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Aghna came from Sligo, Ireland, situated way up in up in the Northwest coast of the Emerald Isle. Its breathtaking mountainous scenery inspired the likes of the acclaimed poet William Butler Yeats. Yeats was known to frolic with the fairies in the backwoods, and his body now lies buried in the County of Sligo beneath the truly majestic looking Benbulben Mountain where he penned many a transcendent verse.
Aghna has been a fixture in the Duboce Triangle for the last decade, dating from the time the then 21 year fiery lass settled into the neighborhood after an introductory tour of America in a rented Mustang convertible that she drove from New York City to San Francisco with three of her best chums from back home. After an incredulous two week adventure across the states with her mates that Hunter S. Thompson would have been proud of, she was shocked to find out that the two week “unlimited” mileage rate of $199.95 ended up costing her almost $1,500. “Must have seen me getting off the boat!” she was heard to lament with that gorgeous Irish brogue. Even though her friends were able to pony up a little bit to help defray the extra cost, Aghna wound up paying over a thousand dollars which destroyed her little nest egg which was to have enabled her to kick back and enjoy the town of San Francisco before looking for meaningful employment.
That turn of events brought her to the Zen Gardens in the Duboce Triangle one morning. She was at the little café at about ten o'clock to meet two young ladies from Dublin with whom she had talked via a phone call the prior day. They had a shared house in the neighborhood that was rented out by a group of Irish kids. They were always willing to make room for one of their sisters, provided she had a little money to cover her portion of the rent and kick into the community alcohol pool. Hoping to find a cheap and decent living arrangement, Aghna arranged to meet them at the café to talk over the situation that morning. As Aghna was ordering an Irish breakfast tea and soaking in the ambience of this unique neighborhood café, she noticed a posting on the little community bulletin board, right next to the cash register;
Wanted: Nurse.
Irish born desired. Man -30's-, Recovering mobility, needs some daily care, errands run, light cleaning, meals fixed. Pay negotiable.
Matt 555-9090
“You wouldn't happen to know anything about this situation?” Aghna said in her most polished country Irish inflection to Bill McCardle, who used to open the place up back then.
“One thing is for sure, Matt won't be looking for anyone from Sligo,” Bill said bitingly. “From what I hear the women are far too stubborn and a bit too much on the dreamy side for him. They are as likely to go off in the countryside and dance with the fairies as fix a man a decent meal in the evening. No, he's most likely looking for a Dubliner,” he finished with a slight wink in his deeply Scottish tinged dialect.
“Stubborn!” Aghna screamed, “and what do you mean dreamy? I'll show you something dreamy you moldy Scottish …” and she looked like she was getting ready to take a good swing at him with a practiced right hand, when she happened to notice two young women walking through the door, laughing hysterically at her. Seeing as how these two looked Irish, Aghna figured that she was probably the victim of a little practical joke, for of course she had mentioned that she was from Sligo when they talked last night, and seeing as how this was their neighborhood café, Aghna deduced that the Scotsman was in on it as well.
“So you all a bunch of jokers, thinking you're playing with a little culchie girl,” Aghna said in her little put out girl's voice.
“Don't be such a puss face. We were just having a little fun with our new housemate. If we didn't cod you, it means we hate you, and we liked you from the get- go speaking on the phone last night. We would have invited you to the house, but it's a mess this morning, and it most likely would have scared you off! We wanted to get to know you a little better. Here put a good strong shot of this in your tea and grab us a table outside. We can all get a little locked and really get to know each other. But first, me and Shannon are going to have to kiss-up to this old Scotsman for a couple of freebies cause we seem to be dead broke after getting all Gee-eyed last night,” Saoirse said to Aghna as she handed her a pint of Redbreast Irish Whisky.
“That job's for real; we weren't just giving you the horse's hoof. I'll catch you up on the details. Pay's not great, but it's cash and the guy is cool. The man is Matt Dunlop. He's got diabetes and went through a nasty spell and ended up losing most of his left foot, and the Doctor had doubts about the whole leg as our man was weak and his spirit broken. Saoirse was the first nurse he had after his release from the hospital. She worked for him for 6 months and got him walking with crutches and working out with weights every day. Then she got this job tending bar at Hooligan's 6 nights a week and passed the torch to me,” Shannon explained.
