"He brusquely led her up the garden path towards the walled garden of
Rathsallagh House. They leant forward, as if one, into the driving rain,
the moonlight glistening on the damp, dark foliage, the whispering of the
leaves drowning their heavy breathing, the air full of an earthy, musky
scent (unusually of the garden rather than of Matt) drowning both their
senses.
Matt's six foot frame offered little protection from the elements that
night to petite "size eight" Karina. The rain beat on relentlessly
but
served only to dampen her Gucci dress and accentuate her curvaceous body.
Her windswept, soaked hair served only to frame her innocent, trusting
face. Moonlight gleamed in her eyes.
Matt was clearly a man on a mission. The Heavens could continue to pour
forth their worst, but they would not dampen his fervour. He had to
prevent himself from waving a clenched fist at the skies. Like the
legendary Pony Express of the Wild West, neither rain nor sleet nor snow
would prevent Matt from delivering his message.
Matt and Karina pushed forward. And finally they were cocooned inside the
18th Century walled garden, finally alone, and at last Matt threw caution
to the wind (which was easy because a gale-force wind was uprooting trees
in County Wicklow that night), and at last he looked deeply into Karina's
eyes, his stare so intense that Karina instinctively checked her teeth for
forgotten spinach.
10 years they had been together, 10 years of an ever-deepening love, they
had been sweethearts since University, graduating together, moving
continents to be together, and now this Sunday night the 5th of August
2001, Matt had never felt more ready.
He eyed the puddles surrounding them, and decided to forgo the bended knee
routine that he had been practicing in front of his bedroom mirror for a
month now. It looked silly even then, but would sillier if he dropped on
one knee only to have a lingering damp patch afterwards on one trouser leg.
He gaze fell on Karina, he took a deep breath, and his voice cracked like a
nervous adolescent. "Karina," he said, "Karina will you marry
me?"
A decade before, the way only mothers know, Lily Curley knew something was
up when Karina came home for her photography class with two men in tow.
Karina was agitated, and Lily intervened making the guests tea and tried to
figure out just which one of the men was Karina's chosen one. The tall,
dark, handsome one, or the other one called Matt.
It was later that week, when Lily saw the hiace van pull up outside her
gracious, well-appointed home. Lily realised from the flurry of activity
overhead in Karina's bedroom that the driver of the van was important, that
this must be Karina's new boyfriend. The only Hiace vandriver that Lily
knew back in 1990 was Dustin the Turkey, and so despite herself, she was
visibly relieved when Matt stepped out.
Matt had graduated from UCD, and was taking a hiatus before plunging into
Post-Graduate studies. Matt's Summer was being financed by what Karina
would tell her friends was his "marketing bonbons". He would arrive
to the
Curleys bijoux home with chocolate Dime bars to bribe Karina's kid brother
Gavan. Matt became known affectionally as the "Candy Man" in Terenure.
Gavan's dentist knew Matt as "that cavity-inducing bastard:"
Matt's campaign to wow Karina off her feet had begun in earnest. Chocolate
for the kid brother, sorted. Compliments for Karina's mother, sorted.
Meaningful conversations about football results for Karina's father Austin,
sorted.
Karina was beside herself with joy. From the day that Niamh Clinton had
pointed Matt out to Karina with the expression "Will ya look at the head
on
him?" Karina had been smittened. Karina had followed Niamh's gaze, and
her
eyes rested upon a man among boys, a Giant among men, wheat among the
chaff. At last in the barren wasteland of UCD there was the perfect
embodiment of man, and he was Matt. He stood tall, he wore a blazer, and
he had carkeys to osentatiously jingle. He did not make eye contact.
In a parallel universe, albiet on the same University campus, Matt also
became aware of Karina without even laying eyes on her. Alex Leonard had
talked about this girl with gorgeous eyes, Eamon Maguire had interrupted
with "Cut the crap, she's out and out sexy."
Fate, Aphrodite, Venus and other assorted Gods of Love, including the
aforementioned Eamon Maguire, conspired to bring them closer together.
They started to meet in groups for a Friday night's drink, the UCD students
that is, not the Gods of Love.
Karina and besuited Matt would eye each other over pints of the black
stuff, painfully aware of each other's presence, but still painfully shy.
Eamon would sit there grinning, loudly proclaiming Karina's obvious
attributes "she's the bees'knees, she can drink as much Guinness as the
lads, and she pint-sized herself."
These casual meetings continued for about 2 months but it was at the Arts
Ball that year 1992 that Karina realised that something other than Matt's
sartorial sense was preoccupying her. Karina was on someone else's arm that
night being escorted to the Ball, and as she was being lead away, she
looked at Matt, and suddenly both knew, just knew, that this was it, this
was the Big One, this was the other soul that they each had been searching
for.
TO BE CONTINUED?..