Awakenings - SF1 (34 page)

When he was finished Jamie sat transfixed for just a moment. She slowly said, "I can't tell you how beautiful that was Conor. Thank you for sharing it with me." She stood and touched his arm in a friendly gesture.

Come to Papa,
he thought to himself
. I'm not gonna let you have this one Ryan. She's staying on my side of the river.

After the short tour was complete they began to make their way down the stairs. Ryan was sitting on the 3rd step, leaning casually against the wall with her long legs effectively blocking their path. "Did our house just get a lot bigger or did you show Jamie the roof?" she asked sweetly.

"No, the house is the same. Jamie was just interested in my mandolin, and I played a bit for her," he replied casually.

"Um hmm," she replied suspiciously. "Well, I've been working on my atrocious manners while you were gone, and I realized that Jamie has not been properly introduced to the rest of the clan," she said as she removed Jamie's hand from Conor's arm and placed it on her own. "I plan to rectify my error immediately," she gave Conor a twitch of her long black hair and moved off with her friend firmly in tow.

"You two never stop do you?" Jamie asked her with a giggle.

"No, we don't,
" she admitted with a little embarrassed grin. "We've always been competitive. I guess you just stick with familiar patterns as you grow up. But it's funny," she reflected. "We all played together growing up but only Conor and I were ever really competitive with each other. It really doesn't make sense but that's the way it worked out."

As they moved through the house Jamie mused that when she was with Ryan and her brother they treated her like some prize they were fighting over.
Ryan seems much more aggressive when Conor's around. And it feels a lot more like she's flirting with me
, she thought.
No, that's not it
, she corrected herself.
She's not flirting...she acts like she's already won! She actually acts like I'm her little prize. Hmm, that would piss me off if Jack did that. I wonder why it doesn't bother me in the least when Ryan does it?
she mused.

They maneuvered through the small house and eventually broke through the crowd in the kitchen to reach the tiny porch that overlooked the small back yard. There were about a dozen men in the yard, all gathered around two big Weber kettles. Ryan began to point them out. "I thought I would give you an overview before I boggle your mind with introductions," she explained. "This is the male side of Da's family," she said as she indicated the men gathered on the lawn. "That's my Uncle Patrick," she indicated a man slightly smaller than Martin, but just as handsome. "That's my Uncle Francis," here she pointed to an equally handsome but slightly older looking man who was very muscular and brawny looking. "And that's my Uncle Malachy," she indicated the youngest and best looking one of the bunch. He looked just like a slightly older Conor although he was not quite as tall as the younger man.

"Wow!" was all that Jamie could say.

"Now for the next generation." She ticked off her cousins one by one. "Uncle Patrick has Niall, Kieran, Colm and Donal," she indicated each of the dark haired men in turn. "Declan, Dermot, Liam and Padraig belong to Malachy," she said as she pointed them out. "And Frank, Sean, Seamus and Brian are Uncle Francis' boys."

"Is anyone in your family less than gorgeous?" Jamie finally uttered as she shook her head in amazement.

"Ummm, what do you mean?" Ryan responded with a little blush.

"Do you mean to tell me that you don't know how beautiful everyone is your family is?" she asked in bewilderment.

"Ummm, well, ummm, no, not really," she finally replied. "I guess I never thought about it," she said as she fidgeted a bit in obvious discomfort.

"You never thought about the fact that your uncles and cousins and brothers all look like Calvin Klein underwear models?" she had to laugh at Ryan's perplexed expression.

"Well, no, I never did," she finally said. "Looks are not a big deal in my family. I mean, I know that we're not exactly ugly," she said with a grin, "but we were never encouraged to feel good about ourselves because of how we looked." She looked thoughtful for a moment before she continued, "Da always told us to never feel proud or ashamed of your gifts or liabilities. He said that what you did with those gifts and how you overcame your liabilities was all that mattered. Everything else was just genetics," here she shrugged her broad shoulders slightly and looked to Jamie for comprehension. "He also told me to be very suspicious of someone who spent a lot of time complimenting my looks. He said if someone was very focused on the outside of me they wouldn't have any time to look at the inside."

