Meet Me Under The Ombu Tree Read online

  ‘Please, Dorothy. This is a happy time for Anna.’

  ‘And a miserable time for Sean O’Mara,’ huffed Aunt Dorothy, folding her arms in front of her stubbornly.

  ‘I can’t help it if I’ve fallen in love with Paco. What do you expect me to do, Aunt Dorothy - ignore my own heart and return to a man I no longer love?’ Anna said melodramatically, sinking into a chair.

  There, there, Anna Melody, it’s all right. Yer aunt and I, we only want what’s best for you. This has all come as something of a shock. Better to break it off with Sean now than regret it down the line. Once yer married, yer married for life,’ Emer said, gently stroking her daughter’s long red hair.

  Aunt Dorothy sighed heavily. There was nothing she could do. How many scenes like this had she witnessed? Countless. There was no point trying to put the world to rights. Destiny will do that for me, she thought to herself.

  ‘I’m only being realistic,’ she conceded, adopting a softer tone of voice. ‘I’m older than you and wiser, Anna. As yer father always says, “knowledge can be learnt, wisdom comes with experience”. He’s right, of course. I’ll leave life to do the teaching.’

  ‘We love you, Anna Melody. We don’t want to see you making a mistake. Oh,

  I do wish yer father had been here. What is he going to say?’ her mother asked apprehensively.

  Dermot O’Dwyer’s cheeks grew redder and redder until his large grey eyes looked like they would pop right out of his face. He paced the room in agitation, not knowing what to say. He wasn’t going to allow his only daughter to disappear off to some godforsaken country at the other end of the earth, to marry some man she had only known for twenty-four hours.

  ‘Jesus, Mary and Joseph, girl. What on earth has possessed you? London fever, that’s what. You’ll marry young Sean if I have to drag you there myself,’ he said angrily.

  ‘I will not marry Sean even if you put a gun to my head, Dad,’ Anna cried defiantly, her pink face wet with tears. Emer tried to intervene.

  ‘He was a fine young man, Dermot. Very handsome and mature. You’d have been impressed.’

  ‘I don’t care if he’s the bloody King of Buenos Aires, I will not have my daughter marrying some foreigner. You were raised in Ireland, you’ll stay in Ireland,’ he bellowed, pouring himself a large whisky and knocking it back in one. Emer noticed that his hands were shaking and his pain tore at her heart. Like a wounded animal he was gnashing his teeth at anyone who approached him.

  ‘I will go to Argentina if I have to swim there. I know he’s the man for me,

  Dad. I don’t love Sean. I never have. I only went along with it because I wanted to please you, because there was no one else. But now I’ve seen the man who is my destiny. Can’t you see, God meant us to meet? It is meant to be,’ Anna said and her eyes implored him to understand and relent.

  ‘Whose idea was it to take you off to London in the first place?’ he asked, looking at his wife accusingly. Aunt Dorothy had gone out. ‘I’ve said my piece,’ she had explained as she closed the door behind her. Emer looked around helplessly and shook her head.

  ‘We weren’t to know that this would happen. It could have happened in Dublin,’ she said and her lips trembled, because she knew her husband well enough to know that he would let her go in the end. He always did give in to Anna Melody in the end.

  ‘Dublin is another matter. I will not allow you to run off to Argentina when you’ve only known this young man five minutes,’ he said, putting the bottle of whisky to his lips and swigging it straight. ‘At least we’d be able to look out for you in Dublin.’

  ‘Why can’t I go and work in London? Cousin Peter went and worked in London,’ Anna suggested hopefully.

  ‘And who would you stay with? Answer me that. I don’t know anyone in London and we certainly can’t afford to pay for a hotel,’ he replied.

  ‘Paco has a cousin who’s married and lives in London. He says I could board with them. I could get a job, Dad. Can't you just give me six months? Please give me the chance to get to know him. If after six months I still love him, will you allow him to ask yer permission to marry me?’ Dermot sank into a chair and looked defeated. Anna knelt on the floor and pressed her damp cheek against his hand. ‘Please, Dad. Please let me find out if he is the one for me. If I don’t I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. Please don’t make me marry a man I don’t love. A man whose caresses will be unwelcome. Please don’t make me have to bear that,’ she said with a special emphasis on the word ‘that’, knowing how the thought of her being subjected to the sexual advances of a man she didn’t care for would be enough to weaken his resolve.

