The Salmon

I chuckled, "Leah you were spectacular. I've never had anyone surrendered herself to me like you just did. You can't believe how satisfied I am and how amazed I am at how responsive you are."

She smiled and kissed me again, "For you Sir, only for you. I don't think I've ever been that responsive for anyone before. I've never trusted anyone this much before. Am I crazy?"

I kissed her and said, "You're asking the wrong person. I'm highly biased. Not objective at all."

She giggled slightly, "Yeah, I can see that. At least you're honest about it." She rolled off me and said, "Sean, we both need a bath."

I groaned, "I guess you're right." and let her pull me off the bed and into the shower. After the shower she got me a glass of whiskey and she cooked us a big breakfast of scrambled eggs and kippers. She was an amazing cook as well as being beautiful and sexy.

It was after breakfast that she really blew me away. She washed and I dried the dishes then she pulled me out the door. I thought we were just going for a walk. We walked around the village and she stopped at her friend, Sarah's house. She came out and handed me my rod and tackle box. "I feel bad that you really haven't had a chance to fish yet." She walked me down to the river and sat on the bank while I started fishing.

I gave her a big kiss. "This is so thoughtful, thank you." She gave me a gentle shove and I turned around and started to fish. I'd been fishing for about an hour when I realized that Leah was gone. I kept fishing and actually caught two salmon, that I let go.

When I released the second fish I turned around and Leah was back sitting on the bank watching me. She smiled and said, "You're never going to feed me that way, ya know."

I looked up and said, "Not this year but their spawn will be back for years to come." I went over and kissed her and continued, "Besides, I didn't know how big a freezer you had. I didn't want the fish to go to waste and I sure didn't want to make the mistake of proposing to another woman by giving her a fish."

Leah giggled, "No we sure wouldn't want that!" She gave me a kiss and said, "Now are you ready for some lunch." She opened the basket and started laying out a picnic.

I sat down on the blanket and took the wipe she handed me to clean my hands. I watched her as she laid out the meal. She had a couple of bruises from Rob but she was amazingly beautiful and graceful.

She must have realized that I was watching her because a blush started rising out of her collar. She looked at me from under her eyelashes and said, "Is something wrong Sean?"

"Nothing Leah, you're just so beautiful I can't take my eyes off you." I didn't get to say anything else. She flowed into my arms and gave me a kiss that promised everything she was.

She broke the kiss and said, "Shur now how did you get back to the Blarney stone again? I can tell you've recharged."

I took her face in my hands and focused her on me. "Leah you are beautiful by any standards. To me you are perhaps the most beautiful woman I've ever known. Not only that you have been sweet and loving and fun to be with. From a guy's point of view you've been an angel. I mean how many girlfriends would arrange for her guy to go fishing and walk him to the river. I...I'm at a loss for words to describe how wonderful I think you are. Now kiss me again, you taste better than your meals and you are a superb cook."

She didn't argue with me she moaned under her breath, "Oh Gods ..." before our kiss cut her off.

When we finally broke the kiss she sat up and looked at me. She shook her head and handed me a plate with a sandwich and some pasta salad. In my other hand she put a tumbler of whiskey. We ate in companionable silence. After we finished she picked everything up while I took a nap in the sun on the blanket. She lay down beside me and waited until I woke up.

She looked into my eyes and said, "Why don't you fish some more. I need to go and check on the website. It has been acting up. I'll start supper and expect you back to my house by sundown." She then kissed me again before folding the blanket and taking the picnic basket.

I didn't catch any more fish but returned to her home tired, happy and relaxed. Leah met me at the door. She took my fishing tackle from me and sat me in a nice soft chair. She returned quickly with a glass of whiskey and another of water. As she slipped into my lap she asked, "How was your luck?"

I took a sip of the whiskey and answered, "My luck left with the Irish angel that brought me lunch. But I had a good time anyway." I sniffed the air and said, "Supper smells delicious. Almost as good as you."

She smiled and said, "Blarney," and gave me a kiss.

I ask her, "How was your afternoon? Did you solve your problem?"

