A Trip to Remember | Teen Ink

A Trip to Remember

February 10, 2016
By jbazinski BRONZE, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
jbazinski BRONZE, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

This was it, finally Chelsea was going to see the real life Cliffs of Moher, in Ireland. Being the Harry Potter fanatic Chelsea was, she knew the Cliffs of Moher were where The Half Blood Prince was filmed. This was the one place she begged her parents to take to her for years. Her parents and she traveled rural Ireland all week, and finally their promise to her was coming true. Her parents pulled up to the cliffs in their rental car driving on the wrong side, as Americans do in the United Kingdom. It was raining and the raindrops felt like daggers on their skin, the wind chill made it feel below zero. Chelsea didn’t care and anxiously hopped out of the car. Her parents fumbled around to find the umbrellas, only to have them be completely destroyed once the wind got ahold of them. “One picture, then we are getting out of here!” yelled Chelsea’s mom. Chelsea’s amazement with the beauty made her forget about the dreadful weather. Her parents snapped the picture and were off. They piled back into the small rental and just as her father turned the key, there was a stranger knocking on the passenger side window. Chelsea’s mom let out a small yelp, Chelsea’s dad cracked down the window to the stranger.
“Can I help you?” he yelled out the crack.
“Yea, any way I can catch a ride with ye back into town?” the Irish stranger asked politely.
“Sorry, we’re going all the way back to limerick” Chelsea’s dad began to roll up the window.
“That’s perfect” the stranger interjects, “anywhere is fine with me”.
The family look at each other with confusion and concern. Limerick is about a two hour ride in the countryside, back to their hotel. The family thought about it for a while and finally agreed to give this good Irish citizen a ride. The stranger put his soaked backpack in the trunk and graciously thanked them, smiling ear to ear, he hopped in the back with Chelsea.
“What’s your name?” Chelsea asked him.
“Eoghan” he responded.
“So where are you from?” Chelsea’s dad asked to make small talk.
“Ehh, around” the stranger responds.
“Why were you out here in the freezing rain? How did you get here?” Chelsea’s concerning mother asked the stranger.
“A couple of lads were nice enough to give me a lift out here, I was walkin’ in the rain, and they offered to take me here”.
Chelsea’s family thought Eoghan was nice enough, but still felt a little timid towards him. The family still had many unanswered questions. Why would he be at the cliffs alone?  Chelsea sat as far away from him as possible, she scanned every movement he made.
“It sure is hairy out there” the misplaced stranger commented.
“Sure is, hey you never told us, why were you out by the cliffs alone this morning? Chelsea’s dad blurted out.
“Actually it’s a pretty interesting story” he begins, “I was admitted to the Grangegorman in Dublin a few years back, and had quit a troubled past. The medication they force fed me just made me worse. A few friends and I realized what they were doing, and broke out. I was actually going to the Cliffs to jump. You see I have no more family and really no reason to continue. But fortunately after seeing your happy family I realized there was hope, that someday I might be as happy as you all are”.
The car went quiet, Chelsea’s dad continued down the highway almost reaching Limerick's exit. Until Chelsea watched Eoghan climb from the back seat, and grabbed the steering wheel. The car flipped, crashing and killing Chelsea’s parents. The hitchhiker was very injured, but Chelsea was able to pull herself out from under the rubble. Police rushed to the scene, when they arrived Chelsea was in shock, and could barely speak. The police pulled her aside to figure out what happened, she told them how her family picked up the hitchhiker, Eoghan, and how he was the one who took her father’s wheel resulting in the crash. However, when she looked over at the hitchhiker, he was gone.
“Where did he go? You have to go find him! Now!” She screamed.
“Miss, people who witnessed the scene, said you and your parents were the only ones in the car during the accident” the concerned police officer stated.
“No, No, his name is Eoghan! He’s the one who killed my parents!”
The policeman asked for Chelsea’s identification, she handed them her Irish passport. However, she told the police she was American, and that her parents rented the smashed car because of their vacation. The officer ran her name through the system and found her full name, Chelsea Eoghan O’Brien, born and raised in Limerick, Ireland. The policeman also saw that Chelsea is the one admitted into the Grangegorman Psych Asylum in Dublin. He called the asylum and asked about Chelsea, the person on the other line stated that Chelsea was on her day pass with her family. When patients act accordingly, and doctors see progress in them they are allowed on day passes with their families. Confused, the policeman told the Grangegorman worker they were bringing Chelsea back to the institute.
The policemen looked at each other trying to figure out the truth with this unstable young lady. The police officers put Chelsea in handcuffs, put her in the back of the squad car, and drove her back to the asylum, they figured her doctors would know what to do with her. She never stopped crying and screaming the entire ride there. The policeman opened her door, and walked her out, Chelsea was restricting when the policemen frustratingly tried to walk her through the doors. Seeing her struggles, a doctor walked quietly toward them, and calmly injected a tranquilizer into Chelsea. 
Chelsea woke up in an all-white room, in a strait jacket, panicked, she screamed for help.
Hearing her pleads, her doctor asked the nurse, “What’s wrong with this patient?”
“She was on day pass with her parents, traveling to Moher, and then to her house back in Limerick until she grabbed her father’s wheel, flipping them. The crash killed her parents.
“How do we know she is the one who flipped the car?” The doctor asked the nurse.
“Well she kept screaming about how it was this Irish hitchhiker named Eoghan who did it, even though there was no one else in their car. “Eoghan” is Chelsea’s middle name sir, and she continued to tell the police her family is from California, and they are on holiday visiting the West Coast of Ireland.
“She’s Irish as well, is she not?” the doctor asked curiously.
“She is Irish, and does indeed have an Irish accent, however flip flops to being an American, saying her name is Chelsea Scott from St. Jose, California”.
The doctor took a closer look at her file, seeing she has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, he grabbed her daily dose of medication.
Chelsea Eoghan O’Brien was the one who grabbed the steering wheel that morning, spinning her family’s car which resulted in the vehicle flipping into a ditch. Her parents did not survive, but Chelsea Marie Scott did. From that point on she has never responded to Chelsea O’Brien, only Chelsea Scott from California. Chelsea screamed at the doctor, how everything was a mistake and she should not be at the Grangegorman. He nodded politely and locked Chelsea’s door behind him.



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