“You wouldn't have guessed it, but our girl Shannon here is quite the nurse herself,” Saoirse said with a smile as she got back the whisky from Aghna. “She got him off the crutches and walking all around Duboce Park a couple of times a day, but our little Duchess flashed those magnificent diddies of hers and got herself a prime nice paying job cleaning up for a bunch of priests out in the Sunset District, which means that the torch is passed to you. Hopefully our bogtrotter sister can get him walking around without that cane and start chasing the young girls in the neighborhood again. Enough of this blatter, I'm going to sweeten that bloody Scotsman up with a couple of drops of Irish dew. Grab us a table outside and we'll be there shortly,” Saoirse said defiantly as she walked over towards Bill with a very seductive smile
The three of them sat down to a get acquainted session that would last until the noon hour. The girls had a fabulous time telling stories, laying plans and giving Aghna
the lowdown on living cheap in San Francisco while still partying like a young Irish woman should. They made plans for Aghna to come by the house later that evening, and if all was agreeable, she would move in that night with a little initiation party to follow over pints at The Hurricane later that night.
She did move in, and under Aghna's care, Matt's physical rehab flourished. Not only did he ditch the cane, but soon enough he and Aghna were taking the #7 Haight Street bus to the entrance of Golden Gate Park where the two of them would walk for hours in the beautiful three square mile city park on the edge of the Upper Haight. Although Matt was still in a lot of pain from the amputation, he said that the time he spent with Aghna in the park was so magical that he never noticed. It seemed that Aghna not only had a gift of healing, but also had a magical way about her when she was deep in the thick of nature. Matt would tell stories of how she had befriended a whole slew of squirrels, gophers, crows, ravens and an occasional stray cat that would she would meet up with during the course of their daily walk. The whole bunch, Mike said, would be carrying on a conversation between them like they were long lost friends, speaking in an alien tongue. After their walk, they would return back to Matt's apartment where he would go through his weight training exercises while Aghna tended to his daily errands and fixed him something to eat.
After three months, the results were truly astounding. Matt had become so much more muscular and stronger; and the long walks in the park not only rejuvenated has fragile legs, but also gave a nice color to his former pale skin. Although Aghna was always quick to defer the credit, everyone in the neighborhood could see that Aghna had a very unique gift when it came to helping those who have been burdened with some very significant health hurdles.
The Duboce Triangle is home to some very sad instances of human suffering, ranging from advanced cases of AIDS to heavy drug and alcohol abuse and addiction, as well as the wide range of serious infamies found amongst the rebels, outlaws and disbelievers who call the neighborhood home. As Matt was getting to the point where he was independent enough to make it on his own, more than a few people in the neighborhood put out feelers as to her availability, but Aghna was always vague about her plans other than to say that she had other commitments, and that she probably wouldn't be available for quite some time to come.
About a month later, she returned to Sligo, leaving hastily one Sunday morning with nothing more said about her reason for traveling other then she had some matters back in Sligo that needed her attention and she would be back in the Duboce Triangle in three or four months once “her house was back in order”. Her work with Matt was finished as he had reached a point of independence and both of them knew it. However her departure staggered both her housemates and the neighbors because Aghna is a genuine loveable person who is a joy to come in contact with during the course of the day and the kind of roommate who adds a very positive element to a living situation. Above all, there was an underlying feeling in the neighborhood that she was something special.
Since the time that primitive man banded together in groups, there have always been individuals who have had the power to heal their fellow tribe members either by spell, potion, prayer, science or touch and these individuals have always been jealously coveted by the tribe so that they might be at hand should some sort of tragedy strike a fellow member. The Duboce Triangle was no different. The neighborhood had seen Aghna work her magic on Matt and they wanted to keep her near-by so that she would be available to soothe and restore the inhabitants of the neighborhood when the occasion arose.
