“I don’t believe I woulda agreed to do this a second time if it weren’t for that beach we’re gonna end up at,” she said.

“Jeepers, Wanda. When we were in our teens, you used to like to go wandering all over in those North Carolina hills. Had to scamper to keep up with you. What’s changed?”

“That was thirty years ago, Virgil. Now I go to air conditioned health clubs for exercise. No mosquitoes. No snakes. No wayward shots from fools trying to shoot deer out of season. You ask me, the great outdoors is not all it’s cracked up to be.”

“Yeah, all right.” Wanda and I were making our way up a trail called Ballena (means whale in Spanish) in Puerto Rico. Right in the middle of a beautiful dry forest with all matter of butterflies floating around. And more different kinds of trees and plants than you could count, all of which would put a botanist in hog heaven. Me, too.

All that notwithstanding, I had no desire to debate the issue with Wanda. We’d taken this Caribbean vacation as a little test out of maybe living together. Saw no point in getting into a spat over a hike, especially one that was gonna terminate with our frolicking nude in the surf on a deserted beach.

The last stretch of the trail was pretty steep and got us both huffing and puffing. As we turned the corner at the top to head down to a shaded picnic table, I could sense Wanda winding herself up to piss and moan some more. But she caught herself when she saw this older gentleman sitting at the table. He was gazing out at the sea and seemed not to notice us.

“We’ll, how are you doing there, sir?” she asked in her best southern belle voice. The old boy whipped his head around and got to his feet quicker than I woulda thought him capable of. His smile had every bit the brightness of Wanda’s greeting.

“Young lady. Young man. A very pleasant good morning to you both.”

“Gonna go out on a limb and guess Belfast,” I said.

“Spot on, boyo. And tell us how you arrived at that assessment?”

“Got some kin from over there who paid us a visit in North Carolina few years back. Sound just like you.”

“Well, that’s lovely. May god bless all of ya.”

“Aren’t you the gentleman, now. My name is Wanda and this is Virgil.”

“And I am Liam and it is a pleasure to make both your acquaintances.” His firm handshake and his steady eyes reminded me of some old timers back home. Combat veterans who’d seen things no nineteen year old should have to see.

Wanda sat down right next to him. This is a woman who is no stranger to flirting, flirting that has made me act the fool more than a few times over our long and rocky relationship. But this was different. She was picking up on something in Liam I couldn’t sense. So my smidgeon of jealousy was giving way to curiosity.

“Tell us, Liam, what brings you all the way over to this side of the Atlantic?” she asked.

He patted her hand and gave her a smile loaded with warmth. “Sweetheart, I’m a very old man. I’ve no secrets to withhold from ya. Have you the time, I’ll tell ya more than you’d care to know about where I’ve been in this life. I promise. But let’s start with the two of you. Might help pull me out of the hole I’ve been hiding in.”

She snuggled closer and touched him on the cheek. “Gonna hold you to that, Liam.”

“Would expect nothing less. So out with it. Fill me in on the romance between ya that’s plainer than those clouds scudding above us.”

“We can do that. Virgil, how about if you stop gawking, park your butt across from me and Liam, and get this soap opera started.”

“Be my pleasure,” I said as I sat and started in on the story. I went back to seventh grade when the two of us had met. I talked about how Wanda had gotten her hooks into me right from the get go and how I’d never even come close to falling out of love with her after all those years. I talked about the Wednesday night trysts that had endured through all her husbands and boyfriends. And I emphasized how I felt she never wanted to let me make the husband or boyfriend team.

Through all this Liam sat looking straight at me, nodding a lot, and not uttering a word. Wanda didn’t look at me at all. She had her eyes locked on Liam the way a young mother might watch her six year old perform in a school play. Wanting things to go swimmingly but fearful they mightn’t.

After I had wound down, he asked, “And this notion of the two of you moving in together. Where do we stand on that?”

“Jury’s still out, Liam,” she said. I rolled my eyes but kept my trap shut.

“Fair enough. My turn to stroll up to the podium?”

“It is,” she said.

“Interesting, Virgil, that you began the story when the two of you were twelve years of age. That’s when I started carrying a gun for the cause. So very much wish I hadn’t, but there seemed no other choice for an impoverished Catholic lad in those days. I had six older brothers who were doing the same. All but Finn, who escaped by going off to the priesthood. He could not abide the poisonous hatred for the Prods and the Brits that had seeped into the rest of us.”

“I should spare you the details of all the violence, but suffice it to say I had more than a small part in sending twenty British soldiers to their graves before I was 18. You ask me, each and every one of them was every bit the murderer I had become. Still, all that had taken its toll on me. Enough to say I felt soulless and cared not a whit if I made it to 20. And I wouldn’t have, were it not for a round up that sent me away until I was just shy of 40.”

“Long Kesh?” I asked.

“None other. Do you know about it, Virgil?”

“No, sir. But I know about incarceration.”

“Do ya, now?”

“At any rate, when I got released, I skedaddled out of Ireland quick as I could and found myself on the other side of the world on a sheep ranch in Australia. Had I remained in the old country, I would have been right back in the thick of things. And I most certainly wouldn’t be here on this glorious day chatting away with you two love birds.”

“It took some time for Australia to work its way into me. Hard to pin down the agents that performed their wonders on me. Perhaps the immensity of the land. Perhaps the rough hewn people whose ancestors had been criminals not so different from the likes of me. But I suspect, more than anything, it was the beasts. The sheep and the dogs. Neither group judged me in the least. And such affection. I remember the first time I lay down in a field to snooze. A dog cuddled up on one side of me, a wee lamb on the other. The soul that had so long ago abandoned me seemed to be ever so softly knocking at my door.”

“Had been on the ranch about a year when I saw her through the window of a pub. A farm girl but with the grace and stateliness of royalty. She seemed to more float than walk past the establishment. One of the blokes on an adjacent stool said, ‘Liam, are you gonna sit here and continue to imbibe with us pelicans, or are you gonna pursue her?’”

“That was 35 years ago, almost to the day. Took the lad’s advice and trotted down the street until I almost stumbled into her. Tried to speak, but the words wouldn’t come. Should have felt like the fool I was acting, but that smile of hers. It whisked away my embarrassment and somehow empowered me to tell her that I could not let her walk out of my life. Not without making the effort to tell her how she’d taken my breath away.”

“The smile never stopped. I grinned back. Went on like that for a good minute. Maybe two. Finally, she took my arm and led me further down the street to a more refined venue than the pub. She ordered us tea and biscuits, and we had the most wonderful chat you could imagine. Not a word of which I can recall.”

Then the old boy stopped short. Let out a long breath. He leaned into Wanda just a tad as she put an arm around him and whispered in his ear. He whispered back as she shooed me way from the table with her other hand. Thought it wise to head back up towards the top of Ballena.

By and by, she came ambling up towards me. Couldn’t read her expression. She got about an inch from my face. I put a finger under her chin and gently pushed up until our eyes were on the same level.

“What?”

“Let’s go down to that beach,” she said as she took me by the hand.

***********