Chapter 4
4
Parking her car at the edge of a practice field in Newry, Maeve finished locking up before walking back to her car to collect her equipment bag which was always close at hand in the boot. The sound of twenty giggling girls, all between the ages of six and eight, reached her, making her smile at the enthusiasm they released, running around like banshees yelling out each other’s names to get a chance at controlling the miraculous football. This Saturday morning ritual was now the highlight of her week, allowing her to continue her passion for Irish sports; remembering how she had learned football at their ages.
Dropping the equipment bag on the sidelines, she opened it, pulling out her referee whistle, hanging it around her neck. Maeve remained a firm and dedicated supporter in the Down GAA’s mission of keeping Irish culture alive through sports, even before they employed her. It had been a no-brainer on returning home from the United States that she made sure she remained involved as much as possible, volunteering with her favorite sport.
She gained a certain amount of personal fulfillment by helping to expose, teach, and mentor young girls about sportsmanship and working as a team to achieve their goals - something women in the past were not encouraged to do, especially in playing competitive sports. Even today, there were still many places around the world still hanging on to the ridiculous stereotypes and misogynistic rules of how women should act or what they could do physically. Maeve was proud that both her mum, gran, her great gran and even her father had taught her that girls could do everything the lads could; everyone was equal, even in the field of sports.
Oddly, Maeve’s coaching duties were her own inimitable way of forgetting the challenges of work and other disagreeable situations she couldn’t avoid during the work week. This past week was a good example of how the usual scheduling and intertwining of many in-house meetings to keep things moving forward could change at the drop of a ball. An increase in loose ends needing attention had to incorporate new and shorter timelines for adding the GAA and Ireland Olympic committees’ events to the Wake the Giant Festival.
Despite needing to meet face to face, Maeve and Liam found it much easier just to avoid each other by exchanging emails, text messages and Zoom conference calls with each other and the various personnel assigned by each office and committee for working through the red tape to coordinate numerous detailed logistics and timelines. They both knew it was important that everything about this venture worked in perfect harmony. Maeve's personal excitement grew as she witnessed how new focal points for incorporating the Irish’s beloved sports could fit into the long-standing festival weekend.
As advertisements and announcements began materializing on billboards, local radio stations and chat shows, increasing the public’s excitement, the numbers of attendees grew. Close-knit communities throughout the many regions of Ireland, continued passing on by word of mouth, any news to encourage their neighbors, families, and friends to join the upcoming fun.
The ticket sales for the Sunday morning exhibition game featuring The Mournesmen of Down against the scrimmage squad for the developing Olympic Gaelic Football Team sold out in a record time. Maeve’s original ‘meet the players’ event also needed to be increased from her original plan of a two-hour slot after the parade, to opening it up multiple times all day Saturday and Sunday. Sports fans across the island were passionate about their love of Irish sports–football, hurling, camogie, handball and rounders, and didn’t hesitate to open their pockets and wallets to Maeve when she made an appeal to support the local clubs.
“Coach Maeve!”
Shifting her thoughts, she looked up to see Mary Donnely running across the field towards her, with her two best friends, Shona Coyle and Lark Murphy in tow. Waving in their direction, she continued emptying the extra balls out from her bag, tossing each on to the field, away from the sidelines.
“Well, good morning, ladies. How are we feeling on this beautiful blue-sky morning?”
“Brilliant, Coach!” Mary stopped to catch her breath. “Please tell me; are we going to practice kicking points at the goal post? Shona, Lark and I have been practicing all week after school. I bet we can make a score on the net every time either of us has … what do you call it again? ... Oh yeah, now I remember possession. Isn’t that right?”
Both Shona and Lark nodded their heads in agreement, talking at the same time to tell Maeve what they were ready to show her.
“Girls slow down. Of course we are kicking points, but after we do some warmups. I was also thinking we could work on some tricks for passing the ball. What do you think?”
“Yeah!!!”
Leading the girls back on to the field, Maeve blew her whistle to gather the rest of her team together before directing them to line up for warmups before practicing their kicking skills. The usual bedlam followed as a swarm of little girls ran to be the first in line, pushing each other out of the way and whining if they didn’t get the lineup spot they wanted, believing they were entitled to it in their little human logic.
Laughing, she blew hard on her whistle to get their attention. “Okay ladies, enough! If you want, I’ll be more than happy to put you in alphabetical order by first name! I still have the list in my bag. We’re a team and need to work together!”
