Shamrock Open-This one time...In Ireland... (825 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.52 on 28 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by HighVoltage900 (View user info) at 2006-03-01 08:39:57 EST
(1978)
She was a pretty girl. In her mid-20's she was at the peak of her physical attractiveness. Granted she wasn't as mature as an older woman, but she was beginning to learn about the world and her role in it as a grown one.
"I just wanted to talk to you, Mr. O'Harren." She said before taking a sip of her tea. "I mean since I am marrying Jason, I should get to know more about you as his father. And I guess I was hoping you could tell me more about him than I already know. He speaks really highly of you."
Mr. O'Harren sat back in his chair, his body far beyond its prime. As a 56 year old man, he was in his decline. A life of drinking and hard living had spent his years much faster than someone as soft as Lilly.
"Lilly please. You are going to be family soon. Call me Bryant, or dad if that makes you feel better. You're marrying into an Irish family, we aren't like other cultures that would reject you. If you share the O'Harren name, you are my blood and my child." Bryant said in his creaky voice. Lilly looked down at her lap and blushed.
"Well okay....Bryant. I came to talk to you because.... Well since Jason went back to Ireland for that trip I thought I could meet with you and learn something about him." Lilly said when she finally looked back up at Bryant. The old man had kind features. Weathered....but kind. He was a trustworthy man, or at least that was the feeling Lilly always had.
"Well alright...I can tell you something about Jason and me." Bryant said tracing his wrinkled finger around the edge of his own teacup. Lilly leaned forward, anxious to learn more about the man she loved so much.
"Do you know about the IRA?" Bryant asked with a slight smile. Lilly frowned.
This wasn't exactly how she imagined this starting.
"Well yeah...they are that terrorist group." She said hesitantly. Bryant's grin widened for a moment before disappearing all together.
"The IRA is organized into cells. Each cell member has a code name, and each cell contains three people. This is to contain damage control if the police gain knowledge of one of the members. Each member in a three-man cell only knows the other people in his cell, how to contact them and where to find them. He knows no one else. At the top are the cells that manage and direct all the active cells, the cells that do the physical work. But just like the active cells, they only know the people in their cell, and codenames are used for people in lower or upper cells." Bryant explained, his mouth becoming dry so he lifted the teacup to his mouth and splashed some of the English breakfast tea between his lips, wetting his tongue.
"At most, if the police find one of the members, they can arrest only the three people in that cell. The rest of the organization is fine and healthy, albeit now lacking three members." Bryant explained setting his cup back down on the small table between the pair. Lilly's facial expression was a questioning one.
"So.... I don't understand what you are getting at." She said slowly.
"Well you see, originally I was a member. I used to recruit volunteers and help divert funds and supplies around to different cells. I was in a behind-the-lines cell. It wasn't long before Jason began to ask about the organization and their purpose. I explained to him the cause and the various ways it worked. At 18 he seemed pretty interested, everyday he would come home from working at the mill and ask about what the IRA had done that day or that week." Bryant explained stretching out his arthritic knees under the table. He yawned and patted his mouth before speaking.
"It was around this time that IRA activity increased dramatically. I was never part of the bomber cells, but I knew of their movements. One week a church was damaged by a pipe bomb thrown into a window. Killed six people and injured...twelve I think. Horrible...truly horrible." Bryant said, his eyes softening as he withdrew into memory to catch the feelings that came with the time.
Lilly watched silently as he stared off into the distance at things only he could see. Then she could wait no longer without speaking.
"Then why did you give them supplies? Why did you help?" She asked in a voice that rang with a subtle horror. Horror that stemmed from innocence that many Americans shared. It took a moment for Bryant to realize she had spoken, as he was lost in thought.
"What my dear? Help? Oh well... I believed in the cause. But I didn't want to perform the killing part myself if I didn't have to. You eat meat right? I mean I would kill a cow for a steak, but I would prefer to get someone else to do it." Bryant explained. He began to search his pocket for a cigarette and pulled it out, with his Zippo held between his pinky and ring finger.
Bryant put the cigarette in his mouth and lit it. Taking a long breath through it, he felt that reassuring calm come over his nerves.
"Any who, where was I? Oh yes. The church bomb. Well Jason seemed different after that. It wasn't anything I connected with the bombing, but he was just edgy. Eventually one day he came to me and asked if we could talk. Now I probably wasn't there for the boy as much as he needed me when he grew up, but I could tell something was bothering him and we had a heart to heart." The cigarette in Bryant's hand smoldered and smoked as he took another drag.
