Chapter 18

"Gaelan did you bring the Irish dance music?" Grandmother Katie asked her youngest Son.

"Yes, I brought it, Mom," he answered.

"Good. Get ready to play it after everyone has a chance to recover," Grandmother told him.

"What kind of Irish dance music do you have?" Shannon asked on hearing this, as all four girls gathered around Gaelan.

"There are a lot of tunes on the list. Some I've never played. We usually only play certain ones that our Moms like. They are the ones that they know the dance steps to," Gaelan told her.

"Can we hear some of them?" Sheena asked, excitedly.

"Sure. I'll just adjust it to play in the headphones."

"Play the ones that don't get much use. We'll see if we know any of them," Shannon told him, and he keyed in a number of tunes. The girls listened to the music coming from the headphones for a short time.

"Yes, we know that one!" Sheena said shortly. "Try another," she requested. They knew several of the tunes and made sure that Gaelan was aware of which ones they wanted, as all four girls went over what they had heard.

A short time later, Grandfather Mark made the announcement.

"The next few dances will be Irish jigs and reels. Those of you that will be participating, go ahead and form up your groups. The first dance will be a jig, 'The Blackthorn Stick'."

"We know that one!" Shannon said excitedly, as she and Sheena joined Pat and me to complete our foursome for the jig. The music started a minute later, and we all took up the steps. Shannon and Sheena were really excited by the time the dance was finished. They had performed very well during the jig, and it was apparent that they had done a lot of dancing before being abducted.

"We don't have the correct shoes here for dancing," was their only complaint.

"The next dance will be a reel, 'The Fairy Reel'," Grandfather announced, and we formed into threes for the reel, as Clare and Cathleen joined the four of us.

There were many people dancing now including our entire family, and numbers of our employees and their children. I saw our four female Cousins paired up with two young men for the reel. Even our Parents, Grandparents, our sisters and male cousins, plus our Aunts and Uncles joined in. The music began and we all started to dance. Again our girlfriends showed a great familiarity with the dance, and didn't appear to be worried about not having the correct shoes.

"There will be a short break for everyone to recover," my Dad announced when the reel finished. During this break, Shannon and Sheena talked with Uncle Gaelan, and returned to us smiling.

"Your Uncle will play the tunes that we selected next so we can dance for you," Shannon told us before she stepped up to the mike, as she had seen our Dad and Grandfather do.

"We will be doing three reels for you next. The first is 'An Colur ar an nGeata' or Pigeon on the Gate. The second will be 'Caitin Ghleoite', or Bonnie Kate. The last will be 'Gearrchaile Shliggh' or Sligo Maid. Thank you," she finished with a smile, and joined Clare and me on the floor.

As the music started, the girls led off, and Pat and I did our best to keep up with them. In a short time we got into rhythm with them, and we all danced and stomped through the three reels. By the end of Sligo Maid, we were all worn out, and collapsed in a group hug. There was applause for our efforts, and our Grandmothers were smiling broadly.

"We'll start dinner now since everyone should have worked up a good appetite. I know that I have, just watching our young people," Grandfather Mark announced with a large grin.

The dishes had been uncovered, and we could smell all of the various things that had been prepared. There was a smorgasbord of various ethnic dishes: Irish, English, French, German, and of course American. There were also cold pints of O'Connell's Irish Ale to wash it all down with.

There were so many different good things to eat that it was hard to decide what to choose. Just a few of the choices that appealed to us were brats and sauerkraut, cheeseburgers and fries, and hot dogs and baked beans. Pat and I finally settled for crisp fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, cut green beans, and coleslaw. We had passed on the potato salad as we had chosen the mashed potatoes. We had started with an appetizer of tortilla chips and a homemade medium peach salsa.

Clare and Cathleen had chosen a green salad to start with. Shannon and Sheena had put some wings on their plate and looked at everything else in confusion.

"Why don't you get a chicken breast or thigh?" I asked them.

"At home, the men got all of the large pieces of meat," Shannon explained.

"You aren't there, and we have plenty of chicken, or whatever else you want to eat," I told both of them.

"It would be all right?" Sheena asked quietly.

"Certainly," Pat assured her, and placed a chicken breast on her plate and Shannon's also, while I helped them to the green beans, but they wanted the potato salad instead of the mashed potatoes.

"Would it be all right to have some of the fish?" Clare asked.

"Yes, if you would like that," I told her. She and Cathleen put some of the fish on their plates, and I helped them to some green beans and also the coleslaw. I showed them where the Tartar Sauce was.

"How can you have such large varieties of food at this time of the year?" Cathleen asked looking at all of the various dishes.

"We have many ways to preserve food so it doesn't spoil," Pat told her.

"Yes, we have drying, pickling, and salting too at home, but these foods don't appear to have been either dried, pickled, or salted," she answered.

"No, they haven't been. We have additional ways to preserve food. There are canning and freezing," Pat told her. "Also we can buy food that was grown in other parts of the world and quickly shipped here."

"This is a most wondrous Reality then," Clare said, as she bit into a chunk of fresh tomato.

It was by now late afternoon here, and we had been up for a lot of hours already today. After stuffing ourselves with good food and ale, we relaxed on chairs at the side of the room for a while, but when the music started again, we were ready to call it quits. That is we were until Grandmother Katie announced that the singing would start in a few minutes.

