Chapter 7

Grace continues the narrative:

The dance was to start shortly after the meal and the cutting of the wedding cake. As we entered the music room however, it was apparent that there was a problem.

“This room isn’t large enough for us to dance in,” Uncle Aengus said on entering.

“Yes, it’s a good bit smaller than the room in the Founder’s house. That’s one difference that wasn’t apparent from the outside,” Margie agreed looking around. “Perhaps it’s because the dining room is so large,” she suggested.

“What shall we do?” Aunt Gale asked standing next to Uncle Aengus.

“If we still intend to dance, it will obviously need to be somewhere else,” he answered.

“Where?” several people asked.

“I would think that the only possible answer is in the Hall in our Realm,” Kathleen immediately answered.

“Yes, I believe you are correct, my dear. Additionally, it will allow Owen and Grace to have their first look at the O’Connell Realm,” Uncle Aengus agreed.

“All of you go on ahead, we’ll bring the bride and groom as soon as they are ready,” Margie told those present who quickly disappeared leaving only Margie, Robert, Joe, Owen, and me standing in the music room.

“Would you like to change again?” Margie asked.

“No, I don’t think so,” Owen told her, as he gripped my hand.

“I believes dat I be goin up to ma room,” Joe told us.

“Don’t you want to go to the dance, Joe?” I asked.

“I’s be a bit too old for dat,” he told us with a smile. “Besides, de Minister talked to me ‘bout a lot o’ things, and I needs to think on dem,” he told us before turning to leave.

“We need to carry the music system back also,” Margie told us, and moved across the room to where some small black boxes sat against the wall, and I followed her.

“Music system?” I asked, unsure of what she meant.

“Yes, this is what played the music that you heard in the chapel for your wedding,” she told me

“Those little boxes made all of that music with its high level of sound?” I asked.

“Yes, let me show you,” she said and pressed a small spot on the middle box. Almost instantly Organ music came out of the other two boxes, which were only a bit larger, and the sound was very loud in the music room. Margie quickly touched another place on the first box, and the level of sound was reduced.

“How does it create such a loud sound? Gramophones are never that loud,” I asked when I could speak over the sound of the music.

“It uses electricity to amplify the sound, but this is only a portable unit. We have a larger unit for use in the auditorium where we are going to dance,” she told me.

“Does it only play organ music?” I asked next, as she moved her hand back to the small protrusion on the box and the music stopped.

“No, dear, it can play any kind of music just like a Gramophone. The music is recorded on these small devices that are then plugged into the system. They’re a lot like records, but each can hold up to eight hours of music,” she told me holding up a small rectangle that looked like a domino except it had no spots.

“When you plug the device into the player, a menu appears on the screen on top of the player, and you can select the tunes that you want to play, or play the entire list if you wished to,” she told me, as she inserted the domino into a small hole on front of the box. An area in the top of the box brightened and words appeared on it, as if by Magic. Margie moved her finger on screen on top of the box and the words changed, moving up the screen.

“Here is something that you may recognize,” she told me, and touched something on the screen on top of the box. Music started coming out of the other two boxes, and while I didn’t recognize the tune immediately, I knew that it was waltz.

“Shall we dance?” Margie asked and moved over to her Husband. Owen had crossed the room to me, and he took me in his arms to hold me close as we danced a slow waltz. The music lasted for what seemed like a long time with Owen’s arms around me, as we danced together through it. Eventually, Margie stopped the music.

“Shall we join the others?” she asked while collecting the three boxes of the music system and connecting them to each other. She picked them up by a handle that I hadn’t noticed then handed them to Robert. Gathering all of us into a group, we soon disappeared from the music room.

Instantly we reappeared in a HUGE room, where many others were still eating while some were dancing. The room was the largest private one that I had seen. While not as large as the train shed in Philadelphia, or even the one in Savannah, this was a private hall or something similar, and was easily over a hundred feet wide and twice that long. Churches seldom had halls this large. Additionally the many people here didn’t begin to fill it up, and Margie later told me that there were around a hundred members of the Clan present.

I immediately noticed that many of those dancing were so close together that they could have been having sex except that they were all dressed and in a public place. Those who had been to our house for supper were all there, and were dancing as close together as any of the young people were.

“You dance so close together?” I said to Margie in surprise.

“Yes, this dance is a bit more modern than the waltz, but it’s not difficult to learn,” she told me as a young man joined us for a moment to collect the portable music system that Robert still held.

The next thing that I noticed was that as large as the Hall was, the music could be heard in every part of it. I wondered how they did that until Owen took me in his arms again, and we began to dance as close together as the others were. It felt wonderful having his arms around me, and I put my head on his shoulder closing my eyes as we danced.

We had been dancing for some time before we noticed that the music had stopped. When we stopped to look around, we noticed that everyone was looking at us before they began to applaud. I turned as red as a beet in embarrassment.

“Don’t let it worry you, dear,” Aunt Grace who was near us told me. “When two young people are in love, they often lose track of everything but each other.” There were several more slow dances, but Owen and I were more careful to pay attention to the music.

I had noticed while dancing that there were several small barrels of beer or ale near the serving line, and that many of those present were enjoying their drinks. Owen went over to try some of it when the music stopped. He filled a glass with what looked like beer and tasted it. His smile was very broad as he lowered the glass.

