Across the Pond Ch. 01

"Fine! I'll cook them separate from now on. Let you eat a cold burrito." They ate in silence, only cutting their food, chewing and swallowing.

"I'm sorry, boy-o."

"I know, Ma."

"I've not raised you to be a mama's brat but this is the first time you've been away."

"I know, Ma."

"What'll I do?"

"Tommy said he'd check in on you."

"Tommy can't take care of himself."

"Say this is all right, Ma. Please. I love you with all my heart but I've got to go. I want to see what's out there. I feel like I'm meant to go."

"What's over there, that's not here?"

"That's what I'm after finding out."

"Ah that's bollocks."

"It isn't, Ma. I really do feel like there's something over there for me."

"I know." M said with resignation. "And I want you to go."

"You're ok with it now?"

"I am. It was my idea after all. I just didn't know it would hurt so bad. I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too. Give us a kiss, Ma." Cion's mother kissed his forehead.

"Fancy a game of Spoil 5 after?"

"I wouldn't mind."

After dinner and a couple of hands of the card game, M stood and threw her coat about her.

"Ma, you could stay. It's a little stormy out there yet."

"Just a bit of the wet. I'll be fine. Besides, I've slept on the couch. It's horrible."

"You can have the bed, Ma. I'll sleep on the couch."

"No, you've got your cousin coming in the morning and that baffoon will be banging the door down earlier than I think is sensible. Besides, you've got your big adventure to get ready for."

"I do, yeah. At least let me drive you home. You've got nothing but your vespa."

"I'll be fine, Cion." M threw her arms around her son and squeezed him tight. "I'm proud of you boy. I wish your father was around to be proud of you too."

"He'd probably hate me for a poofter." Cion said.

"Never say that!" Cion's mother grabbed his face and stared into his eyes. "Your father was a good man. Open minded, not like these knackers! He loved you when I told him of you, and he would have loved you when you told him who you were. Never think that he wouldn't have."

"All right, Ma."

"You go to America. Show them what being Irish really means." Cion chuckled.

"I will, Ma. I love you."

"I love you too. Call me when you land." And she left.

Cion started packing the last of his bags but fell asleep on his bed, clothes strewn about and the peat fire crackling.

Tommy opened his cousin's door at quarter to five in the morning. He crept through the house, whispering Cion's name and giggling that there was no way on God's green earth that he would hear him. Cion slept like the dead and always had. Tommy bent over and with his mouth very close to Cion's ear shouted as if to wake the dead.

"Jaysus! What the fuck are you on about?!" Tommy couldn't answer, he was laughing too hard.

"Seriously! What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Just waking you up." Tommy lied through his guffaws. "I've been here for minutes trying to bring you around but you just wouldn't come to."

"You could have tried a softer approach." Cion said more gruff than angry now for he knew his deep sleeping was troublesome.

"Right. I'll remember that for next time. Now we've got to get you to your flight. You're leaving in an hour."

Cion looked at the clock on his dresser and saw that time was indeed upon him.

"Oh fuck! I've got to take a shower!"

"Go take a shower. I'll bring your bags to the lorry."

Fifteen minutes later, Cion climbed into his cousin's truck and they headed to Knock airport. It didn't take them long to get there and when Cion climbed out of the truck and grabbed his bag he was surprised by a feeling of home sickness.

"I haven't even left yet and already I want to come home." He said to his cousin.

"In a few hours you'll be landing in America and won't give us another thought." Tommy said.

"Ah sure, you're right. What's there to think about really." Cion laughed.

"That's the spirit. Now get out of here and let me go back to my new pad. I've grand plans for the old place."

"You will buy new sheets. I'm not coming home and sleeping on something that you've been on."

"What do you think me, a tinker?"

"Well, you sure as heaven smell like one."

"Get going, you ass. You don't have time to be standing talking to me."

"Right. Take care of yourself and take care of Ma."

"We'll be fine."

Cion gave his cousin a slap on the back then left to head into the airport. It wasn't long before he was seated next to an old woman heading to visit her daughter in New Jersey. Thankfully the woman was stone deaf and after a few failed attempts at communication they gave up leaving them both to their own thoughts. Cion stared out the window as he watched the ocean below him slip by.