"We want to hear your family sing," Shannon told Pat and me, as the other girls nodded in agreement.

"All right," we agreed, as our Grandmothers appeared on the small stage with their harps.

"Your Grandmothers play the Irish harp!!" Sheena said excitedly on seeing them.

"Yes, and so do several of our Aunts," Pat told the excited girl. Our older Aunts had joined them now and they began with 'An Caitin Ban', a lament for a small white kitten, and then 'a bhios i gcomhnai gaire' a tune about one who is always smiling. They were our Grandmothers' favorites.

After that our Aunts continued with 'Carraig Donn', 'Oro mo bhaidin', or 'Oro My Little Boat', and they finished with 'Green Jackets'. Our Grandmothers accompanied them on their harps. All four of our women were smiling now and had been singing along with some of the songs.

"We know slightly different versions of those songs," Shannon told Pat and me, as our women all smiled. Our Sisters had been sitting nearby and heard then quieting singing along with our Aunts.

"Come up and sing with us," Laura invited our girlfriends after that.

"What songs will you sing?" Sheena asked. "We may not know the songs."

"We're going to do 'Seoladh Na Ngamhna', and 'Slaibn Na mban'," Gale told her.

"I don't think that we know them," Clare told her in disappointment.

"How about if we sing a verse and then you repeat it?" Katie suggested. "Then we can all sing the chorus together."

"Yes, we could try that!" Cathleen agreed brightly. Margie went to talk to our Aunts and Grandmothers. She soon waved the others over to join her. After a short discussion, Aunt Edana stepped up to the mike to make the announcement.

"Our nieces with the O'Connell and the O'Toole Sisters will perform next. They will be doing 'Seoladh Na Ngamhna', or 'Driving the Calves', and 'Sliabh Na Mban', or 'The Mountain of the Women'," she told those assembled. Quite a few of them were more interested in the ale just then, than they were in the singing, but they stopped when the girls started singing.

Our sisters were on the right side of the stage as you face it, and our girlfriends stood in a group on the left side. Our Grandmothers were in the back ground between the two groups to accompany them on their harps.

Our Sisters started in clear strong voices and did the first verse. They were followed by our girlfriends, who weren't quite as clear, it being the first time they had sung the song, but they had strong voices and could hit the high notes very well as they repeated the verse. They both then sang the chorus, that they had gone over, together. The rest of the song went on like that, as did the second one. There was considerable applause when they finished.

"You girls have very nice voices," Grandmother Margie told our girlfriends after they finished. "When you get settled, you must come to our music room, and we'll work with you on your voices plus help with the arrangements for various songs. We have many recordings of Mary O'Hara, the famous Irish Folk Singer. She has an exceptional voice."

"Yes, Thank you, Grandmother," Shannon assured her.

It was now well after 6:00 PM, and we had been up for a very long time, having started the day in Frankfurt this morning. I went to talk to my Dad.

"We need to get some sleep," I told him. "We have been up for well over eighteen hours, and are all tired."

"All right!" he agreed, but asked, "Is sleep really what you need?"

"Yes, we spent a lot of time this morning instructing our Uncles in Magic, and then time with them and Grandfather Michael before returning here," I told him.

"Go ahead then. The party is just getting going good, and it will go on for quite some time, or at least until we run out of ale," Dad told me with a grin. I returned to Pat and the girls, and we transferred to the hall in front of the guest rooms at our Grandparents' house.

"Do you want the bathroom first?" Pat asked after we materialized in the hallway.

"No. Go ahead and use it. We'll change first," I told him. In our room, we changed into the bedclothes that we had been using previously. By the time we were finished, Pat and his women were done in the bathroom, and we were able to use it. We were all tired, and there was only a little kissing and hugging before we went to sleep.

We awoke early the next morning after nearly ten hours of sleep. The ale that we had consumed at the party had all been processed over night, and we all had a great need to use the bathroom. After using the facilities, we all felt better. I got out the tooth brushes, tooth paste and mouth wash that I had packed yesterday, and we all cleaned the furry taste out in our mouths. Pat and his women were ready to use the bathroom as soon as we finished.

Since it was early, and no one else was up yet, we returned to our room for a little hugging, kissing, and some early morning sex. I made sure to set the privacy spell and a noise suppression spell also. Later at around 8:00 that morning, Grandmother Margie knocked on our doors. "Breakfast," was all that she said. We were just resting and enjoying each other's company by then and got up and dressed.

Breakfast in the kitchen consisted of ham and eggs with waffles, strawberries, and honey. Grandfather Mark laid out the itinerary for the next couple of days during breakfast.

"After breakfast, we'll go over to your houses so you can look at them and judge what furniture you will need before we go to the warehouse to pick it out. The houses will also need a little use of the cleaning spell, and we'll turn the heat up so they'll be comfortable.

"Tomorrow after services, there will be a family meeting so you can go over your trip just once and not have to repeat it thirty times. On Monday there is work needed on the fields, and you need to get back to your education after this holiday," he finished with a grin.

"Yes sir!" Pat and I agreed, but wondered what holiday we were supposed to have been on?

"What about the girls' education?" Grandmother Katie asked.

"The 'Book of Dreams' has been instructing us in the basic subjects taught in your schools. It still has several days of instruction for us," Shannon told Grandmother.

"All right. We'll wait until after the 'Book of Dreams' is finished to worry about that then," Grandmother agreed.