“Would you like to try it?” he asked and held out the glass to me. I remembered what Margie had said about ale not being good for pregnant ladies, but I didn’t think that just a taste would hurt that much and took the glass to taste the ale. It had a fruity flavor and seemed stronger than the beer that my Father and Brothers had enjoyed.

“What do you think of O’Connell Ale? It’s what was served at dinner also,” Margie asked, as she stopped next to me.

“It tastes better than the beer that my male relatives drank, but it also appears to be stronger,” I told her.

“Yes, ale is a good bit stronger than most beers. This is the recipe that the Founders refined after they were married. It’s still brewed in the Otherworld which is a Realm in another Reality, and by our Relatives in the Third Reality, which is where we get ours,” she told me, before adding, “Hand the glass back to Owen and join me in some tea, it’s better for you and the baby.”

Shortly after we had finished our tea, and our Husbands had finished their ale, there was an announcement from the area at the back of the hall.

“Everyone who has them put on your dancing shoes, the Irish dances are about to begin,” the young man on the small stage told everyone. I could see a number of people changing their shoes following that, and they quickly formed up in groups for the dances.

“We’ll begin with reels. The first one will be ‘Sligo Maid’, but for the second and third dances there will be a choice which will be decided before those dances begin,” he told everyone. The people ready to dance had formed up in groups of three and began to dance as soon as the music started. Even Owen was tapping his feet to the music.

“Can you do ‘Sligo Maid’?” Margie asked him.

“Yes, my Cousins often danced to it,” he told her, and she caught Celeste’s hand, and the three of them joined the other dancers. Margie’s Husband, Robert, joined me, as I watched the dancers.

“You don’t know that dance?” he asked.

“No, my family never did any of the Irish dances. We children learned a few dances in school and at church socials, but they were mainly waltzes and square dances” I told him. “Do you know that dance?” I asked in return.

“No, we never danced like that on the ranch where I grew up. There were many traditional tribal dances and also some square dances, but not any Irish dances,” he told me.

“It looks like we’ll need to take dancing lessons, if we’re going to remain with Clan O’Connell,” Frank remarked as he joined us.

“Yes, it would appear that way,” I admitted, just a bit jealous of Margie and her Clan members. The second dance was performed to the music of ‘Pigeon on the Gate’, and the third dance to ‘Bonnie Kate’.

There was a break following the last reel, so everyone could recover and get something to eat or drink. The three of us were rejoined by our partners then.

“Don’t you know any Irish dances?” Margie asked me.

“No, my Family never danced like that, and I don’t believe that our neighbors did either,” I told her.

“We’ll need to plan some lessons for the three of you, so you can join the fun,” Margie told us with a twinkle in her eye. After a-half hour or so, the same young man made an announcement then they started the next round of dances.

“The jigs will start with ‘Blackthorn Stick’, and again the second and third jigs will be decided before they start,” he announced, as people began to form up in their groups.

“That’s my Cousin, Gaelin O’Connell whose Family has always been in charge of the music,” Margie told me pointing to the young man on the stage, before she and Celeste joined two other young women to form a group to dance. All of the groups had four people now instead of three, as they had for the reels. They were all soon dancing and stomping their way through them.

‘Blackthorn Stick’ was followed by ‘The Rose in the Heather’ and then ‘The Trip to Sligo’ before the dancing ended. Robert, Frank, and I had watched through all three of the jigs, but I was no closer to knowing the steps for them than I had been before they started. Owen had to give up after the first jig, as he wasn’t sure of the steps for the others. Apparently there were different steps for some of the dances.

“That will take a bit of practice,” he told me, as he joined the three of us.

“Did your Cousins do a lot of dancing?” I asked him, as the dancers took a break after the third jig.

“Yes, they were great dancers, but they danced to tunes that had slightly different steps than what the O’Connells use,” he told me.

“You’ll need to teach me some of those dance steps,” I told him. The slow dance music had started again, and Owen and I danced again for a time, but it was getting late, we were tired, and tomorrow was Sunday. We would be expected to be in church in the morning.

“We need to go home. We’re both worn out, and we have church tomorrow” I told Margie when I located her relaxing with her Husband, Celeste, and Frank.

“Certainly dear, it’s been a long day for all of us,” she agreed before turning to the others. “I’ll be right back,” she told them, before taking Owen’s hand and mine. We vanished a few seconds later to reappear in our lighted bedroom.

“We’ll see you on Monday,” Margie told us before vanishing again.

“I wonder what time it is?” I asked, and Owen reached for his pocket watch just as the clock in the sitting room struck eleven times sounding the hour.

“Yes, it’s eleven o’clock,” Owen agreed, returning the pocket watch to the pocket of his vest.

“We need to get to bed,” he told me next, and we quickly changed out of the clothes that we had worn to the party and into our sleepwear. I wanted to have sex tonight, the sex that we had missed after our wedding ceremony because of the supper with our guests, but on getting into bed, both Owen and I fell asleep nearly instantly.

I awoke warm and comfortable next to Owen in the feeble light just before dawn on Sunday morning. I was refreshed following a good night’s sleep, but still wanted the sex that we had missed yesterday. Reaching out, I found Owen’s shaft as hard as ever and pulled his nightshirt up to begin stroking it. His eyes soon popped open.