'I'm actually leaving.' he thought. 'Let's see what's next.'

The plane touched down at J.F.K. airport and unloaded it's passengers to their next destinations. He left the gate and saw a woman holding a sign with his name on it. She was about the same age as his mum so just the right age to be her friend. He was about to head over to her when she spotted him and jumped up and down.

"Cion! Over here!" She shouted and made way to a break in the crowd.

"Sharon, yeah?"

"It is and you're Cion. I'd know you anywhere. Come, let's collect your bags then we'll get you home. Good flight, was it?"

"Not bad, especially being my first."

"Ah, then you've not really been around yet?"

"No, this is the first time I've left Ireland. I've been all over the island but never off it. Oh wait, that's not true. I've been to the Isle of Man once but that wasn't by choice." Sharon laughed. Cion marveled at her accent. He could hear the Irish brogue but it sounded flattened and more like an American accent.

"It never is. So it's sort of a spread your wings and fly thing you're after."

"I imagine it is." Cion agreed, hoping he'd understood her meaning.

"Well, you feel free to do whatever it is that you need to do." Sharon said and led the way to the baggage carrousel. After grabbing his bags, Cion followed Sharon out to the parking lot and her car and was struck by how big the airport was.

"It's like a small city." He commented.

"Queens? Yeah."

"No, the airport." Sharon laughed.

"It's quite big. One of the biggest and busiest. Just like the city. Ah Cion, I have a feeling you're going to love New York."

"I've no doubt. It's good to be away from home for a bit. I have to tell you I was a bit homesick leaving."

"I cried the whole first year I was over. But now this is home and I only go over there for holiday."

"I'm very thankful you're doing this, Sharon. I was a little wary about dropping in on you and yours when Ma suggested it."

"Don't have a fear. You're more than welcome, truly. I was excited when Margret mentioned it." Sharon gave Cion a sideways glace. "You know, Cion she told me about you're being gay."

Cion closed his eyes and flushed a bit. 'Thanks for interfering, Ma' he thought.

"Don't worry a bit. We don't mind at all. My husbands sister is a big ol' dyke and we love her to death. Plus there's loads of lovely men over here for ya."

Cion grimaced imagining a stream of blind dates set up by his hosts. Sharon laughed.

"Now don't give yourself a migrane there, Champ. You're an adult and you can fend for yourself just like the rest of us. Course if you like I do know one or two male nurses that I could introduce you to."

"Thanks all the same, Sharon but I think I'll try that 'fend for myself thing' you mentioned. It sounded grand."

Sharon laughed not at all offended. "Well, you just let me know if you change your mind."

They drove on a bit talking of this and that, mostly the old country and the new as Sharon wove the small s.u.v. in an out of Queens mid day traffic. The neighborhoods changed so drastically that Cion felt as if he were going through different countries every few minutes. Finally they came to a residential area with fine old houses and Sharon cursed as she fought for parking.

"I do hate driving though. If it were up to me, we'd get rid of the cars and stick with the subways and buses. So much easier." She found a place and Cion stretched, sick of sitting for so long.

"You all right there?" Sharon asked.

"Just a bit of a crick in the back. It's good to be finally done with the traveling."

"I bet." She said and helped him unload his bags from the car. "We've only a bit of a walk since the fecking wanker that's dating my daughter blocked our drive again."

They walked the block and a half from where Sharon found a parking space to her house and as they came to the door, Sharon turned to Cion.

"We really do want you to feel welcome. I love your mother like she's my own sister, so that makes you family."

"Thanks Auntie Sharon. I'm pleased to be here."

Sharon smiled, opened the door and lead Cion into the din that was her house. Loud music blasted from downstairs, while someone was shouting upstairs and amidst all that two large retrievers started barking announcing the new arrivals.

"I'd like to say this is unusual but actually it's a bit quiet for a Wednesday."

"It's all right. I don't mind."

"How could you not?" She said. "Leave your bags here. We've given you the downstairs room and I'll help you unpack in a moment. First, let's meet everyone."