"He told me about how he had joined the IRA. How he had become a member and that he had performed his first mission. The church bomb." Bryant took the cigarette out of his mouth and looked at it in his fingers. Lilly was behind it, out of focus since his eyes were more drawn to the burning end of the white paper. "He wanted me to be proud of him I think. He wanted me to tell him it was alright, but I couldn't. I just couldn't bring myself to say it. I had never wanted my son to get mixed up in the whole ordeal, especially not on the front lines like he was."
Lilly's breath was caught in her throat. How could it be? Her beloved Jason....
"We argued. I hit him, he hit me back. I told him to leave the IRA. He told me to fuck myself, that I was a hypocrite. We had an argument that made his mom leave crying and in the end he left too. I didn't hear from him for about a year. I couldn't find him through the ranks of the organization because...well like I explained. No one knew who anyone was. I could ask for him by name as much as I wanted but unless I was talking to someone in his direct cell...I never would find him." Bryant continued, seemingly unaware of the thoughts running through Lilly's mind.
"Even his mother's death didn't bring him around, though I did notice he left flowers at her gravesite during the night sometimes. It was a while before he contacted me, but where he did he told me he was moving to America, and that he would like for me to come with him. I needed a change scenery and agreed. I just needed to move somewhere. Anywhere..."
Bryant sat there silently for a bit, and Lilly realized that he wasn't going to continue talking unless prompted.
"So...Jason moved to America...And he quit right? He stopped ....doing that, right?" She asked, her voice pleading, begging the father of the one she loved to tell her that her fiancé was a sweet and gentle man.
Not a murderer.
Bryant crinkled his eyes at Lilly and scowled. Then he leaned forward and whispered to her intimately.
"Just because he moved out of Ireland doesn't mean he stopped. With telephone and express mail you can be connected to anyone who is anywhere." Bryant noticed his cigarette had burned to the end and he put it out in the ashtray before him.
Lilly watched the snuffing action with alarmed interest.
It is so easy to snuff out the flame...when you mean to.
"Lilly....Does he tell you...WHAT he does on his trips to Ireland?" Bryant asked. Lilly's eyes widened in horror and she looked up into the old man's face with tears trembling in the corners of her eyes, ready to fall.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Jason returned home she said nothing. She waited till he was unpacking his bag to approach him in the bedroom. She told him about the conversation with his father. She told him about everything she had heard. She told him...that she had watched the news reports of the hospital bombing a few nights ago.
She asked him what exactly it was that he did...On those trips to Ireland.
Jason grinned. It was not the playful flash of white teeth she was used to from her soon-to-be husband.
It was the grin of a predator.
"You want to know what I have done? You want to know what I have done on my trips?" He asked her through shut teeth. Lilly looked beyond him to the suitcase that was open and laying on the bed behind him.
The wiring and detonators looked out of place with his toiletries and clothes, but they shared the same bag.
"I will tell you..." Jason said his voice no longer loving and calm, but cold and cruel.
"This one time....In Ireland...."
User Reviews
Submitted by trent_nz (user info) at 2006-03-07 20:45:19 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
fag
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2006-03-03 16:16:16 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
FREE DERRY
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2006-03-02 10:54:37 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
of course ima hit you up with the +2.
cause this was good.
and shit.
yea.
Submitted by Wildman (user info) at 2006-03-01 21:26:44 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
this was...ok
Submitted by inion_de_trua (user info) at 2006-03-01 15:54:22 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by HighVoltage900 (user info) at 2006-03-01 13:47:54 (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by inion_de_trua (user info) at 2006-03-01 13:45:25 (#)
Ranking: 2
i think the end was a little abrupt but the story was overall very good.
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But that's the point! The point is that I don't have the imagination or emotional strength to truely make an ending, so I leave it up to your imagination to invent the horrible things he tells Lilly about.
Tomorrow is definitely going to be a humorous HV post, I can feel it.
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ya know the people i know that left ireland because they were running from the law didn't return, they just shipped in material resources.
Submitted by Susie_Derkins (user info) at 2006-03-01 15:51:36 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
That he was...that he was.
Submitted by HighVoltage900 (user info) at 2006-03-01 15:46:07 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Susie_Derkins (user info) at 2006-03-01 15:32:35 (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by HighVoltage900 (user info) at 2006-03-01 15:05:34 (#)
Ranking: 0
I feel special! Susie loves me!
MF- That really doesn't surprise me. I mean what else is there to do in Ireland? Eat potatoes?