However, that was not to be the case as she was leaving Sunday morning and there was nothing left to do but throw Aghna one fine going away party, so as to entice her to return promptly. Indeed it was an excellent bash, with Saoirse and Shannon hosting the festivities which started with a neighborhood BBQ in Duboce Park with food, beverages, music and an amazing sunny day bringing out the neighbors in force. As the sun began to set, everyone took a second breath and started in for the next round at the Irish kid's house. Saoirse and Shannon had a keg of Guinness flowing before anyone even thought about sobering up. It was a wild affair with a couple of bands playing in the backyard, the house reverberated with the sounds of people enjoying themselves with good conversations and laughter, and of course with liquor flowing freely.
Around two in the morning, Saoirse, Shannon and Aghna all met up on the back porch steps as agreed upon previously. It seems that Shannon's Aunt had smuggled in a jar of poteen, the legendary Irish moonshine, and the girls were going to do a couple of round of drinks in a special going away ceremony, for Aghna. Saoirse poured the first round and gave a long and rambling toast to Aghna which had all within earshot bursting with laughter in one breath and shedding tears with the next.
In due time, feeling brave, for poteen is a mystically potent Irish drink, and owing to a n Irish tradition that “a bird never flew on one wing” Shannon sloshed out a second round and was just about to start in on her own heartfelt liquor fueled toast when she noticed Nick Kelly and Sean Haddington making their way over to where the girls were sitting on the back porch steps, “Tis a girl's party on the steps, don't be trying to bum no liquor unless you're capable of wearing a dress, you bleeding bowser's” Shannon said hoping to preempt any attempt by the tipsy pair to bum some of the poteen.
Shannon's words only enlivened the pair as the rail thin Nick retorted sharply, “Feck off! I wouldn't bother me arse about your drink, but I do find it a bit gleeful to hear two Dublin brasser's like yourselves talking about wearing a feckin' proper dress. As for that culchie girl, I bet the only time she's wearing a dress is when she's out frolicking around in the meadow with all the fairies in the Sligo countryside.”
“Me cousin married a bogger girl from Sligo, and ended up cutting her loose within three years,” Sean added. “He said that she wasn't so bad when she lived with him in Dublin, but when they went to visit her parents and relatives out in the bogs of Sligo, she was like a totally different person and would think nothing about rising out of their common bed in the middle of the night, and take off and go dancing in the dark meadows with scarcely a stitch of clothes to keep her proper. And when he would be so rude as to ask her the next morning about what she been doing out there, she would look at him like he was the devil himself and tell him to mind his own business, saying it was part of her religion and clam up,” he added as he began to take a step on the stairs towards the girls in a menacing manner.
“Mind your own business is some fecking good advice you bloody Jackeen!” Aghna said as she delivered a strong right handed punch that landed on Sean's left eye and sent him sprawling across the backyard. She then grabbed Nick by his thick bushy Irish hair and ran him head first into the trunk of a nearby large Oak tree in their backyard.
“You know, I may be a silly little bogtrotter girl, but I know enough never to interrupt a good bye toast, you freckin eejits. Now if either one of you two wants to get up, I'll finish what I started, else I'm off to bed. This poteen has gone to me head and I'm afraid I might be puking on the flight home if I don't get some rest and clear myself.” Aghna said as she walked up in the house and into her room.
This story was repeated many a time and escalated but the bottom line was a new higher level of respect came to grow from the neighborhood and to be garnered on Aghna. She became a bantuathaig like cult figure in the eyes of her Duboce Triangle neighbors. The bantuathaig were a group of women warriors in ancient Ireland who were called the prophets of the tribe because of their ability to communicate with the supernatural world. In battle, they were as fierce, if not fiercer, then their Celtic brothers. They also had the gift of the touch, which they used to heal the sick and infirm.
Over the course of the next decade Aghna came and went with a fairly regular pattern. She would arrive with little notice which sent the neighbors scouring in council as to who in the neighborhood could best benefit from her healing attention. However, it was almost always a clear cut choice due to something recent that happened to someone in the neighborhood which seemed to precipitate a psychic call to Aghna. A silent plea that her special abilities where needed in her second home-the Duboce Triangle.
