My Ireland!

Ahhh, Ireland! My Ireland!

As the plane circled over Dublin airport for the 3rd time giving Aaron Feldman a close-up view of the lush green carpet of earth he called his "beloved Ireland" he sighed, muttering under his breath, "American by birth, but Irish by the Grace of God".

That's exactly what he would write to Des when he arrived home from this bloody trip.

Anxious to hear from her, he hurriedly dropped his bags in the elegant entry of his country estate, ran to the library and sat down at his computer.

Logging onto Yahoo!, he double-clicked on the Inbox. What he saw made him smile. Although he had only been gone a week on one of his numerous top-secret missions into Israel this time, with all the added problems he had encountered, it seemed like an eternity.

Too close for comfort, much to close for Aaron's liking, but he had accomplished his objective and had taken out a really bad man.

Hopefully, he was back before his six-year old daughter, Lilly, could barely miss him. A week was a short time to plan and carry out his assigned mission, but too long for a single parent to be gone. Good thing he had his personal assistant, Rose, take over the parenting duties while he was gone. Rose was old enough to be Lilly's grandmother, but she was young at heart and Lilly adored her.

He missed Lilly like crazy, but he had really missed Des, too! Looking at his inbox, she didn't disappoint. There were four ecards and at least that many emails, three of which contained several of her beautiful, original poems.

As he opened the last "missing you" ecard he smiled even broader as the tune of "Somewhere Out There" played softly. Our song, mine and Des. It may seem silly to other people because it was from a children's movie, but one Lilly had watched over and over. At some point, after he had listened to the soundtrack at least a thousand times, he realized it fit he and Des perfectly .

"Somewhere out there if love can see us through, then we'll be together, somewhere out there, out where dreams come true". If only it were that simple, he thought.

And one day, even though they lived thousands of miles apart, he vowed he would meet the woman of his dreams who had captured his heart via email over a year ago.

Just seeing her email ID always caused his heart to do a flip flop.

Amazing what words written on a computer screen had come to mean to him.

Opening her letter, seeing the warm, sincere salutation (although both knew salutations in emails were not necessary), told him at once how her heart really felt as she began, "My Dearest, Darling Aar." Again he sighed with satisfaction and longing as he did so many other times he opened her mail.

The letter said she had missed him, missed his daily correspondence and to remedy her loneliness he wrote in response:

Dear Des:

Thank you, Des, for all the mail awaiting me. It's always good to be home, but even better to have all your mail welcoming me back. I've missed you, too.

It was a long trip this time and I am exhausted. Things are so bad in Israel, anything and everything that could go wrong did.

Then to top it all off, my Glock was stolen out of my car while it was parked at the airport and I spent half of the bloody day at the Police station. The powers that be in Ireland aren't going to like it one bit.

As yet, I don't have a bloody clue as to what my punishment will be, but I'm sure there will be some meted out, on that I can depend. Hopefully, whoever took it won't use it to commit a crime, but what are the odds of that? I shutter to think.

Guess now I'll trade the BMW in for something much simpler, and less attractive. Over here, once a car has been burgled, it's marked, and they will burgle it time and again. So it's best I get rid of it. Thinking of a two-door Toyota, just large enough for Lilly and me.

Thanks again for all the cards, poems, and emails. They made my day. Guess I'd better trot off to bed, I am so exhausted I may sleep for a week.

Will write more later when I am fully rested and awake,

Always,

Aar

Yes, Des made him laugh from the inside out, and that was a good thing. So few things did anymore, as his life became more and more bogged down with both personal and international cares.

Written by Deborah Gibson Taylor

Copyright 2011

Reflection

Did you ever wish you could simply start over again? At anything. Life, for instance. Maybe that's why some people choose to believe in reincarnation because they want a chance to do it all over again, but this time do it right? I can understand why they want to believe it. Ever heard the saying "hindsight is 20/20?" Whoever said it wasn't kidding, in fact, they were right on. As you get older, it's such an amazing discovery looking back at your own personal winding "roadmap" that is/was something called your life. So many wrong turns in the bend, so many wrong choices. Sad, really. Some lessons are hard to learn, no? But, then again there were several MAJOR right ones, too. For example, my divorce, although nearly twenty years overdue, not for one minute have I regretted it. Then there's NOT accepting a transfer to New Orleans in 2000. I must admit I'm glad I wasn't in Hurricane Katrina, right in the midst of all that chaos and devastation. But now all the wrong choices are categorized as "regrets" in my mind and they are bitter pills to swallow. Perhaps the greatest one of all is how I've used my time. In the past I've been so willing to give my time to others, others who either haven't appreciated it or couldn't have cared less. So, now it's time I concentrate on what is most important to me and that is my writing. It's time to brush off the dust that has been collecting on my novel and finally get it finished. It's time to set up the scenes for my second one, and do the research for the trilogy of books I plan thereafter. Hmmm, all of it neatly stored away in my brain, patiently waiting for the time to birth it. From the pangs of remorse I've been feeling lately, somehow I think it's way overdue.