“LOOK!”
Turning, Maeve followed the direction of Lark’s extended finger.
“It’s footballer Liam McCann!”
“Damn, what the hell is he doing here?” Maeve mumbled under her breath, turning to watch Liam coming towards her and the girls. Unfortunately, it was at that very moment, all twenty girls broke into a moving mass of screaming fans; a compacted mob that reminded her of a YouTube video someone had had shown her from a recent Taylor Swift concert. She could have sworn there were even a couple of medium-sized dogs who joined the ground swell of potentially rabid prepubescent girls, as their g-force of moving bodies bumping into her. The commotion happened so fast she floundered instantly, trying to keep herself from falling forward, and contacting the hard packed ground.
Just before she would have contacted the ground, a sudden whooshing motion of wind engulfed her as someone grabbed her by the waist, lifting her away from the potential impact. Maeve knew instantly who her rescuer was, as she felt his finely tuned athletic reflexes grab her away from injury. Turning around in his arms now encircling her waist, she couldn’t avoid physical contact with him as she met nose to nose with Liam.
For a few seconds, neither one of them said or did anything as they stared into each other’s eyes. Maeve once thought she had forgotten how deep the blue color of his eyes were, but she was just fooling herself. The deep blue color of his eyes burned into her retinas and memories, still reminding her of the choppy surface of lough waters when the sun was shining. It wasn’t so far-fetched that she could also read that there was a silent and prospective promise waiting to be made if she didn’t extract herself and stand on her own two feet.
Sensing her quandary, Liam smiled before letting her go, mouthing a silent, “Are you okay?” Maeve answered him back with a nod. Releasing her, she turned to see all the girls circling around him and Maeve shouting out questions.
Suddenly, the girls all stopped in a dead silence when they saw Liam raise both of his hands up in the universal gesture to stop before he spoke.
“Ladies! Ladies! Please–can you be silent for a second? I can’t answer you all at once. But before I even try, I think you owe Coach Quinn here a big apology. Do you realize that you almost knocked her down on the ground? She could have gotten injured. Teammates do not do that to each other.”
Maeve bit her lower lip to keep from laughing out loud. It was a sight to witness twenty little girls standing in contemplative silence, all studying the ground in unison as they kicked the toe of their trainers at the dirt.
“Now, what do you have to say for yourselves? I’m going to count to three, and I expect all of you to answer at the same time. Ready? One, two, three …”
“We’re sorry Coach Quinn.”
Pursing her lips together tightly so wouldn’t give away her amusement, she gained some composure before speaking.
“Thank you, ladies. I appreciate your apology. Now, if you could give me a minute with Mr. McCann for a small chat, we can start our practice in a few moments.”
“Coach Quinn?”
Maeve saw Mary raise her hand.
“Yes, Mary.”
“Um … it’s not every day that we have a star footballer come to our field, ever to our practices. Do you think he would help us with our kicking? Mr. Liam is one of our all-time favorite players, and he’s even went to the same primary school as us here in Newry too. Now he even plays for Down, just like we all want to. His gran, who runs story time at the library, tells us he is a perfect ... inspurt … ah … ah inspert …”
“You mean inspiration?” Maeve questioned.
“Grand! That’s the word! We’re all so excited to see him in person and not the telly,” Lark piped in. “We didn’t mean to act like such gobshite eejits.”
“Yep, gobshite eejits,” Shona parroted back.
“Lark Murphy! Shona Coyle! Watch your mouths!” Maeve spoke, trying to not giggle at their stand at unity. “I know your mams would wash your mouth out with soap if they heard such language!”
“Sorry Coach Quinn,” the two friends said in unison.
Looking to Liam who was now surrounded by all the girls, Maeve could she he was covering his mouth while his body shook in mirth, listening to the very interesting logical reasons his young fans used to explain their behavior and gain some personal time with their ‘favorite’ player.
“Tell you what ladies,” Liam spoke to the group after stopping his own silent chuckling. “If your coach doesn’t mind, I would love to.”
Just like earlier, all twenty girls started talking at once. “Tell us ... what do we do? … This is the best day of our lives! … I can’t wait to tell my older brother that Liam McCann was teaching us at practice!”
Maeve waved her arm toward the center of the field. “Please, be my guest. You have free rein for today’s practice.”
“Wicked.”