She shook her head no. "I couldn't find the problem. It seems to come and go."

I said, "Let me up to take a shower. I'll look at it after you feed me some of that wonderful smelling dinner."

She gave me another kiss and slid off my lap and went into the kitchen.

I went to take a badly needed shower. I shouldn't have been surprised when she slipped in with me and started soaping up my hair but I was.

After a wonderful relaxed dinner I checked my email and there were a couple from my boss that had an ominous tone. He was berating me for not being available on my cell phone. I decided that I needed to protect myself so I forwarded the emails to my personal gmail account. After I'd answered my email I started checking out her website and server. I found that it looked like her hard drive was starting to fail.

Leah said, "Sean what am I going to do. It will ruin us if this fails."

I went to my day bag and dug out a thumb drive. "Leah, let's save your website on this. If we do that then we'll have a big leg up if it does fail. Maybe you'd go with me Monday to pick up my bags and check out of the hotel. While we're in town we'll pick up another computer and an extra hard drive for your website. Ok?"

She looked at me and said, "Oh Sean that sounds good but it took me forever to get this site up and running. We'll lose a lot of business if we're down for a week or more."

I took her hand. "Leah if we save this stuff it will only take an hour or maybe two to get the site back up."

She looked at me. "Really?"

I said, "Yeah, we'll use linux instead of windows. It'll make it a lot faster."

After we finished backing up the website documents and the mysql databases we went to bed. Leah was very tense, I guess because of the website. I pulled her close and gently rubbed her back until she fell asleep. I woke the next morning feeling great. Even greater was the feeling of Leah snuggled up to me.

Leah smiled and gave me a kiss before rolling out of bed to make a scrumptious breakfast. Then she took my fishing pole and took me out for another walk. This time we went down to the docks where Mike met us with his fishing boat. Leah smiled at me, "Mike's going to run us up the coast to get another hard drive or whatever we need." She gave me a quick kiss and finished, "and you can fish all the way up and back."

We got to town and bought two new computers with a several extra hard drives. I took Leah and Mike to a good restaurant for lunch and we checked me out of my hotel. I managed to slip off to buy a necklace for Leah.

We loaded everything back in the boat about three in the afternoon and started back. True to her word Leah sat close to me and let me fish all the way back. Of course we were going too fast to be really effective at fishing. I didn't even get a nibble. However, I did get to hold Leah all the way back and we nibbled on each other. The wind off the ocean was cold. It made snuggling even better.

When we got back Leah started supper and I set the new computers out to warm up gently. The first thing I did was start downloading the latest linux OS on her existing computer. Then I went to see how Leah was doing. She had stew started but it needed some time to simmer so I pulled her into the bedroom and we took a hot shower. There is nothing like a hot shower with a lovely lady to warm you after a couple of hours of cold boat ride.

After cleaning up and eating a bowl of Leah's delicious stew, I pulled her into the bedroom she used for her website office. I started setting up the new computer. I burned a linux CD off her old computer and showed her everything I was doing, in linux, setting up the new server for her website.

I had her take notes on everything I did. Especially, the commands I used to configure things and the passwords. I had added the extra disks to the server and showed her how I set up the raid groups on the server. I set up a small RAID mirror group for the Operating system, a large RAID 5 group for the data and a hot spare disk for both groups.

She ask me about the raid groups in great detail. I explained that the mirror on the operating system drive would protect from having a single drive failure. The RAID 5 would speed access to the data and also protect it from a single drive failure. Then I explained that the hot spare would automatically replace any one failed drive. I set up cron jobs to email reports of failed drives to her email.

She went over it once explaining it to me. When I told her she had it right she smiled and gave me a kiss. "Oh this will be so much safer than my old system. Thank you."

I said, "You're welcome. It's the least I could do after everything you've done for me. You've made this vacation the best one I've ever had. We're not finished yet. Now we have to set up the website and check it out."

She smiled, "Yeah, but let's take a break first."

I walked straight into it, I asked, "A break for what?"