"That is a wonderful view of the world. It's very different from how I was raised, but I like it a lot better," she grinned in appreciation at Ryan.

"Were looks a bit deal in your family?" Ryan asked with concern.

"Not just looks, although that was important, but appearances were the big thing for us," she replied. "You know, wearing the right clothes, being seen with the right people, driving the right car. That sort of thing." She grew thoughtful for a long moment. "I'm going to try to adopt your philosophy for my children," she told Ryan sincerely.

"You can thank Da for that bit of philosophy," she replied. "Speaking of Da, I know he wants to see you," she said as she guided Jamie down the stairs to the gaggle of O'Flaherty men.

Ryan's immediate family had joined the outdoor crowd and Jamie was warmly welcomed by each man. She was properly introduced to each of the uncles and cousins next. She received a friendly greeting from each and a few polite questions about her background and after a bit they left the men to continue tending to the barbecues.

The return trip was more difficult than the outbound had been. Rather than try to negotiate the interior staircase Ryan led her out the front door, down the stairs and past the two car garage to a door on the ground floor. "This way is easier today," she announced as she produced her key chain and unlocked the frosted glass paneled door. Jamie's head was spinning when they entered Ryan's room after a short trip down a narrow hallway that took them past the length of the garage. "I don't think I can remember one person's name," she moaned. "There were so many of them. And they look so much alike!"

"Well, there are two sets of twins," Ryan said matter of factly.

"Two!?"

"Yeah. Sean and Seamus and Declan and Dermot are twins."

"At least I'm not totally losing my mind," she laughed.

"Do you really want to remember them all?" Ryan asked with a puzzled look.

"Yeah, of course I do. Will you go over them again and quiz me?"

They knelt at the head of Ryan's bed and looked out the big windows at all of the assembled men. After 4 or 5 tries Jamie had them all pretty well sorted out. "Okay, Ryan. I want you to lean over and quiz me all day. That's the only way I'll learn. But it might help if you wrote them down for me too. I remember things better when I see them."

"I'm not sure that will help you," she advised. "Take Padraig for example. How would you spell that?"

"I guess it would be Poric?"

"Nope. P-a-d-r-a-i-g." She smiled as Jamie tried to get her mind around the odd spelling.

"Are they all that bad?"
"No. I'd say Kieran, Padraig, Niall and Siobhan are the worst of the bunch."

"I don't believe you've told me your mother's name," Jamie asked softly.

"Fionnuala," Ryan replied even more quietly.

Jamie placed her hand on Ryan's shoulder and forced eye contact. "It's beautiful," she said sincerely.

Ryan was totally charmed and touched by how interested Jamie was in her family. After they completed a few more rounds of 'guess the cousins' she pronounced Jamie ready to meet the rest of the family. "You need to meet the O'Flaherty aunts and the Ryans. "But don't worry," she reassured her, "there are far fewer of them, and their names are more American," she teased.

"If there are fewer of them why is your house so crowded?" she asked in amazement.

"Oh there's people from our parish here, some of my aunts families are here and even a few neighbors. But I'm not even going to introduce you to any the ancillary people. It's hard enough just to get the key players memorized
…
especially given the difficult names."

"I must admit, I've never heard so many Irish names in one place." She paused a moment to reflect. "You've never told me about how your family came to America. I mean, were your parents born here?"

"Not hardly," Ryan replied with a laugh. "As a matter of fact, I wasn't born here."

"Are you serious?" Jamie was shocked. She assumed that most Irish people were 3rd or 4th generation Americans even though she had to admit that Martin's accent was far from American.