For the next forty minutes, excited pandemonium still ruled amongst the girls as Maeve and Liam worked together to teach each girl one on one and in small groups ways to tackle their newest football skills. She could see in the slight gestures he exhibited with the girls and occasional looks in her direction that Oonagh could be right, that he might still care about her and wasn’t the same man she watched shatter her dreams six years ago. Could she have made an error by holding on to her hurt feelings and never allowing him to explain what had really happened as he wanted to do now?
Deep in her heart, Maeve recognized the need to be honest with herself and admit that she was scared to discuss with Liam what had went wrong with their relationship and trying to understand after so many years had passed that both truth and reality were never partners working together. You had to ensure that you felt compelled to view any relationship at any given time, either through rose-colored glasses or sun-blocking shades.
By reviewing her past, Maeve now understood what was required in helping her to accept a certain amount of humiliation needed to face up to all the scariest parts of her memories with Liam. Once she faced those, she knew the genuine work would begin to rebuild the reality of what really might have happened between them. Only time would tell.
***
As Liam finished posing for one last selfie with seven-year-old Fiona and her mum, he hugged the spunky red-headed girl, giving her a few parting words of encouragement to keep practicing her kicking skills. He had an enjoyable morning working with the kids, something he’d missed doing with his own two nephews and niece before they had moved away with this sister and brother-in-law to America. He tried to visit them as often as possible, but sometimes his game schedule didn’t allow the extra time needed to travel back and forth to the US.
Glancing at his watch, he wanted to get a move on. The football practice with her team had been fun and an unexpected bonus when he arrived at the field looking for her. Swallowing a sliver of his Irish pride, he ambled over to where Maeve was busy loading up the boot of her car, chatting with a few of the football moms.
“Maeve, do you have a minute?”
Saying goodbye to the moms, Maeve closed the boot on her car before turning to look at him.
“Sure, what can I do for you? Thank you again for helping with the girls. I haven’t seen them so excited and motivated. Maybe I should start incorporating their other favorite players into our skills lessons.”
“I think that is a brilliant idea. I know how it felt at their age when I met my favor player. Changed my life in more ways than I could have ever imagine both for the good and the bad.”
“Hmm, that’s a story I’ve never heard. Who was your favorite player that changed your life? We all have one.”
Looking down at his feet before answering, he gazed back up with a sheepish smile, as his hair fell across his forehead and into his line of vision.
“Your dad.”
“Really–my dad?”
“Yeah. That’s a story for another time. He probably hasn’t even mentioned that we still talk from time to time.”
“No, never mentioned it. Both my parents know you’re a sore spot, and we make it a habit to not talk about you. But I’m not his keeper; so, he can talk to whomever he wants to.”
“Good. Well, anyway, I wanted to ask if you are free this afternoon; go grab a bite? We’ve been avoiding each other and need to have a chat to clear the air between us. Are you free?”
“Sure, we can have lunch.”
“Brillant. Why don’t we just take my car, and I can drop you back afterwards?”
“Okay.”
Once seated and buckled into his car, Liam started the engine and headed out of the parking lot, making their way out of Newry to one of their favorite restaurants, Fitzpatrick’s. Glancing over at Maeve, he noticed she seemed more relaxed now than at their first meeting at the GAA, where they both felt like survivors of an unexpected ambush. Fixing his eyes back on the road, he took the conversation plunge.
“Can I ask you a question that has always irritated me?”
“Sure, I guess?”
He counted to five before speaking, working to form his thoughts and words into a reasonable question that wouldn’t make Maeve become defensive.
“Why didn’t you ever return my phone calls, texts, or emails?”
Her silence following this question made him realize maybe he shouldn’t be so blunt. But Liam had nothing to lose. Either he might have the slimmest chance of winning her back, or he would end up with a permanent red penalty card stapled to his chest.
“Well, I guess that’s a logical question, but let me answer you with a question–can you explain what I saw?”
His blood turned into fridged ice water, freezing the air in his lungs, stopping his breathing. Those missing puzzle pieces of understanding that had caused her to cut him off and vanish from his life six years ago finally fell into place, completing the full picture. She had seen the elaborate prank instigated by one of her so-called friends, a very calculated ruse she had been planning to break them up; and it had worked.
“Do you still chat with or see Nula Flannery?”
“No, not since graduation. Besides, she turned out to be a bit of a cow, a very spoiled rich cow. Why would you bring her up?”
“Because that said cow set us up.”
“What are you on about? Are you telling me that what I saw that night and what I overheard your friends discussing as I ran out of the house in such embarrassment, was Nula Flannery setting us up?”
