Week 4 Creative Writing Task. Select a European Country and create a story describing in detail the location and how an outsider causes conflict. With it’s verdant landscapes, Southern Ireland was my choice of Country.
Just Say Yes
Aoife stood motionless on the rugged hills gazing out over the sprawling meadows of Killarney, the early morning breeze lifting her tarnished curls. Tall grasses, stubborn in their aridity were flattened from the far hedgerow to the canopy of woodland leaves where she now stood drinking in the shade. Wild flowers were a cacophony of colour on the fading green. Purple thistles, blue cornflowers and tall asters with their yellow centres. There was no coordination like the displays in the village, just a free-for-all choreographed by the wind.
The meadow lay peaceful in the thickening light of late morning. Flowing like a sea of green over the hillock, speckled with a riot of colour. There was a shallow lake at the edge of the pasture, here the grass was thick and lush growing in dense tussocks, where the trees provided sun-flecked shade, a cool and refreshing respite from the mid-summer sun causing the white umbrellas of cow parsley to toughen and brown. The rutted track toward the farm, once boggy, was mud hardened and cracked. How she adored the lush iridescent pasture. Aoife gazed back towards home and sighed.
Today was her wedding day. In little over an hour she would pledge her eternal love to Aidyn. Her saviour, soulmate, protector. So why, amidst the cluster of cornflowers, was she musing, thinking of Elias? If Aoife was honest with herself, not a day went by when he didn’t cross her mind, no matter how fleeting or how irrelevant, he was always there, only a thought away.
Aoife fell in love with Elias when she was eighteen years of age. He stumbled into Aoife’s life and turned it upside down. Aoife grew up on Killarney Farm with her father and five brothers, William, Patrick, Sean, Conor and Tomas. Aoife never knew her mother, who passed away during childbirth, and she was raised by her father William, who was firm but fair and her five doting big brothers. Aoife occasionally missed having a mother, but as she never knew her she often felt her feelings misplaced, unlike the grief her father and brothers openly displayed.
When Elias came into their lives, her brothers were fiercely protective, but Elias soon won them over with his American charm, his lilting accent and captivating antidotes. Elias served for the US Army and was based at Killarney for six months. Six wonderful, joyous months. Aoife loved Elias with every piece of her beating heart and when he left, six months later and she never heard from him again, each part was shattered into tiny shards along with every promise he had ever made to her. Aoife’s world became black, darker for his absence, loneliness crippling her every thought, until Aidyn. Aidyn put her back together again.
“Aoife” she spun around startled, aghast, the very man on her mind was here, calling her, making his way over the meadow. She froze, paralyzed with fear, with dread. She opened her mouth, but no sound emerged. What the hell was he doing here?
She managed “Elias” which was more of a whisper than a question.
“Oh Aoife, Aoife” he sang her name as he approached her “you look just as you did the last time I saw you”.
Aoife wanted to scream at him, make him understand, that on the outside she did look the same but on the inside, her core, she was damaged, she would never be the same. Instead she just stood there and murmured “Hello Elias”.
Without shame Elias took Aoife by her hands and threw her into his arms, she remained stiff, unresponsive, fighting every natural urge to melt into his embrace. He inhaled her scent, her headdress adorned with anemones and roses and for the briefest moment Aoife was sent hurtling into the past.
“Aoife my love, I have come back for you, for us. Please forgive me my darling but not a day has passed when I have not thought of you. The military dictated my future without you, but not anymore, I am here and I am free from them and I promise you Aoife I will spend a lifetime making it up to you. It’s not too late Aoife, it’s not too late for us.” He paused, drinking her in, reaching for the ring “Aoife I love you, I have always loved you. Marry me?”.
There it was, everything Aoife had ever wanted to hear. Three years too late.
Aidyn stood nervously at the altar. His mother teetering on her ridiculously high heels, fussing, picking, irritating. The choir shuffled impatiently in the pews and Aidyn closed himself off to his mother’s bestirring and absorbed the beautiful building. The ancient stone walls which were once smooth were now pitted and scarred. The midday sun seeped through the stained glass mullioned windows casting a checkerboard of vivid kaleidoscope sunlight onto the dark walnut floor. Where was she?
The handful of guests shifted, coughed and sniffed. He blanched under their scrutiny and whispers. The vicar tapped his prayer book aimlessly. He knew what they were all thinking, she wasn’t coming. Aidyn felt the thump of his heart reverberating. Beads of sweat formed and tickled his brow, his mop of tawny hair absorbing the moisture. Suit trousers slightly too short, jacket slightly too big, weighing heavy on his tall but slim frame. Aidyn wanted to walk out but his feet were anchored to the parquet flooring beneath. His mother, tired of being ignored, had taken her seat next to his father who had the biggest smile on his face. Still proud, still elated, forever the optimist.
Out of the corner of his eye Aidyn saw the vicar make a move towards him and just as Aidyn was about to beseech “five more minutes” the heavy church doors were thrown open and there she was. In the warm summer light, which surged through the open doors, her hair glowed chestnut, tumbling in curls to her simple white dress, the halo of the flowered-headdress making her appear angelic. Floating down the aisle on the arm of her father, clutching a bouquet of lemon roses, her eyes never left his. Aidyn just stood there mesmerized, she was a stunning vision to behold, his future, his life, his Aoife.
Later in the secluded grounds of the church Aoife took Aidyn’s hand and lead him to the rickety bench beneath the luscious leaved branches of the oak tree.
“Aidyn, why did you contact Elias and tell him about our wedding?” she probed.
He bowed his head. “I had to know Aoife, I am so sorry but I had to know.”
Lifting his chin, she whispered “had to know what?”
Aidyn stood and lifted Aoife to him. “Aoife I know what he meant to you, I know he was never far from your mind. I could not go through with today, I wouldn’t want you to be with me, if Elias is still the man you love”.
“Oh Aidyn, that was such a long time ago and yes, you’re right, a part of me did believe I still loved Elias, but seeing him here, today, well it just made me realise that those feelings aren’t buried Aidyn, they are gone, they simply do not exist anymore.
Aidyn blinked away the tears threatening to fall and smiled at Aoife, gathering her into him he kissed her sweet lips. “Shall we get back to our guests?” he asked.
She laughed and let him lead her back to the church, her fingers insentiently stroking Elias’s ring tucked away in her bridal pocket.
Hayley Mars