"Quite," Ryan replied. "But that was a bit of a fluke. My mother came to this country in about 1965 or so. She met my father and they married a couple of years later. The boys were all born here, but when she was 7 months pregnant with me her mother in Ireland became very ill. She felt like she had to go home even though it must have been hell on Da to be left with 3 little boys. And I suppose it was pretty bad for her, too, having to travel that far when she was huge with me. After she was there for a month I surprised everyone by arriving almost a month early."

"So are you an Irish citizen?" Jamie asked, not sure of citizenship requirements.

"Actually, I have dual citizenship. They boys could have it too, and Rory went through the process, but Conor and Brendan don't have much interest."

"So your father was born here?" Jamie asked.

"Correct, but with an explanation," she teased. "He and all of his brothers were born here. Their parents had immigrated during World War II. But after the war my grandfather could not keep a job because of all the returning vets, so they eventually went back home. I think they left here in 1950 or so."

"So is your father a citizen?" Jamie asked, still a little confused.

"Yes he is. But my mother was illegal. She was just here on a tourist visa which had long expired when she met Da. His brothers still tease him that she married him only for his citizenship status."

"I never thought of Irish people being illegal aliens," she mused.

"Last time I checked we were the 2
^nd
largest group of illegal aliens in this country," she admitted. "But we look like Americans and people are charmed by Irish accents so there is very little prejudice against us anymore."

"That's pretty neat that you are an Irish citizen, though. Could you move there if you wanted to?"

"Yeah, but I don't see that happening. I feel totally American," she said as she gave a little salute. "Even though I've spent a ton of time in Ireland I'm always ready to come home."

"What happened with your grandmother? Did she die?" Jamie asked tentatively.

"Nope. She's still kicking--along with my grandfather. She'll be 80 next year and my grandfather will be 85. They're both pretty spry," she said affectionately.

"Do you have many other relatives there?" Jamie asked.

"Yeah, my father has tons of cousins and a few uncles and aunts still living around Tralee. And my mother's younger sister Moira still lives in the town they grew up in. Aunt Moira and her husband James have 4 kids, Aisling, Cait, Brenna and Cormac."

"More Irish names and I bet I couldn't spell one of them," Jamie teased.

"Yes, you could use a good course in Gaelic just to hang out with my family," she admitted. "But speaking of family let's go meet the rest of them."

It took nearly 20 minutes for Ryan to introduce Jamie to her Aunts Eileen, Deirdre and Peggy. Each woman attentively asked Jamie about herself and her family but something caught Ryan's eye and she pulled her away from the small group of women. "You must meet my favorite relative," she said as she wiggled an eyebrow and led Jamie through the growing mass of people and finally found the prize that Ryan had been searching for. "There she is!" Ryan said with delight as her eyes locked onto the object of her affection, a pair of equally delighted green eyes.

Ryan held out her strong arms and a tiny face beamed up at her. The cutest baby that Jamie had ever seen clearly knew who she wanted to be with. She continued to squeal until Ryan had grasped her firmly in her arms. Both beautiful faces wore broad smiles that made Jamie's heart melt.

"Is this the most perfect child you have ever seen?" Ryan asked in a tone that brooked no dissent.

Jamie studied the little person. She was very small, maybe a month old, fair skinned with a shock of blond hair. Beautiful light green eyes were framed with long blonde eyelashes that batted at Ryan a bit shyly as she nestled her little head in the crook of her broad shoulder. "I would have to agree with you on that one, Ryan. What is this little beauty's name?" she asked as she tickled a perfect little foot.

"This is Caitlin," Ryan pronounced as she gave the precious bundle a kiss on the cheek. "She's my cousin Tommy's baby." She looked around the room for the proud parents. "That's Tommy, there, and his wife Annie is right there," she pointed in one direction, then the other as Jamie confirmed the sightings. "But when they're here, they never get to see Caitlin. We're always fighting over who gets to hold her. Ryan wins, huh Caitlin?" she whispered conspiratorially into the tiny ear.