One time she came just after Bill Thomas had ended up in the hospital due to a month long bender which his sixty-three year old body just couldn't take. Oh, he was rock and rolling for a while, drinking pints of Wild Turkey and hitting the crack pipe, until one chilly San Francisco morning, his neighbors found him passed out on a bench in Duboce Park wearing just a pair of badly soiled boxer shorts and one sock. He was in no shape to resist when the paramedics came and transported him up the street to Her Mother of Mercy Hospital where he looked to be a hopeless case as it seemed that the boozing life had finally gotten the best of him. However within the week, Aghna had arrived and made arrangements with the hospital staff to release Bill under her care. She brewed some mysterious Irish potions which she spoon fed him and her homemade soups seemed to reinvigorate his appetite. Within the week he and Aghna were taking long walks around the neighborhood as the neighbors gently teased Bill over his latest antics. But there was a genuine sense of relief in everyone's eyes for the neighborhood really liked Old Wild Bill because he was one of their own, and they knew he was going to be alright now that Aghna was back in town.
The logistics of her housing arrangements changed a couple of years ago when the Irish kids split up with Saoirse taking up with a lover in the neighborhood and Shannon returning back to Dublin to revisit her roots. With that occurrence, it became a very high honor in the neighborhood to host Aghna when she was in the Duboce Triangle. To say that the neighborhood extended the red carpet would be an understatement. She had become royalty in a neighborhood of anarchists. Yet she was always to return to her native Sligo after she had nurtured her latest patient back to health. The neighbors were never to question her motives or ask of her return date as her mysterious ways were thought to be just part of the unique nature of her whole character, of which they were totally in awe. What she did in Sligo was none of their concern. However, that was to change.
Norm Johnson was an elderly black man who, with his precious wife Yolanda, had roots in the neighborhood dating back to when it was a strictly all black area that had sprung up from the hopping Fillmore jazz corridor which used to be right up the street. As the neighborhood changed, they changed right with it and their new neighbors came to respect the Johnson's as a source of elderly wisdom and they came to relish their new senior advisory role and became chummy with the assortment of new bohemian flavored neighbors who passed through the Duboce Triangle.
About four months ago, Norm was involved in a tragic car accident when an RV blew through the stop sign on Webster and Waller, just as Norm was backing out of his garage to go gas up the car so he could take his wife to church on Sunday morning. The ensuing collision hit Norm right on the driver's side door of his old Buick LeSabre shattering his left knee, which was already aching from advanced arthritis. Although the driver was fully insured and Norm was worked on by the best surgeons, his knee just didn't seem to respond to physical therapy and he had actually spent the last couple of months almost entirely bedridden, much to the chagrin of Yolanda, who dearly wanted to see her beloved husband back on the mend and mingling with the neighbors once again. They had been together for almost 60 years and she just couldn't bear the thought of him becoming bed ridden and down trodden.
As the days passed, Yolanda started to pin her hopes on Aghna's return. Aghna had departed about a month prior to Norm's unfortunate accident and had actually had become fairly close with Norm and Yolanda as her last patient was Yolanda's Aunt Jessica, after Jessica had broken her collar bone and hip in a household fall. Yolanda had witnessed Aghna's magical ways first hand as the doctors were mystified how this elderly woman healed so quickly that in three months she was dancing a decent Irish jig at the obligatory going away party for her nurse, Aghna, who was headed back for a visit to her home in Sligo as was her usual custom after her patient had healed.
Another month passed and Norm's condition wasn't improving in the least. Yolanda became a little desperate and used the excuse of bringing over a couple of pieces of her homemade peach cobbler pie to knock on Saoirse's apartment door, just a half a block up on Waller Street. Aghna had introduced her best friend to Yolanda during the time Aghna was caring for Yolanda's Aunt and surprisingly the two hit it off quite well as Saoirse came to see Yolanda as her surrogate American grandmother. Yolanda had listened for hours about Saoirse go on about her love life, how she missed Dublin, etc, so she wasn't exactly out of line, but she was born in the South and still had those proper manners. What she was about to ask of Saoirse boarded on invading their dear Aghna's privacy.
What precipitated this new urgency was a visit that she and Norm had with the doctor yesterday. Norm wasn't able to use the crutches, as the knee wouldn't take the weight, so he had to be pushed in a wheelchair the whole time. The doctor warned Yolanda that Norm's condition was rapidly deteriorating and that if he didn't get into some regular physical therapy, the muscle degeneration would soon become irrevocable for a man of his age. To drive his point home, he said that Yolanda should seriously consider some kind of institutional care for Norm, as that might be the right thing to force his physical rehabilitation.