  ‘Go out and see yer cousins, Anna Melody. I want to talk to yer mother,’ he said quietly, withdrawing his hand.

  ‘Love, I don’t want her to go either. But this young man is wealthy, cultured, intelligent - not to mention handsome. He’ll give her a better life than Sean can,’ Emer said, allowing the tears to run freely now her daughter had left the

  ‘Remember how we prayed for a child?’ he said, the corners of his mouth drooping as if they had no strength, or will, in them to sit straight on his face. Emer took her daughter’s place on the floor and kissed his hand that rested limply on the armrest.

  ‘She has given us so much joy,’ she sobbed. ‘But one day we’ll be gone and then she’ll have a future without us. We can’t keep her here just for us.’

  ‘The house won’t be the same,’ he stammered, the whisky loosening his tongue and his emotions.

  ‘No, no it won’t. But think of her future. Anyway, after six months she might decide that he’s not for her at all. Then she might come back.’

  ‘She might.’ But he didn’t believe it.

  ‘Dorothy says we’ve bred her to be this wilful. If that’s true then it’s our own fault. We’ve raised her expectations. Glengariff isn’t good enough for her.’ ‘Maybe,’ he replied despondently. ‘I don’t know.’ The thought of their home without the happy chaos of grandchildren lingered in their minds and their hearts strained against the heaviness that weighed down upon them. ‘I’ll give her six months then. I’ll only meet him after six months,’ he conceded. ‘If she

  marries him that’s it. Goodbye. There’s no way I’ll go all the way to Argentina to visit her,’ he said, and his eyes filled with tears. ‘No way.’

  Anna walked along the ridge of the hill, the mist swirling around her like thin smoke from heavenly chimneys. She didn’t want to see her cousins. She hated them. They had never made her feel welcome. But now she was leaving them. She might never come back. She’d love to see their reactions when they were told about her radiant future. A shudder of excitement raced up her body and she pulled her coat about her and smiled to herself. Paco would take her off into the sun. ‘Anna Solanas,’ she said. ‘Anna Solanas,’ she repeated loudly until she was shouting it across the hills. A new name to signal a new life. She’d miss her parents, she knew she would. She’d miss the warm intimacy of their home and the tender caresses of her mother. But Paco would make her happy. Paco would kiss her homesickness away.

  When Anna returned from the hills her mother had closed Dermot’s study door to leave him alone with his grief, and so as not to upset their daughter. She told Anna that he had said she could go to London, but that she was to call the moment she arrived to assure them she was safely installed in the La

  Rivires’ flat.

  Anna embraced her mother. Thank you, Mam. I know you persuaded him. I knew you would,’ she said happily, kissing the soft skin that smelt of soap and powder.

  ‘When Paco calls, you can tell him yer father has agreed to you living in London for six months. Tell him, if you both feel the same after that time then he’ll go to London to meet him. Is that all right, dear?’ Emer asked and ran a pale hand down her daughter’s long red hair. ‘You’re very special to us, Anna Melody. We’ll not be happy with yer going. But God will be with you and He knows what is good for you,’ she said, her voice trembling again
. ‘Forgive me for being emotional. You’ve been the sunshine in our lives ...’

  Anna embraced her mother again and felt the emotion choke her too, not because she was leaving, but because her happiness would bring her parents such unhappiness.

  Dermot sat disgruntled until sundown. He watched the shadows creep in through the windows until they dominated the study floor, eating up the last shafts of light. He could see his little girl dancing around the room in her Sunday dress. But after a while her merriment gave way to tears and she collapsed

  crying onto the floor. He wanted to run to her but when he staggered to his feet, the empty whisky bottle fell to the ground with a crash and frightened her away. When Emer came to take him up to bed he was snoring loudly in his chair, a sad and broken man.

