps in, "who was your first crush when you were in high school?"

Nick just stares at her and Siofra. Then he takes in the eager group.

"Emilia Passon" he bursts out. When the girls start to laugh, Brody nudges him in the gut with his elbow.

"Really, Emilia?" Brody laughs. "Why didn't you ever ask her out then?"

Nick plays with the hair on the back of his neck.

"I don't know. I guess I just didn't. Whatever, she moved to Daily anyway, so what's the difference? No big deal. We were just kids back then."

"Nick and Emilia sittin' in the tree..." Archer teases.

"Shut up, Archer. Idiot. What about you, big man? Truth or dare?" Nick asks.

"Hah! Dare man. As in, I dare Ruari to kiss Jenny."

I think I'm going to throw up. I shoot Siofra the look of death and before she can respond, Caoilainn jumps into the conversation.

"That's not how the game works, Archer," she explains, turning in my direction and then, curiously, over to Walker.

Ruari appears a little too eager for my taste. It's like he's chomping at the bit. I picture him slobbering all over me and want to puke.

"If you accept a dare, you have to complete the dare. You can't put it on someone else. Who wants to give Archer a dare, then?" Caoilainn asks.

Archer looks at Caoilainn in protest, "But didn't Siofra just-?" he starts to say.

"I will," Pearl responds, cutting Archer off before he can finish his sentence.

Archer looks at her in surprise.

"What's the dare, Pearl?" he asks, squinting at her suspiciously.

"I dare you to..." Pearl looks around and I know she is trying to think of something good.

"Um..." she stammers. "I dare you to skinny dip in the pond for 10 seconds."

I close my eyes and hang my head. Oh, good grief. Archer's a complete ham who loves showing off his body. He'll be all over this dare. Not surprising anyone, he jumps up, drops his drawers and runs straight into the pond naked as the day he was born.

"AH! My eyes! I'll be scarred for life, you crazy bastard!" Brody shouts, joking.

"Put some clothes on you freak!" Pete laughs, throwing a stick in his direction.

"Whoa! It's cold in here, guys," Archer replies dancing in the water just deep enough to cover him from the waist down. "Now, which one of you punks is gonna bring me my swim trunks so I can get back out of the water?"

Shaking his head, Walker grabs them off the shore and walks to the water's edge, tossing them into Archer.

"Don't wanna embarrass yourself there, Archer," he says, chuckling all the while.

"Embarrass myself? Yo, you ladies should be honored with my nakedness. It's not every day you're blessed with such rugged manliness."

"Har-har, Archer. No such luck." Brody calls back. "Put some clothes on and spare us the blindness on your way back."

"Yeah, yeah" Archer says, trudging out of the water towards us. "Whew, cold in there" he chatters, rubbing his hands up his arms for warmth.

Walker

As Archer sits back down, Courtney turns to Caoilainn and say, "Ok, Caoi, you're up. Truth or dare?"

"Hmmm, I'm not one for dares, Court," she replies. "I'll take truth."

I glance over at Tadhg. He's twisting a rubber band in his hand quietly, looking at Caoilainn every now and then when he thinks no one is watching. I wonder to myself how long he'll be able to keep his and Caoilainn's growing relationship a secret.

I turn back to the conversation when I hear Courtney ask Caoilainn about her name.

"How'd you get your name and what do you think about it?"

I roll my eyes. With the Irish spelling, Caoilainn is constantly getting into trouble at school and at work. In our culture, the Irish language presents some trouble for native English speakers. Irish is a phonetic language but it has alot of quirks and irregularities to work out. For someone unfamiliar with them, it can be a difficult process.

"I-well. I like my name. I think it's a pretty name," Caoilainn starts, a little taken back by the question and the fact that everyone is now looking at her at once. Caoilainn often tries to avoid the spotlight so I know talking to us as a group is probably uncomfortable for her. From the long sigh Tadhg lets out, I know he sees her discomfort as well.

"Part of me wishes the spelling was a little easier on the eye," she continues putting her head down in thought, "because growing up with an Irish-spelled name has confused a lot of people, especially my teachers. None of them ever get it right. It's kind of a pain." Caoilainn shuffles her feet in the dust of dirt around her while she explains. "Just imagine the teacher trying to teach you how to spell it when they can't even remember how to pronounce it." Caoilainn looks up at Tadhg and smiles slightly.

"Then again," she whispers, "sometimes a good row over my name turns out alright for me in the end."

I look at Cian and am surprised to see him exchange a knowing look with the two of them. I make a mental note to ask them about the comment later on.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Courtney asks, clearly confused by Caoilainn's answer.

Caoilainn shakes her head and focuses her glance back to the group. She doesn't answer Courtney's question directly, but goes on to explain something else about her name instead. "Caoilainn is my grandmother's name. I loved my grandmother very much. Even though she's not with me any longer, a part of me will always carry her in my heart, you know? Having her name is a constant reminder of the relationship we shared. So, even though my name's spelling is a pain, it's also a gift I cherish."

"Oh," Courtney replies. "That's really cool, Caoi."

"So does that happen a lot in Irish families?" Pete asks, looking at Cian, Tadhg and I. "Do the guys in Irish families do that too? Is it like, you know, a thing or something?"