She sat on my lap and gave me a kiss. It was soft and sweet and she seemed to surrender herself to the moment. Not being a total fool I wrapped my arms around her and started nuzzling her ears and gently kissing her neck.

She reacted by stretching her neck to give me better access. She also moaned softly, "Oh Gods that feels good. Lord what you do to me."

We necked for a while and then I showed her how to transfer the contents of her website to the new computer. I put a non-routable IP address on the server and we connected my laptop to the network. There were a few glitches as we set up the Apache server but we worked through them. By eleven in the evening we had everything up and running. We shut down the old server and changed the IP address on the new one so it took over. After checking to see that the site was up and running we went to bed.

The rest of my time in the village was wonderful. We got up around nine in the morning, usually after having sex. Leah cheerfully made me breakfast. After breakfast she walked me down to the river and let me fish while she worked on her website. At noon she'd show up with a picnic lunch and watch me fish for a while before going back to home to start supper.

The nights were filled with passion and tenderness.

When it came time to leave Mike ran the two of us into town on his boat. Parting was painful, I felt like I was cutting off an arm or something. I felt hollow inside as I stood on the dock watching as they disappeared down the estuary. Leah was in the boat looking back at me. I stood there so long I almost missed my train to Dublin. The start of my long weary journey back to home. Only it felt like I was leaving home the only thing ahead of me was my work.

Chapter 2

On the boat Leah smiled and waved as they pulled away. When the man on the dock had shrunk to a small stick figure her tears started. Mike was torn, he had to drive the boat but he told me later he was desperate to console Leah. He'd never seen her like this.

When they finally got back to the village. He walked her to his house and left her with Sarah before going back and securing his boat.

Sarah pulled her into the kitchen and gave her a cup of tea. "Shur now, it's not that bad is it?"

Leah sighed, "Och Sarah. I feel like I've been ripped in two. I ache and I don't understand why. Tis only been two weeks.

"Must've been a hell of a couple of weeks. I've never seen you so happy and now so sad."

"Sarah I don't know what to tell you. I feel like I've been floatin' on clouds the whole time. Ever since I looked into his eyes after he caught that damn fish!"

"What's the fish got to do with it girl?"

"I don't know Sarah, I just don't know but since he offered me that fish I've felt bonded to him. You know I can tell when he was watching me. I can feel it."

Sarah snorted, "That's easy lass. From what I've seen if you were anywhere in sight he was watching you. If it's any consolation I think he has it almost as bad for you."

"Och I don't think so. How can you believe that?"

Mike had come in during the conversation. He said, "You'd best believe it lass. He was rooted to that pier until we were out of sight. He was standing there watching until we rounded the point and were hidden by the hills. He's got it at least as bad as you do. You'll see, he'll contact you at least daily. He's in for a rough time if even part of what you told us about his work is true. That and missin' you will make him a basket case."

Through eyes blurry with tears Leah sobbed, "You really think so?"

Sarah answered, "Och yes girl. He's been taken with you from the first time he saw you. He may not have known what offering you the fish meant but he wouldn't take it back even if he could. He loves you girl."

They talked until the early morning and Leah stayed in their guest room. The only thing that got her to go home is the thought that I might have emailed her. I had, from the airport.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It was as bad as I thought when I got back to work. The morning of the first day back my boss, I wouldn't say superior, called me into his office and gave me a dressing down for being out of touch. I tried to explain that I wasn't really that much out of touch because of the email. Also because of the time difference I was hardly out of touch at all.

He just wouldn't let it go. He raked me over the coals for over an hour before he let me get back to work. Mostly working to clear up the mess that had been made over the month of my supposed vacation.

The only thing that kept me sane was the daily emails from Leah. They were full of news about the village and the woolen business. She was very happy with the new website. It was giving her much less trouble and seemed to be twice as fast. It was serving many more orders at a time. The whole village was happy about that.

I was puzzled when there was a four day stretch in late June when Leah didn't email me or answer my emails. I even tried to phone her but there was no answer. I was worried until the emails started again.

