‘Where’s the terminal?’
‘It’s there.’ He points to a pre-fab workman’s cabin.
‘That?’
‘Yeah.’
Michael’s jeep is wedged in amongst some other vehicles. I toss a one hundred dollar bill at the cabbie and bolt out of the car. There’s one squat desk at the far end of the cabin. A blue haired air hostess stands behind it, shoulders back and makeup way over the top. A talk radio station blares overheard.
Where is everyone?
I run over to the desk. ‘Do you have a flight leaving for London?’ I gasp.
‘This is a regional airport,’ she drawls. ‘We only have two flights. One to Dublin and one to Shannon.’
‘Which one connects to London?’ I pant. ‘It’s an emergency.’
She frowns at my dress. ‘Is it?’
‘Yes!’
She checks her computer. ‘Sorry, but the Dublin flight is closed. They’ll be taking off shortly.’
I crane a look past her out the window. The props were buzzing alright.
‘Tell them to stop!’
‘I can’t do that,’ she says. ‘You have to wait for the next one.’
But Michael was ON that one!
I charge past the desk to the tarmac.
‘You can’t go out there!’ the woman howls after me.
I run flat out, one hand hitching my skirt in a rough knot, the other waving hysterically. The pilot and copilot stare down at me, nudging one another, smirking.
‘WAIT!’ I scream, but I can hardly hear myself over the whine of the engines. I plant myself in the path of the plane. The ground controller marches up to me, brandishes his orange torches.
‘Move it, missus,’ he hollers.
I stay firmly put. ‘I’m not moving!’ Not this time.
The controller’s face flushes an angry purple, and he waves me off the tarmac with a sharp jabbing motion. The air hostess barks at me over the PA: ‘Off the runway!’
I’m not moving! They’ll have to drag me off the runway! They have to--
Someone grabs me up from behind, and I kick blindly and spin round, eyes wild.
‘Michael?!’
‘What are you doing?’ he smiles, holding me to him. ‘I thought you were in New York!’
‘I came back!’
‘I see that,’ he laughs.
I look up at him, hair whipping in my face. ‘They said you were leaving. Why aren’t you on the plane?!’ I cry out, blood rocketing straight to my head.
‘I changed my flight,’ Michael smiles and pulls me into his arms. ‘Shannon to New York.’
He was coming to find me?! My heart swells.
He lifts me into his arms, and we kiss until we haven’t any breath left.
The controller steams over to us. ‘Enough of that, now. Off the tarmac, or I call the Gards!’
Michael and I gape at him, only then realizing we’re still in the middle of the runway. We look at one another and burst out laughing. He grabs my hand and we scurry out of the plane’s path, dodging the air hostess at the terminal door. She yips away at us, but we can’t hear. Our arms are interlocked and our mouths are pressed one against the other as if our lives depended on this one kiss.
At last, Michael leans back and fixes his greener than green eyes on mine.
‘Should we walk?’ he asks and takes up my hand.
‘Nah,’ I say and lead him through the terminal to the jeep.
‘Now,’ he says. ‘I’m impressed.’
‘I think I’ve finally learned to live with the past, not in it.’
Michael grins and pushes me flush against the jeep, hands firm on my hips. ‘Soooo. How’s this going to work, exactly?’
‘We’ll worry about geography later,’ I smile and pull him into a deep reaching kiss.
When we arrive back to Kilronan, the festival is in full swing. Tom, Niamh, and Finton plug away onstage, the crowd swaying in song along with them.
‘Garlic chips and a burger?’ Michael asks.
‘Yes!’ My phone rings. ‘Better go ahead. I’ll be one sec,’ I smile at him.
Michael kisses me softly on the forehead and heads over to the chipper stand to join Dermot and Clare. As soon as she sees him, Clare throws her arms around his neck. I smile after them and press the answer key. This is a call I wouldn’t miss for the world.
‘OH. MY. GOD,’ Kate gushes.
‘You like it?’
‘Like it? Jules, this is unreal?!’ I can hear her clicking through the open planned office, squeaking a finger across a sleek new desk. She gasps and plops into a chair. ‘You got us letterhead. Steve, look at this! It’s official!’
‘Only thing missing is your signature, partner,’ I say.
‘Done and done,’ Kate says, pen scratching across the paper.
I smile, wading into the swirling Kilronan crowd. ‘You’re sure you don’t mind a partner that’s away more than she’s there?’ I ask.
‘Honey, that’s what they invented Skype for!’ Kate laughs.
‘I’ll be there for the opening. And I’m bringing guests,’ I say slyly, eyeing my friends.
‘Bring the whole island!’
I hang up, heart keening, and slip through the crush where Michael and Dermot, Clare and Bridie are toe tapping to the céilí band. I take in the rollicking crowd and the stoney hills reeling off in the distance.
Who would’ve guessed this is where I’d end up? A flash of the life I might have had rockets through my mind. I’m kitted out in a black shift, hair slicked back and severe. My eyes are sunken from the eighty hour weeks at M&A. I yawn my way through another monochrome exhibit while Brad chats up the groupies.
A shudder runs down my neck and settles in the pit of my stomach. My entire life, I’d tried to plan the perfect forever, perfect job, perfect man, perfect everything--but when I finally landed the glossy, magazine pull out, it looked exactly like what it was: flat and unfeeling. To think I’d imagined that was where I belonged!
I yank my phone out of my purse and pull up my iCalendar. My half checked Five Year Plan glares up at me and, with one emphatic stroke, I delete it. Cameron was right. I did have to go back, way back, to find my way home.
Dermot hands me a tall glass of stout. ‘Cheers!’ he says. We all raise our glasses high.
‘Wait, what are we toasting?’ Clare asks.
‘To old loves,’ Dermot says, pulling Clare to him.
‘And new!’ Bridie says, winking at me and Michael.
I lift my glass again, my eyes on Clare’s, on Michael’s. Everyone falls quiet.
‘To coming home,’ I say.
‘To coming home!’ They sing it out, so bold and deep felt, that the circle of voices around us picks it up and flings it again back into the air, and then the voices beside theirs, until the words are cresting and breaking above us like a warm summer sea.
Made With Love: I Love You Forever Page 28