Or if you are Dan Quail...Potatoe
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Of course I do, you rock my socks! And isn't it Quayle? *wink*
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Oh well I can't spell his name...he can't spell potato. Whatever.
He was a douche anyway.
Submitted by Susie_Derkins (user info) at 2006-03-01 15:32:35 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by HighVoltage900 (user info) at 2006-03-01 15:05:34 (#)
Ranking: 0
I feel special! Susie loves me!
MF- That really doesn't surprise me. I mean what else is there to do in Ireland? Eat potatoes?
Or if you are Dan Quail...Potatoe
-----------------------------------------------
Of course I do, you rock my socks! And isn't it Quayle? *wink*
Submitted by wardy (user info) at 2006-03-01 15:31:35 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
dude, this wasn't about the "one time" that "you were" in ireland, as the title of the post implies.
go fuck yourself, moron.
Submitted by MistressFist (user info) at 2006-03-01 15:18:06 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
HV, I hear you can get really drunk in Ireland, and fuck nuns. They like it O-tron style. Whatever that means.
Submitted by HighVoltage900 (user info) at 2006-03-01 15:05:34 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
I feel special! Susie loves me!
MF- That really doesn't surprise me. I mean what else is there to do in Ireland? Eat potatoes?
Or if you are Dan Quail...Potatoe
Submitted by MistressFist (user info) at 2006-03-01 14:56:31 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This one time, in Ireland, I fucked a leprechaun and clubbed a baby seal with his shillelagh. I then passed out cupcakes with green frosting to all of the wee lads and lasses.
Submitted by Susie_Derkins (user info) at 2006-03-01 14:49:17 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I signed in just to rate this...don't you feel special?
Submitted by HighVoltage900 (user info) at 2006-03-01 13:47:54 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by inion_de_trua (user info) at 2006-03-01 13:45:25 (#)
Ranking: 2
i think the end was a little abrupt but the story was overall very good.
----
But that's the point! The point is that I don't have the imagination or emotional strength to truely make an ending, so I leave it up to your imagination to invent the horrible things he tells Lilly about.
Tomorrow is definitely going to be a humorous HV post, I can feel it.
Submitted by inion_de_trua (user info) at 2006-03-01 13:45:25 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
i think the end was a little abrupt but the story was overall very good.
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2006-03-01 13:41:30 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
It is a bit of a stretch but part of being a reader is willingness to suspend conventional belief to get wrapped up in the story. nicely done.
Submitted by ess-arr (user info) at 2006-03-01 13:37:58 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I read this twice without rating it, I have no idea why...
Submitted by HighVoltage900 (user info) at 2006-03-01 13:17:46 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by toucan_sam (user info) at 2006-03-01 12:15:40 (#)
Ranking: 0
umm... you lost me with "anywho" from bryant, at which point i couldn't understand for the life of me why he would be telling Lily this. as a seasoned member of the IRA, not only would he never divulge this information, much less tell his son's future fiance of a murder his son committed... basically, this was pretty not-believable..
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As Bryant said, she is now family. Family is blood and there is nothing stronger than that. She asked a question from one family member to another, and he answered it honestly.
Submitted by toucan_sam (user info) at 2006-03-01 12:15:40 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
umm... you lost me with "anywho" from bryant, at which point i couldn't understand for the life of me why he would be telling Lily this. as a seasoned member of the IRA, not only would he never divulge this information, much less tell his son's future fiance of a murder his son committed... basically, this was pretty not-believable..
Submitted by drivebyasshole (user info) at 2006-03-01 11:26:45 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Yep
Submitted by AshK (user info) at 2006-03-01 11:19:16 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Very great.
Submitted by Amorphous (user info) at 2006-03-01 09:50:43 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Derp derp
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2006-03-01 09:33:28 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Probably the most unique entry so far.
Submitted by Sacrilicious (user info) at 2006-03-01 09:31:54 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Just as great the second time.
Thanks for sharing with me.
Submitted by MANICMOTHER (user info) at 2006-03-01 09:19:36 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I like it. It's creepy in its own special way.
Submitted by MichelleNJ (user info) at 2006-03-01 09:00:37 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Very good! I enjoyed it a lot.
Submitted by MyNameIsTim (user info) at 2006-03-01 08:50:09 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
phenominal.
sweet story.
Submitted by Stagger_Lee (user info) at 2006-03-01 08:42:09 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Um....go IRA?
Wait, no, that's not right at all.