"A thing?" I interject, laughing at him. "Yeah, I guess you could say it's a thing. Not a formal thing, but a traditional thing. In Irish families, there's a naming tradition; first born sons are named after their father's father. Second born son are named after the mother's father. The daughters, though..." I start to explain.

"For daughters," Caoilainn interrupts, looking up at me gratefully for my help. "it's reversed. First born daughters are named after their mother's mother and second born daughters are named after their father's mother."

"Yeah, but Caoi," Nick jumps in. "Irish families are pretty big sometimes, or at least they used to be. So, what about everyone else after the first- and second-borns?"

"Well," Cian replies, jumping into the conversation. "There's a whole order to this thing, branching out to include being named after fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, etc. Anyway, you tend to see a lot of repeat names in our culture because of this."

Courtney still looks confused about something.

"What is it, Court?" I ask her.

"Don't take this the wrong way, Walker," she says, "But, your name doesn't sound as Irish as Caoi's or Cian's, or these guys," She responds, including Siofra, Tadhg, and Ruari into her example with the wave of a hand. "Am I wrong?"

I laugh, looking around. Not many people ask me about my name. It's pretty straight forward.

"As it turns out," I respond. "My name is actually a wee bit Scottish." I laugh, adding in some Scottish-sounding brogue as I speak.

"Really?" Pete asks. I catch Ruari rolling his eyes as he tips his head back to take a swig from his flask.

Asshat.

"Yeah, on my dad's side." I say, turning back to Pete. "Back in the day, like a 1000 years ago or something, maybe more, maybe less. I don't know. Some folk were fullers by profession."

"What the heck's a fuller, Walker?" Pearl interjects.

"Oh, it was a filthy, terrible job," I tell her, rolling the r's in the word terrible, coaxing a smile out of her in response.

"Full of piss, too," Ruari comments nastily before taking another drink.

I really hate this guy. I close my eyes and take a calming breath. Cian shoots me a look as if to say just ignore him. Tadhg is shaking his head.

"So, yeah, Ruari's correct. It was full of piss. You know in Scotland and Ireland how big a deal wool is, right?" he asks us rhetorically. At our nodding reply he continues.

"Well, back in the day, someone had to take it from the sheep and make it into clothing. The whole process took a lot of work, and some of that included 'walking' it, which was what fullers did with their feet, or often times, village women did with their hands while sitting together singing.

Wool isn't a pretty thing when it is first put together. It's not clean or wearable until you rough it up some and scrub it through stale urine.

"Wait, why stale?" Brody asks.

"Because stale urine is high in ammonia, which was needed for getting grease out of the wool and for making sure it didn't fray," I respond to Brody.

"So, anyway," I continue. "A walker was someone who would spend hours walking on wool, getting it ready for sale." I take a breath and sip my drink. "And now you know."

Pearl looks up at me a little speechless. "That's uh. That's-"

"Kind of disgusting, dude," Archer finishes for her, laughing as he runs his hand through his wet hair. "But, cool too, Walker."

"Thanks, man," I reply tipping my drink in his direction.

I glance up at Courtney and wink at her look of disbelief. "Well, I did say it was a filthy, terrible job, didn't I, Court?"

"Yes, you did, Walker," she responds laughing. "And you did not disappoint."

"He never does, do you Walker?" Ruari remarks.

"Hey, Ruari," I answer looking over at him to meet his eyes. "Later on, you and me, man," I tell him.

"What?" he asks, lowering his flask.

"You heard me. Later on," I reply. "We're gonna have ourselves a little chat."

"Oh, yeah? Are we now?" Ruari asks, sitting up straighter, challenging me with a look to the eyes. He's got guts, I'll give him that. Backing down is not his style any more than it is mine.

"Yeah, we are. When the women go home, we're gonna work things out, just the two of us."

I've had enough of Ruari's shit for one night, to say nothing of the many times previously he's put his mouth where it doesn't belong. Enough is enough.

"Be cool, Walker." Tadhg warns under his breath.

"Don't worry, Tadgh," Ruari says. "Ol' Walker here is good. Later, Walker, later. We'll talk."

"Yeah, looking forward to it, Ruar," I say, before throwing my empty drink across the fire into the make-shift trashcan we have set up.

"Well, that all said, will you guys give me a minute?" Courtney cuts in nervously. "Ironically, I need to take a bathroom break." She gets up to stand. Before she leaves, she turns to Caoilainn and says, "Wasn't expecting all that when I asked about your name, Caoi. Still, it's cool." She says looking at us both. "Thanks for sharing, you guys."

"No problem," Caoilainn and I say at the same time. We both laugh. Tadhg smiles again at Caoilainn. This time, however, I notice Ruari's glare at them. Shit. Tadhg needs to be a little more discrete if they're trying to keep their relationship a secret for now.

_______________________________________________

Photography Copyright 2018 A. E. F.

Resource for Information about Fullers: Timeline-World History Documentaries. (2018). The Worst Jobs in History: Middle Ages (Medieval Documentary). YouTube: https://youtu.be/9JaxlCjuzqE.  

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