Ceann-Uidhe (Destiny) Page 2
“We are sharing it,” said Anna as she reached for the plate, “just in case we don’t like it.”
The waitress grinned, “I’ll wait until you taste it,” she said in her heavy Scottish accent.
Anna gingerly took the fork and cut off a small piece of the dessert, she closed her eyes as she put it in her mouth, her eyes widened in surprise and delight, she turned towards the waitress and nodded her head, Robbie was making a move towards the plate but Anna grabbed it and brought it closer to herself, she pointed at the dessert with her fork, “another one please, I ain’t sharing this one.”
“Aye, that’s what usually happens,” said the waitress towards Robbie.
“How’s your mum and dad?” asked Anna after she had finished her dessert.
“Dad took early retirement and they sold up and moved to Cobourg, they both love it,” he looked at her, “what about yours, apart from not giving you my letters.”
“Dad’s still working for the bank, mum is still painting,” she laughed lightly, “they bought a place in the woods, its small cabin near a lake, mum spends, probably too much time up there, says the light is good for her work.”
“You should come by the book shop, show you my empire,” Robbie looked at her trying to gaze her reaction, “I’ll give you a good discount if you buy anything, please buy something, most people just browse.”
She smiled at him, “What’s the store called?”
“A Novel Idea,” he replied.
“Good name,” she replied.
“Before I opened it I told the family what I wanted to do, Gramps said, “what a novel idea,” as a sort of joke, anyway a few months later he died and he left me some money in his will which I used to open the store, so I took the name as a kind of homage to him.”
“I’m sure he would have been proud of you,” Anna replied, she turned and smiled as the waitress arrived with Robbie’s dessert, “you’ll love it,” she added, Anna was now an instant expert in the fine art of a deep fried Mars Bar.
“God that’s good,” announced Robbie when he tasted his dessert.
“So what else are you up to?”
Robbie looked at her, unsure whether or not she would laugh at his response. “I’m writing a book about my great grandfather.”
Anna’s eyes widened, “really, wow.”
Robbie grew more confident, “I found, basically a diary from when he left St Kilda up until he moved to Canada,” he smiled at her and took a drink of beer, “I’m also getting stories from the family and using what I remembered.”
“Tell me what you found,” asked Anna.
Robbie shook his head, “I’m still.”
Anna cut him off, “please, it will be good to think of,” she paused, trying to find the right words. “Happier times in my life.”
Robbie nodded and smiled at her, “well we knew him as Papa John, but he was born Seathan which is the Gaelic way of saying John. He was born on St Kilda and left the island when he was 24, seems the island was evacuated, it was too hard to live there.”
“Nobody lives there anymore?” asked Anna.
“Not to call home no,” replied Robbie, “there are a few people who spend the summer there, researchers I think. So anyway Papa John moved to a place called Larachbeg where he met a local girl and got married. That’s where my grandfather was born,” Robbie took a sip of his beer. “Seems his childhood friend Donnchadh,” he looked up as he could tell Anna was staring at him, he nodded his head, “that’s where my weird middle name comes from, it was in his honour, seems he died in an accident, I’m not sure what happened but a few months later Papa John, my great-grandmother Isabella and my grandfather all moved to Toronto, that was in 1937.”
“What do you think happened to his friend?” asked Anna.
“I’ve searched a bit on line, there is a story about 4 men dying in a boat accident but it didn’t mention any names, but it happened at that time and just off the coast near Larachbeg, so it’s possible that’s where he died.”
“So it’s possible that if the accident never happened, we wouldn’t be sitting here.”
“Why’s that?” asked Robbie.
Anna laughed. “Because Papa John would never have left Scotland.”
“I never thought of it that way,” replied Robbie.
“You need to find out what happened to him, you were named after him, and he must have been important to Papa John; I mean he moved to the other side of the Atlantic to get away from the memory.”
“Your right.”
“I’ll help you,” said Anna slightly excitedly, “that’s if you want me to.”
“Of course you can help,” Robbie looked up at the flag on the wall before turning towards Anna, “a book can take a while to research and to write,” Anna nodded, “I mean it can take a year even two.”
