There was no compère. but Shay and his band were going to play shortly and were setting up on the stage now. It had all gone very well, she thought, sitting back in her chair feeling satisfied with how the day had panned out. She heard Aisling’s laughter pealing across the room and she looked across at her radiant daughter. There was no doubt she was having the best day of her life. Quinn was no longer at her side and she assumed he’d gone to mingle. A finer son-in-law she couldn’t have wished for and Maureen knew if she’d been given the chance to handpick the man Aisling would marry it would be him. Brian would have too.
A foreign beat flared up making her and most of the other guests jump. She saw Aisling’s eyes widen, her hand fly to her mouth. Maureen swivelled her head to follow Aisling’s gaze to the area in front of the stage. Holy mother of Jaysus, there was Quinn spotlighted doing some fancy footwork as he quickstepped across the floor to the cha-cha-cha rhythm his face a study of concentration. He paused to gesture for Aisling to join him and Maureen held her breath, not knowing how she’d manage to do whatever it was she was about to do on the dance floor weighted down by that dress of hers.
Aisling didn’t know either but she knew she’d do her best because it didn’t matter one iota if she cocked up. She had Quinn and that was all that mattered.
NOREEN AND EMER WERE sitting next to each other, relaxed and content in each other’s company as the evening moved away from dinner and into the dancing. The table in front of them had long since been cleared, leaving a cluster of drinks – some full, some dregs. She was thin, Noreen thought, soaking up the sight of her niece in her turquoise dress as she sat engrossed in the band. She’d a pinched look about her that time and an unhappy marriage had wrought. No doubt she’d found her aunt much changed too, she mused. Despite the obvious etchings of age, she’d always see that little girl so eager to help her and Malachy in the shop when she looked at her though.
Emer felt her gaze on her and turned slightly in her chair. She smiled at her aunt and took her hand in hers giving it a squeeze. Noreen squeezed back. A burden had been lifted from her shoulders tonight. Weddings were about new beginnings and the loneliness she’d felt since Malachy’s passing had eased at the knowledge their niece was back in her life.
‘Shall we have a dance, Aunty Nono?’
Noreen was quite sure she’d be able to dance the night away so light did she feel. ‘In a minute, Emer. I promised Cormac the first dance.’
Emer gave her another smile and turned her attention back to the band, her toes tapping to the Irish beat. She too felt light, and freer than she had in a good long while. Life hadn’t been kind to her since her husband had left and as for their children, well, they were selfish mares the lot of them. All too caught up in their own lives to spare a thought for their poor mammy, left on her own struggling to make ends meet. She’d be alright now though. Aunty Nono had a tidy nest egg, and sure she was entitled to a generous helping of it, who else would she leave it to?
The End
Maureen’s SongBy Michelle Vernal
Copyright © 2020 by Michelle Vernal
Michelle Vernal asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
This novel, Maureen’s Song is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Maureen’s SongbyMichelle Vernal
Chapter 1
Dublin 2000
Maureen O’Mara stared into her bathroom mirror trying to be objective. Was the face reflected back at her the sorta face you’d want to kiss? Not a peck on the cheek kiss either, a proper kiss on the lips. She wasn’t too bad, she thought, angling her head so she only had the one chin and smiling the way she’d done for Aisling’s wedding photos. This pose was a hot tip she’d received from Marian who belonged to her rambling group. Marian had brought some pictures in to show the group, of her daughter Amy’s big day and while she’d looked as though she might have been sending a prayer to Him up there in most of the photos, Marian did not have so much as a whiff of a double chin. When it came to the business of having your photo taken once you were a certain age you had to decide what mattered more—looking as if you were saying a prayer or having an all-in-one chin-neck. Mind, if Aisling had been marrying a chap with a face the sea wouldn’t even give a wave to like Marian’s poor daughter, she’d have been looking heavenward too.
In the end, Maureen had found a happy medium and the feedback when she’d passed the photographs she’d had taken on her camera so as she didn’t have to wait for Aisling to sort the official wedding photographs out, was positive. The ramblers on the whole agreed she had a mysterious air peering out from under her hat, like so, which was exactly the look she’d been going