  Anna had one last duty to perform before she left for London. She went to tell Sean O’Mara that she couldn’t marry him. When she arrived at his house his mother, a cheerful woman with the squat physique of a jovial toad, sprang back into the hallway to shout to her son that his fiancee had taken them all by surprise and appeared as if by magic.

  ‘How was yer trip, dear? I’ll bet it was quite something, quite something,’ she chuckled, rubbing her flour-covered hands on her apron.

  ‘It was very pleasant, Moira,’ Anna replied, smiling uneasily and glancing over the woman’s shoulder to watch her son come jumping down the stairs.

  ‘Well, I’m glad yer back, that I’ll tell you for nothing.’ She chuckled. ‘Our Sean has been moping around all weekend. It’s nice to see him smile again, isn’t it, Sean?’ She retreated back into the house, adding happily, ‘I’ll leave you two lovebirds to it, then.’

  Sean kissed Anna awkwardly on the cheek before taking her by the hand and leading her up the street.

  ‘So, how was London?’ he asked.

  ‘Fine,’ she replied, greeting Paddy Nyhan who passed them on his bicycle. After smiling and nodding to various other villagers, Anna could bear the suspense not a moment longer.

  ‘Sean, I need to talk to you, somewhere we can be alone,’ she said, her forehead creasing into an anxious frown.

  ‘Don’t look so worried, Anna. Nothing can be that bad,’ he laughed as they walked up the side streets towards the hills. They climbed in silence. Sean attempted to strike up a conversation by asking her questions about London but she answered him in staccato so after a while he gave up. Finally, away from prying eyes and ears, they sat on a damp bench that looked down the valley.

  ‘So, what’s on yer mind?’ asked Sean. Anna looked into his pale, angular face and naive green eyes and feared that she wouldn’t have the courage to tell him. There was no way she could say it without hurting him.

  ‘I can’t marry you, Sean,’ she said at last and watched his face crumble.

  ‘You can’t marry me?’ he repeated incredulously. ‘What do you mean, you

  can't marry me?’

  ‘I just can’t, that’s all,’ she said and looked away. His face flushed crimson, especially around the eyes that welled with emotion.

  ‘I don’t understand. What’s brought this on?’ he stammered. ‘Yer nervous, that’s all. So am I. But you don’t have to call it off It’ll be okay once we’re married,’ he insisted reassuringly.

  ‘I can’t marry you because I’m in love with someone else,’ she said and crumpled into sobs. Sean stood up, placed his hands on his hips and snorted in fury.

  ‘Who is this someone else? I’ll kill him!’ He spat angrily. ‘C’mon - who is he?’ Anna looked up at him and recognized the pain behind his rage, which made her cry all the more.

  ‘I’m sorry, Sean, I never meant to hurt you,’ she sniffed.

  ‘Who is he, Anna? I have a right to know,’ he shouted, sitting back down on the bench and pulling her around to face him.

  ‘He’s called Paco Solanas,’ she replied, pulling out of his grasp.

  ‘What sort of a name is that?’ He laughed scornfully.

  ‘It’s Spanish. He’s from Argentina. I met him in London.’

  ‘In London. Jesus, Anna, you’ve known him all of two days. This is a joke.’

  ‘It’s not a joke. I’m leaving for London at the end of the week,’ she said, drying her face with the sleeve of her coat.

  ‘It won’t last.’

  ‘Oh Sean. I’m sorry. It’s just not meant to be,’ she said gently, placing a hand on his.

  ‘I thought you loved me,’ he said, gripping her hand and gazing into her distant eyes as if trying to find the Anna he loved hiding behind them.

  ‘I do love you, but like a sister.’

  ‘A sister.’

  ‘Yes. I don’t love you like a wife,’ she explained, trying to be kind.

  ‘So this is it?’ He gulped. ‘This is all there is to it - goodbye?’ Anna nodded.

  ‘Yer prepared to run off with a man you’ve known for two days instead of marrying me who you’ve known all yer life. I don’t understand you, Anna.’

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘Stop saying yer sorry. Yer not sorry or you wouldn’t be jilting me.’ He stood up abruptly. Anna noticed the muscle throb in his cheek as if he was straining against the impulse to break down and cry. But he maintained his composure.