Anna grinned, “It will probably take that amount of time to get my head together anyway,” she picked up her beer and took a large drink. “How far did Papa John’s diary go back?”
“He wrote about his grandfather,” Robbie paused for a second, “which would be my great, great, great grandfather, anyway seems he married a widower and they brought up her children and also two that they had together, one of them was Papa John’s father.”
“Do you know his name?” asked Anna.
“Tosdach,” replied Robbie.
“What kind of name is that?”
“I think it was some sort of nickname, I found the word in a Gaelic dictionary and it means silent,” Robbie shrugged his shoulders, “maybe he didn’t say much.”
“What else did you find?”
“There are a lot of stories about the first few months after they left St Kilda,” he looked at her and smiled, “it would be better is you just read it for yourself, maybe you will take a different perspective of what he has written.”
Anna nodded her head, “get a woman’s input.” She looked at him, “are you sure about this?”
He laughed, “It’s only a book, and nobody will probably read it anyway.”
She gently bit her bottom lip, “I mean me,” she looked down for a few moments, “I mean back in your life, not that I,” she exhaled deeply, “to quote Texas, I don’t want a lover, I just need a friend,” she shook her head, “look, life has been pretty crappy these last few years, ok 10 years, maybe 15. I just need to get my life together. I just want to know if you can, deal with that?”
Robbie looked at her and smiled, “look I got divorced last year so, tell you what,” he grinned as he thought of what he was going to say to her. “Friends want you to get back on the horse, plenty of more fish in the sea and all that crap.” She nodded her head and grinned as she knew what he was going to say next. “So for the illusion for everyone to see.”
“You’re my boyfriend,” she said in a childlike voice.
“And you’re my girlfriend,” he replied.
“You want another beer?” she asked nodding towards is near empty glass.
He nodded and winked at her, “I like a girlfriend who tries and gets me drunk.”
“Dream on.”
Anna came back with the beers and looked at Robbie, “you should go to Scotland, see where your family came from, visit St Kilda.”
“Anna, if you’re having a bad night you can leave, you don’t need to send me half way round the world, I can take a hint,” he replied in a dead pan voice.
“I don’t mean tonight smartarse, I mean in a few months, it will help with the book.”
“Sounds good, I mean, I’ve always wanted to go there.”
“So what’s stopping you?” she replied.
“I will need to sell a lot of books in the shop for one thing.”
She looked at him and smiled, “I will lend you the money.”
Robbie looked at her and realised she was serious, “why?”
“You’re wondering why this crazy woman who
you haven’t seen in 25 years is offering to lend you money for a holiday.”
Robbie reluctantly nodded his head, “yeah.”
“Call it not wasting another day, live for the moment type thing,” she picked up her beer and took a very long drink, “call it being,” she grinned, “call it not looking over your shoulder and being afraid to saying something that would result in,” she exhaled deeply and looked around the relaxing atmosphere of the pub, “one day I will tell you,” she shook her head, “but not tonight,” she put her hands up, “if I’m scaring you or, if you want to leave, I will not stop you,” Anna thought for a few moments, “in fact as I run this conversation through my head I’m surprised you are still here, why are you still here?” She looked at him as if studying his face trying to gauge some sort of reaction.
Robbie smiled at her, “because you are Anna,” he shrugged his shoulders as he didn’t know what else to say.
“And I am not scaring the hell out of you right now?”
“Yeah but I’m sure you have a good reason and some day we will look back on tonight and laugh,” he looked about the pub; everyone looked happy, enjoying life.
“I bet Papa John is up there somewhere,” her eyes looked up to the heavens, “and laughing his ass off at us.”
“You know he always thought we would end up together,” he held up a hand, “not that I am saying.”
She nodded her head, “he told me the same, he said he was sad that he would not live long enough to go to our wedding.”
Robbie started to laugh.
“What’s so funny?” asked Anna.
“Us,” he shook his head, “we haven’t seen each other in 25 years and within a few hours we are