At work I thought that maybe the hazing would lighten up but it gradually got worse. I started documenting every email and every impossible assignment.

It soon became abundantly clear that there was a campaign to get me to quit. I kept getting more and more swing and mid shifts. After a month I was on straight mid shifts. Although they thought they were punishing me, it actually worked out quite well. Midnight on the West coast is about eight in the morning in Ireland.

I invested in one of the expensive cell plans that had a national wireless access card. I brought that and my laptop to work and on my breaks I emailed Leah and we had instant messaging chats at lunch time.

The only bad thing about mid shifts was that my sleep was always being interrupted by calls from work. I would often get calls about things that I had clearly spelled out in my shift report and emails. I was more and more glad that I decided to document everything. Daily, after I got off in the morning, I'd go to my lawyer and have the day's load of emails letters and memos and work assignment turned over to his firm. It included my phone log and any letters of reprimand. I also documented the off shift phone calls.

Things came to a head in late October. I was called in and reprimanded for not getting a project completed on time. They fired me with that as the excuse. The problem with that was that the email assigning me the project had been sent four hours after my last shift for the week with a deadline of eight hours before my first shift of the next week. Not only that the project required saving data for two weeks and comparing the data day by day for the entire period. Altogether it was a really stupid setup for my dismissal.

My lawyer looked at the items I brought in and had a big evil grin on his face. We filed a major lawsuit against the company for harassment, creating a hostile work environment and numerous other labor law infractions.

I sucked in a large breath when I saw what the law firm was asking for in damages. I realized then why my lawyer was so happy. It was practically a slam dunk and they would get thirty percent of the settlement. That's the way it worked out. In the end, after taxes and lawyer's fees I ended up with just over a million dollars.

I tried getting work but didn't have much luck. The lawyers cleaned up the bad references the supervisor had given me but the fact that I had won a large settlement against my employer seemed to put prospective employers off.

Finally, about March it hit me. Why was I trying to find a job. I couldn't think about anything other than Leah. I couldn't get another job and just sitting around was driving me a little crazy. I took a trip to San Francisco and visited the Irish consulate.

Chapter 3

By early June I had everything set and started my second trip to Ireland.

I arrived in Carndonagh and bought a new boat. A little small for commercial fishing but she handled beautifully. I named her "Irish Angel" and had the name neatly lettered on the transom. It was the fifteenth of June when I started out in the dark early hours of the morning and headed back to Little Carrickabraghy.

I arrived early before most of the village was up and started fishing. I fished for about two hours without a nibble. I took a break and sat down and had breakfast of biscuits and ham the food was cold but at least the coffee was still hot.

I went back to fishing but my heart wasn't really into it until I tied into a really large fish. It took me almost half an hour to finally land it. It was huge, even larger than the salmon that caught me during the festival last year. Once I landed it I considered and went to Sarah's house. When she answered the door I didn't show her the fish instead I ask her, "Is what Leah said true? Is giving a girl a fish an old method of proposal?"

Sarah shook her head in disbelief and said, "Sean, You're back. Yeah it is a very old tradition but it's almost never used now. Why?"

I ducked my head and laughed, "Because I don't know how Leah will take it when I give her this." I pulled the fish from behind my back.

Sarah gasp and put both hands to her cheeks. "Begora! She'll come unglued. ... Do you really want to send that message? You know she wouldn't leave for Rob."

I nodded, "Yeah I do want to send that message and I know she'd never leave here. I wouldn't ask her to."

Sarah gave me a quizzical look as I left but she kept my fishing tackle for me.

I walked to Leah's house and knocked.

Leah came to the door. "Sean, you're back! Why didn't you just come on in?" she asked. About that time the phone started to ring.

She started to answer it but I took her hand. "Leah, I need some help. Can you take this off my hands? I can't think of any girl I'd rather give it to." I pulled the fish from behind my back and held it out to her.

Her eyes went wide and her jaw dropped when she saw the fish. She gasp, "Oh my God. Look at that salmon." She got a big smile on her face. "I know I told you what this means in our village."