Chapter1

Beth's sister Lucy and her fiancée Charlie, welcomed Beth with open arms. They met her at the airport and after Lucy and Beth had their heartfelt hello Lucy introduced Beth to Charlie for the first time. It took them only 15 minutes to find her luggage(green of course). That time was pleasant, which was more then Charlie could say for the ride home. Beth and Lucy spent most of the time catching up. Lucy was shocked to find out that Lucy had just bought a house and wanted desperately to know why she hadn't already been told. Lucy told her that they would have told her but it only just happened and they hoped to keep it as a surprise. It was then Beth's turn to deliver a shock, Beth did not plan to ever return to new Mexico.

Eventually Charlie did speak and he made quite the mistake, he asked, "why are all of your things green?" ha, silly boy! Lucy sighed, remembering all too well her aunts warnings when she had first agreed to take Beth. However Beth took it all in stride and answered sharply, "Wouldn't you love to know," after that Charlie kept his mouth firmly shut. Unfortunate Beth thought, since his accent was one of the most beautiful things she had ever heard, soft in ways, and yet, it turned up at all the right spots making nearly everything he said sound witty. Then again she was sure to hear many more accents, more or less similar, during her time in Ireland.

When they arrived at the house, Beth was rather surprised to see that it was alone on it's street but for one other slightly medieval home. Both homes reminded Beth of a fairytale. Though Lucy and Charlie's resembled more closely a cottage hidden in the woods that Beth might relate to Snow White or Sleeping Beauty, the other home reminded her of the type of castle the prince would have carried the princess off to at the end of the story, right before the completely unrealistic, happily ever after. But the most enticing part of the castle was the unbelievably beautiful boy, hopefully her new neighbor, that was cutting his lawn.

Beth wandered in the general direction of the door, walking into only a few shrubs on the way. She managed to find the entrance of the house eventually and tried the knob but then realized that the door was, of course, locked. She waited on the stoop as Lucy fumbled momentarily with the keys then dropped them on the third of seven steps, picked them up and unlocked the door. They left the door open behind them as Charlie lumbered forward carrying many pounds of luggage.

The inside of the house was as sleeping beauty themed as the outside. She could practically see the three fairies wandering around, hiding their magic. Then slowly becoming less discreet. The purple smoke coming out of the fireplace was almost as real as Beth herself. She could feel it in her bones. Ireland was going to be a magical place for her.

Lucy tapped Beth on the shoulder to get her attention. She gestured down a hallways and Beth followed her. The whole house was made of stone including all of the interior walls. Beth's room was at the end of a long narrow hallway. It was smaller than the room she had had in new England, but ten times more beautiful. It suited Beth, though she would never say so, or know so for that matter.

Charlie shuffled in pulling her suitcase behind him. He lifted it momentarily then dropped in was a heavy thumping noise on Beth's new bed. The bed was gorgeous, it was made of some sort of gold toned wood and had gauze wrapped loosely around it, hanging from the cathedral ceiling. The house was charming. It felt more like home then Beth's aunts house ever had.

Beth had cleaned up and gone straight to bed the night before. Her sheets were lovely, soft and light. She wondered if it was the sheets, really, or if it was just that everything seemed minutely better in Ireland. She decided it was probably a little bit of both. When she woke up she scrunched down under the sheets and stayed there for a good twenty minutes. Eventually she felt ready to get up, but once she was out from under her new green sheets she suddenly grew cold and ran back to the bed.

Maybe an hour of this pattern produced itself before Beth finally made a run for the shower. She put it as hot as it could go and jumped in but burned herself and jumped back out again. She was making a habit of doing things like that it would seem. Once she had adjusted it properly she took a long shower and thought about how nice it was to be where she was. Then she thought about how cold it would be when she got out of the shower. Then she got out of the shower and decided she had underestimated how cold it would be.

She blew out her hair and put it back in a ponytail. She didn't wear much make-up and since she figured it would be a day of learning how things would work, she didn't apply any. She dressed in green shorts and a school t-shirt from her school in new Mexico, whose colors were luckily green and white. Finally she walked out to the kitchen and looked around in the cupboards until she found the Lucky Charms (A favorite that she and Lucy shared). She poured a hearty bowl for herself and then filled it to the brim with milk. She sat there eating her Lucky Charms and at some point Lucy came in and sat with her.

Lucy explained that they'd work in the garden that day. Then they might go to a concert on the green in Dublin. It was about a 45 minute drive but it was a Cranberry's cover band that Lucy really liked. Their mom had loved the Cranberries, music like that was what the girls had grown up on. Lots of punk rock, mostly stuff from the UK. Their mom had love anything English or Irish though after taking ninth grade history Beth had spent hours trying to explain to her mother the grand differences between the two. It had never sunk in and in fact their mom had never even distinguished which bands had come from which of the two countries.

After Beth finished her cereal the two of them put on some gardening gloves and headed outside. Beth loved to garden, one of the best things about it was that a lot of plants are green, as I said, Beth loved green. They walked out onto the back deck and found some potted plants that needed to be put into the ground. Then they meandered to the front yard where Beth noticed that the cute neighbor was now whipper-snipping the edges of his yard.

It didn't take Beth long to reach the conclusion that he would, without a doubt, be an important part of her adventure abroad. She just wasn't sure in what way, but she would have more time to think about that later, for the moment she was heavy with the burden of trying to speak in his presence, For at that moment Lucy waved at him and shouting hello over the roar of the whipper snipper. He stopped the unbelievably loud machine, allowing him, much to Beth's pleasure, to saunter over and say hello.

Now Beth wasn't and never had been one to swoon over a guy, but with his-presumably uncontrollable-red hair, that square jaw, and those broad shoulders, he was all but easy to resist. When he reached where they stood next to Lucy's tiger lily's, he finally noticed the presence of an extra person and asked in a voice as sweet as honey dew, "What's your name, love?" Beth nearly melted. No really, it was like a popsicle on a hot summers day. Like the wicked witch soaked in water, Beth very nearly became a pool of liquid swimming around the floor.

She felt she did well to stutter out, "it's, um, Elizabeth." She somehow managed to say it without fainting and so she forgave herself for forgetting that everyone called her Beth. Suddenly she wondered whether she should start going by Elizabeth here in Ireland…would it be easier than correcting him?

The enchanting boy lifted his chin in a lighthearted nod and stated, "pretty name for a pretty dame," realizing his rhyme he continued, "deary me, I'm a poet and I didn't even know it." Corny, maybe but in a voice as dripped with sweetness as syrup, it sounded much like the words of an angel. She'd never heard anything like it, and was scared that if he stopped talking she may not survive the heartbreak. She decided she's tell him everyone called her Beth if for the sole purpose of keeping him talking. For she had to keep him talking.

Apparently she also had to - in a moment very much un-Beth – giggle. Eventually she got around to it and said, "well, actually everyone calls me Beth," she giggled again and proceeded, "what's your name?"

"Gabriel," He sighed, obviously displeased with his mothers choice of name. I guess that would explain why he continued to say, "But you can call me Abe, everyone does." Beth however thought the name an appropriate choice for an angel and wondered if perhaps she had been right in thinking of an angel upon hearing his voice. In that moment she decided that she would not be calling him Abe!