Paradise Park

Declan stood up and began pacing the floor nervously.

“I might as well tell ye what happened, maybe ‘ye’ will

believe me.”

The captain lit his pipe, rested his elbows on his knees, and watched excitedly at the young man walking back and forth in his cabin.

“As sure as St. Patrick cleared the snakes from Ireland, what I’m about to tell ye is the complete truth. It all began last spring when me wife and I were walking down Tolley’s road on our way back from church. ‘Twas one of those spring mornings that filled one’s senses with an essence of sheer pleasure. It had rained all night and when the sun came up in the morning, ‘twas as if all the wild flowers in Clare had bloomed overnight: heather, daffodils, buttercups, and lilacs. Their fragrances combined together and created an intoxicating mixture that was carried across the fields by a soft wind. The sky was of the brightest blues with white clouds moving lazily across the horizon.

Whilst we were walking along the dirt road, we came upon a shallow bed of water that had drained from O’Sheehan’s fields and into our path. It covered the entire width of the road, and being that Fiona didn’t want to get her shoes wet, we decided to walk along the top of the stone fence which ran beside the road and separated it from a large field of grazing sheep.  I stepped onto the short fence which was about three feet tall, and then pulled Fiona up with me. As we walked along the top of the fence, carefully avoiding the stones which had become loose, we came upon a tree that had grown over it. The leaves of the tree were full and only a small amount of light pierced its thick foliage.

‘We’d better go around, Fiona. We’ll walk along the field side and get back onto the fence on the other side of the tree.’

‘I’m not walking in that field! I don’t want to step in sheep marbles.’

After breaking off some of the smaller branches from the tree, she pulled her white dress tightly around her thin body and tried to push her way through the leaves. I could see that her effort was hopeless, so I jumped down and waited in the field for her to join me. Whilst waiting, I watched the newly-born lambs frolic in the green grass while the older sheep watched Fiona nervously.

‘Old Sean O’Sheehan might not like the idea of ye uprooting one of his fine trees.’

‘I’m only adjusting a few branches,’ me wife snapped.

‘Ye’re as stubborn as yer father,’ I said cautiously. ‘There isn’t any manure down here: nothing but beautiful flowers and lambs with rubbery legs. Come down before ye hurt yerself.’

‘Shhh!’

‘Would ye come down or else I’m going to leave without ye.’

‘Declan, come quickly. There’s something up in the tree!’“

‘ ‘Tis just a bird.’

‘It’s not a bird ... much too large to be a bird.’

When she stretched her long neck into the leaves, her face disappeared from me view. She screamed and then fell down, landing flat on her back amongst the flowers. I knelt down and lifted her head onto me lap. After I patted her cheeks a few times, she lazily opened her eyes. She looked around awkwardly while refocusing her vision. I brushed her strawberry hair away from her face and was much relieved when she smiled, flaunting her beautiful white teeth.

‘Are ye all right?’