  ‘That’s it then. Goodbye. I hope you have a happy life, because you’ve just ruined mine.’ He looked into her watery blue eyes that were beginning to spill over again.

  ‘Don’t leave like this,’ she said, running after him. But he strode away down the field and disappeared into the village.

  Anna returned to the bench and cried because of the pain she had inflicted on him. But there was no kind way of doing it. She loved Paco. She couldn’t help it. She consoled herself that Sean would find someone else in time. Hearts were broken every day, she thought, and hearts were mended every day, too. He would get over her. She spent the next few days hiding in her home, talking to Paco on the telephone, avoiding her cousins and the villagers who, having heard the news, blamed Anna for shattering Sean O’Mara’s future. She dared not go out. When she left Glengariff she didn’t look back; if she had she would have seen Sean O’Mara’s sallow face sadly watching her from his bedroom window.

  Anna stayed in London for six months. She lived with Antoine and Dominique La Rivfre in their spacious apartment in Kensington. Dominique was a budding novelist and Antoine was already quite successful in the City. Paco had been appalled by the idea that his fiancee would work while in London and had insisted she attend courses instead, one of which was Spanish. Anna had been too embarrassed to tell her parents for fear of hurting their pride so she told them she was working in a library.

  Paco wrote to his parents telling them of his plans. His father voiced his concern in an uncharacteristically long epistle. He advised that if, at the end of his courses, he still felt the same way, then he should bring his girlfriend home to see how she fitted in. You’ll be able to tell very quickly if it’s going to work, he wrote. His mother, Maria Elena, wrote that she trusted his judgement. She had no doubt that Anna would fit in at Santa Catalina and that everyone would love her like he did.

  After six months Anna told her father that she and Paco still loved each other and were determined to marry. When Dermot suggested that Paco come to Ireland, she insisted that Dermot come to London. Her father realized that she was ashamed of their home and worried for the young couple’s future if their present wasn’t an honest one. But he agreed to go.

  Dermot left his wife and daughter to walk around Hyde Park while he met

  Paco Solanas in the Dorchester Hotel. Emer could see that her daughter had grown up in the six months that she had been living in London. Her new independent life had been good for her. She looked radiant and Emer could tell from the way they held hands and smiled at each other that the couple were truly happy.

  After Dermot had asked Paco the usual questions, he said that he trusted Paco was an honest young man and was assured that his daughter would be well looked after.

  ‘I
hope you know what yer letting yerself in for, young man,’ he said heavily. ‘She’s wilful and indulged. If parents can love their child too much we’re guilty of it. She’s not easy, but life will never be dull. I know she’ll have a better life with you than she would have in Ireland. But it won’t be as easy for her as she thinks. All I ask is that you take care of her. She’s very precious to us.’

  Paco noticed that the older man’s eyes were moist. He shook Dermot’s hand and said that he hoped he would see her happiness for himself at the wedding at Santa Catalina.

  ‘We won’t be there,’ Dermot said decisively.

  Paco was astounded. ‘You won’t come to your daughter’s wedding?’ he said,

  appalled.

  ‘You write and tell us about it,’ said Dermot stubbornly. How could he explain to a sophisticated man like Paco Solanas that he was afraid of travelling so far and afraid of finding himself in a strange country with strange people and a strange language. He couldn’t explain, he was too proud.

  Anna embraced both her parents affectionately. When she hugged her mother she was sure she had got smaller and thinner than when she had last seen her in Ireland six months before. Emer smiled in spite of the sadness that clawed at her soul. When she told her daughter that she loved her, her voice was dry and rasping; the words got lost somewhere in her throat, which had constricted to prevent them through. The tears tumbled out of her eyes and trickled in thick streams down her powdered cheeks, dropping off her nose and chin. She had meant to remain calm, but suddenly holding her daughter for what could be the last time in a long while, she could contain her emotions no longer. She dabbed her hot face with a lace hanky that fluttered about in her trembling hand like a white dove attempting to fly away.

  Dermot watched his wife with envy. The agony of holding back his own