She led the way up the small flight of stairs and into the kitchen. A man stood in the kitchen talking on the phone until he noticed her and told whomever he was speaking to he'd have to call them back.

"Cion, this is my husband, Jake. Jake, this is M's boy Cion."

"Nice to meet you, Cion." Said the man, with a native New York accent. "It's nice to have you here."

"Thanks, I appreciate you letting me stay."

"No problem. Sharon says your mom and her were best friends back in Ireland."

"Thick as thieves if I heard right." Cion said.

"If she told you half of the things we did, then I'm in trouble." Sharon said as a young man walked into the kitchen. "Cion, this is Alec. He's just about to graduate from high school."

"Ah congratulations, Alec. Are you going into construction like your Da'?"

The boy scoffed and rolled his eyes. Jake tapped him on the back of the head.

"What did I say about being rude?"

"Sorry. No, I'm not going into construction." Though there was an apology it had only a hint of sincerity to it. Cion waited for a moment for the boy to elaborate then figured that was all he was going to get.

"Grand. Well, good luck and congrats all the same."

"Thanks." Alec said and went to pour himself a drink.

"Teenagers." Jake said apologetically.

"Where's Jess?" Sharon asked.

"In her room." Replied Alec. "With Michael."

"Excuse me, Cion."

"No bother. If I knew where I was staying I could unpack." Cion said.

"Sure, I'll show you." Jake led the way downstairs to a den with large glass doors leading to the back yard, and then to a nicely furnished spare room. "We made this up for my mother when we thought she was going to move in but she decided to move to Arizona. There's a bathroom on the other side of the den that will be for you."

"It's magic. Thank you." Cion said, truly impressed.

"It's great to have you here. I'll let you get settled."

Cion unpacked his bags into the empty dressers he had found and laid on the bed a bit jet lagged from the flight when there was a knock at the door.

"Come in." He called and Sharon opened the door and sat down on the bed.

"Is it all right?"

"Sharon, it's perfect. I would have been happy with a small room and a tin of biscuits."

"Well, we can lend ya a bit more than that. I'm really glad you're here, Cion." Sharon turned and looked at her guest from the corner of her eye. "Jaysus, you're the spitting image of him."

"Of who?"

"Your Da'. Didn't you know? That man could set fires just by staring at a woman."

"I didn't know. Ma doesn't have a lot of pictures of him."

"No, that'd be cause she's a bit of a broken heart. They fell for each other hard as nails, those two. Couldn't see anyone else. Twas a real bad break when he died. I went back for the funeral. That's when she told me about you. She had just found out she was pregnant. Things were still bad for an unwed mother then. Not like over here, where the eejits wear it like a badge of honor, or rather a paycheck. The whole town turned their backs on her. Even your grand da and mum. They were a bit priggish anyway. The only people who would be nice to her and didn't judge was the hippy commune down near Westport. You know, the ones that sing and chant and sell health food and what not."

"Oh yeah. Ma took me there nearly every weekend. So that's why she did the vegan thing?"

"Right. I think they helped her through your Da's death. She probably would have been an old, bitter thing if they hadn't."

"Thanks for telling me, Sharon."

"No bother, sweeting. Anyway, I'll let you get settled and we'll have dinner. I'm thinking for the rest of the week we'll show you about Queens and save Manhattan for the weekend?"

"Sounds good. When would Jake like me to start work?"

"When you want to. There's no hurry."

"I'm not going to live off of you, Sharon. You've been nice enough letting me stay here as it is. I'd like to pay."

"Well, you won't and you'll only insult us if you try." Sharon came and sat next to him. "Your Ma is my best friend, like my sister, I'm not lying. That makes you my nephew. Think of this as a whole bunch of Christmas and birthday presents combined. You'll stay for as long as you like and won't pay a cent. Jake agrees."

"That's very nice of you but-."

"No. You're on holiday. When you move here, then you can pay rent but not until then. Understand?"

"I do, ma'am." Sharon laughed.

"Good. We'll be eating in about twenty minutes."

"I'll be up then. Thanks again, Sharon."

"No bother, love."

Cion sat down on the bed and sighed. He was finally here, his beloved America and he had absolutely no clue as to what he was supposed to do now.