Chapter Text
“Now, I understand it’s summer,” Mom started, “but Scotland gets very different weather compared to America.”
”So this is why we brought 15 different raincoats.” Guy sighed, pulling along his heavy suitcase.
”We’re keeping ourselves prepared!” Mom beamed. “It rains often in Scotland, but I’m hoping we don’t get too much bad weather.”
Guy had told the Ducks a couple of weeks ago that he was taking a two-week long vacation to Scotland’s capital city, Edinburgh. It was said to be a very beautiful city, with lots of historical sites to see and nice green areas.
”So, son…” Dad built up the excitement…
”Welcome to Edinburgh!”
For nothing.
The Germaines had just stepped out the door of the airport, and were startled by a huge gust of cold wind.
”Wow…” Guy muttered sarcastically. How did his parents love it here so much?
”Exactly! That’s the spirit!” Dad exclaimed.
Mom turned to him. “It’s gonna be a while until we get to our hotel.” she announced. “Can you see a taxi anywhere?”
”Over there!” Guy pointed. “There’s a yellow car parked over there.”
His parents exchanged a glance.
”Well, son, the taxis aren’t all… yellow here.” Dad laughed nervously. “They’re just like normal cars.”
And at that moment, Guy felt like an alien discovering planet Earth for the first time. Everything about Scotland was so different to where he’d grown up. Steering wheels of cars were on the right hand side, they drove on the left side of the road, their number plates were different, it all felt extremely odd.
”This is odd.” He thought out loud.
”You’ll get used to it during our vacation.” Mom reassured.
After what had felt like hours, they had finally found a taxi, travelled to their hotel and unpacked their suitcases. It was time to go out.
“Stay close to us, got that?” Dad warned and Guy nodded.
Once they got outside, it was nice and sunny all of a sudden.
”See? It won’t rain all the time!” Mom smiled, looking at the beauty around her.
Guy really thought about it, maybe Scotland wasn’t too bad of a place to stay.
”Yeah..” He agreed, looking at the city ahead.
Russ had told Guy an awful lot about Scotland before the vacation. It was often cold, they didn’t have dollars, and there was something strange about the people. As Guy walked with his parents down the street, he didn’t know what Russ had meant about that last one.
They checked out a few stores that they’d known from America. Abercrombie and Fitch, Tommy Hilfiger, Mom even found a Victoria’s Secret located in a different store to look for a perfume.
They were back outside, walking down the well-known Princes Street. Guy looked up to see a sign for a record shop labelled “HMV”. He knew Charlie would find it cool, as he listened to a lot of music in his spare time.
”Hey, excuse me lass…” An old, croaky voice suddenly spoke. An old man was passing Mom, and something looked really wrong with him, like he was sick or something.
”Have ya got yer purse oot, woman?” He begged.
Mom was confused. “I’m not sure what you mean, sir.” she spoke nervously. “For a medical bill or something?”
”I just want tae have a wee lookie at yer purse.” He ordered, groggily. “You’re a very bonnie lass.” He slowly peered closer at her face.
Mom was concerned. “I’m sorry. I’m not giving you my purse.” She made her point, and continued to walk.
Guy turned his head away from Mom and jumped in fright as the scary man was suddenly right in front of him.
”Ahh, do ya want tae grab a wee sweetie? I’ve git some sweeties at ma hoose.”
Dad knew what the old man was hinting at. He shot a hand over his son and glared at the man.
”Move on, and stay away from my son.” He ordered sternly.
Guy looked at the old man’s face from behind his Dad. He had hardly any hair left, lots of teeth missing when he smiled or spoke, and was very fragile and thin. His knees buckled when he stood there, and his hands were shaking, a cigarette in one. Guy stopped looking at him, he knew what made him like that.
”Aw, come on, it’s some real braw sweeties.” He teased.
”NO.” Dad almost yelled. “Come on son, we’re going this way.”
Guy suddenly felt his Dad grab his hand and pull him away from where the old man was stood. As he looked behind him, Mom was walking right next to him, but he could see the old man smile and laugh slightly at him as he took another smoke from the cigarette in his trembling hands. Guy was sure he was gonna see that man’s smile in his nightmares. He tried to shake away the terror.
”Those people,” Dad spoke seriously, “are the types of strangers we need to watch out for.”
“I know.” His voice shook.
”We just gotta ignore them.” Mom added, in a softer tone after seeing how frightened her son was.
”Here’s the plan of what we’re gonna do, while we’re in Scotland.” Dad began.
”We’re gonna mostly be sight-seeing. Along with a few visits to any shops or malls. Today is just walking around the place to see how it looks. Tomorrow, we’re gonna take a visit to the castle they have.” He leaned down to Guy’s level and whispered in his ear, smiling. “If you look to your right, you might just see it over there.” He pointed and Guy looked in the same direction.
And, just like Dad said, there was a big castle sitting on a hill, It looked beautiful with the sun behind it.
”It looks beautiful.” Guy mumbled under his breath.
To the family’s dismay, the weather had changed in the click of a finger. The rain came pouring down, in thick drops of water.
”Huh?!” Guy yelled. “The sun was just out!”
”Remember what I said about the weather changing!” Mom laughed. “We didn’t even bring a raincoat outside!”
Just then, two middle aged men walked past them, engaged in a conversation.
”Carson a dh’fheumas an sìde mholluicte seo a bhith ag atharrachadh gach diog an-còmhnaidh?! Chan fhaigh sinn fiù ‘s uair a thìde de ghrian!” One man shouted.
The other nodded back, also yelling. “ ‘S e Alba a th’ ann, a charaid; chan eil fhios agam dè bha dùil agad às dèidh na h-uimhir de bhliadhnaichean!”
Guy knew it was rude to stare, but he could never help it whenever someone spoke another language, he found it fascinating how people could understand eachother in that way when it sounded like complete gibberish to the English.
But whatever that language was, it was truly something else.
”Son, don’t stare.” His dad pulled him out of the train of thought.
”Dad? What were they talking about?” Guy asked suddenly.
”Oh, those men back there?” He looked back at the yelling men. Guy nodded.
”I wouldn’t know. It was Gaelic though.”
”Oh, yeah. Russ told me about that when he came here.”
Gaelic. The word itself sounded nice.
”Not a lot of people speak Gaelic anymore, though.” Mom said. “I used to come here a lot as a kid, more people spoke it back then. But not anymore, everybody just speaks English.”
A clap of thunder suddenly sounded through the city.
Dad swore and ushered everyone under shelter. “We’re gonna have to get back.”
Guy, as he walked back to the hotel, took in everything he’d seen on his first day. Lots of people, historic castles, lots of nature, the occasional scary man, weather changing every second…
Wow. This was gonna be a long, long holiday.