Gripping the steering wheel tighter while tapping his thumb against it in a steady staccato rhythm, Liam kept staring straight ahead at the road. The green landscape continued to roll by in its own silent mocking.
“Were you aware that Nula was starting trouble behind your back to break us up? At the time, neither one of us suspected it. She made sure she had planted plenty of false gossip to create doubts about our relationship. I will also add, I believed none of the gossip, since it was our relationship, and who would have known us better than ourselves what the truth was? Hell, things had been going so well between us for the last four years. Prior to that party, we had just gotten engaged.”
“Ugh!” Maeve covered her face with both hands, hoping to hold back the anger she felt rising from deep in her mid-section. Slowly running her hands down her face, they stopped at her mouth, covering it to not spit out the words she knew were hanging on her lips.
“My friends did not start what you saw, Maeve. They were recruited as stooges, very intoxicated stooges, I will add, who thought they were just having a bit of a lark with Nula’s prank suggestion. She’d even made sure that Eileen, who was always following her around like a hungry puppy, cornered me alone in that back room. I was pretty wrecked myself and didn’t know what was going on until I felt her tongue attempting to extract my tonsils.”
“Stop the car!” Maeve shouted. “Please stop the car … now!”
“What the feck!”
Tapping the brakes and shifting gears, Liam pulled off to the side of the road, stopping the car at the edge of a field across from Carlingford Lough and a spectacular view of Warrenpoint and the Mourne Mountains. Maeve already had been releasing her seatbelt before the car came to a complete stop, grabbing the passenger door’s handle to open it and jump out. Liam followed her around the car as she stood silently, looking at the ground with her hands on her hips.
“Maeve, I am so sorry. I couldn’t think of any easier way to tell you the truth. I didn’t remember the next morning, only that I had a splitting headache, and you were nowhere to be found. I kept calling you and calling you, which frightened me into thinking something bad had happened.”
“Well, something bad happened,” Maeve interjected with bitterness. “My friends, my parents … they didn’t know what to do. I was so destroyed. All I could think of was to get as far away from you as possible; so, I changed my departure date to move to the US. It was the only option I had for keeping my sanity and forget my humiliation.”
“Jezus! I love you, Maeve. That night, I planned to tell you that one of the US Football Clubs offered me an assistant coaching job and that I would join you. I …”
“Shut your gob for a second. Repeat what you just said.”
“What? That I was planning to tell you that night that I had been offered an assistant coaching job at one of the US Football Clubs and I was coming with you?”
‘No, right before that …”
Staring at Maeve, Liam’s brain rewound his short-term memory soundtrack, trying to remember the exact thing he had said, which was at this moment very important for him to clarify. Maybe it was his lost look of confusion that prompted Maeve to tell him the answer she was looking for.
“I love you Maeve?”
The silence surrounding them, involving this significant Freudian slip he’d just uttered, was not part of Liam’s original talking points. It was way too early to show his emotions, realizing that he had just missed the proverbial winning goal in his strategy to win her back. Damn it, what a bloody mistake on his part.
“Yes, I do Maeve. I never stopped.”
Hugging her arms around herself, Maeve looked up to the sky for a moment before speaking again.
“You know, this is a lot of baggage to sift through at one time. I appreciate your candor, but I need to digest this. If you don’t mind, I think we should postpone lunch. I really have little of an appetite now, or the capacity to articulate how and what I am feeling.”
“Of course, I understand. Shall we go?”
“Yes, please.”
Driving back in silence to Newry, Liam didn’t want to chance asking anything or try to explain something that might confuse Maeve even more. As they drove back in silence to Newry, Liam glanced at her from time to time, monitoring for any reaction he could read. However, she only responded with a cool and stoic expression fixed on her features, while the surrounding landscape rose and fell away as the car ticked off the distance to their destination. He continued mentally kicking himself for his stupidity, and as he finally pulled into the parking lot and parked next to Maeve’s car. Turning, he watched her exit his car.
“Thanks Liam. It was good to get a few things cleared up. Maybe …”
“I really am sorry, Maeve, that my lunch plans didn’t work out as we were hoping for this afternoon. But no worries. I can promise you that after this festival and match is over, you won’t have to deal with me any longer. I will have to shift my full focus to make the last cut for the Olympic team.”
Before she could respond, Liam shifted the gears of his car, extending a brief courtesy wave, and drove off out of the parking lot, leaving no question to himself about whether he needed to move on.