Saoirse could see that Yolanda was carrying a heavy burden as she rang her doorbell. And all though she truly loved Yolanda's peach cobbler pie, she could sense that Yolanda wanted to talk and hugged her warmly. “Come on in, dear, something's wearing heavily on you and you need to let it out. The world's leaning far too gravely on your shoulders this afternoon. Come on. I'll fix us a spot of tea and I'll let you do the talking for a change. Me God, it's after 3:00, I'll think I flavor that tea up with a little Irish whisky, if you don't mind. It will give your tongue a bit of courage too.”
Saoirse escorted Yolanda into her living room, and then went into the kitchen
to make the tea. She reemerged in four or five minutes with the teapot, cups and her little silver flask full of Knappogue Castle Irish Single Malt Whisky. As she walked back into the living room, she could see Yolanda fighting to hold back her tears.
“Let those tears out, hon. Me, Grandma used to say that it was the Lord's way of cleansing your soul of the anxiety which tends to cloud your judgment,” Saoirse said as she went over and hugged Yolanda deeply. There was a special bond between these two, and Yolanda knew in her heart that with her friend Saoirse's help, she would be in contact with Aghna fairly soon..
The two of them spent the next hour together in a heart to heart talk. Saoirse was the closest friend Aghna had in the neighborhood, but even she didn't have a means of directly contacting her as it seems that Aghna lived way out in the country such that she didn't really exchange letters, calls or emails with her. When Aghna was about to return to the Duboce Triangle back when she was living at the Irish house, Saoirse would only get a postcard from her with a couple of weeks notice that she was about to return.
“The postcards,” said Saoirse “was always of some shot of our famous flat headed mountain, Benbulben. I know she lives near Drumcliff, which is the closest town to Benbulben. In fact,” she said excitingly as she rose up and walked into her bedroom and started looking through her closet, “I do have an address. You mustn't tell a soul of this mind you to anyone cause if my mate ever found out about how I snagged him, he might be calling me a witch or something,” she said as she returned into the living room with a small hat sized box.
“It will go no further then myself, on that you have my word,” Yolanda said as she peeked curiously at the box.
“Well you remember the time we first made friends in the neighborhood,” Saoirse continued, “I was raving mad in love with me old my man Nick and he wouldn't give me the time of day. Aghna saw me pining away and said that she would send me a lucky charm that would woe his heart. My gosh she did,” Saoirse said as she pulled out an intricately woven head laurel made of Irish wildflowers. “When I got it, I put's it on like it's me own little Easter bonnet and took a walk around the neighborhood and I started attracting men like dogs to a bone. So, I take off the charm and hung out in the Zen Café until Nick walked in like he usually does in the late afternoon. I casually slipped on the charm and our eyes touched with the kind of passion that we were in the sack together before the night was over.
Yolanda was a little shocked, “Are you saying that she's a witch?”
“We Irish don't call it witchery, but rather like to say that she is in touch with the good people. Aghna didn't like to talk about it much,” Saoirse continued, “but once in a while when me and her were getting a little Gee-eyed on a late night binge, she would get to dancing her crazy dance like she was a gypsy moth fluttering in the wind. So I asked her where she learned to dance in such a way and she just giggled on about the late night festivals she used to attend with her supernatural friends, the fairies, in the shadows of Benbulben.”
Yolanda looked shocked and said, “You're joking! She was dancing with imaginary creatures in the middle of the night. Is she crazy?”
“Just because most people can't see them, it doesn't mean that they don't exist. The Irish have a long legacy of our belief in the good people and when you get out in the backwoods, where Aghna hails from, you will always find one or two of the villagers who has the ability to actually communicate with them. I have never the seen the fairies myself, but my grandfather had a niece who went out dancing with them. She was from County Cork and quite famous locally in her time,” Saoirse said and then concluded. “She was quite the musician. The fairies taught her to play magically and there wasn't a fiddler around that could match her. That's what the good people do to those they like; teach them something to spread a little kindness to the average man's soul who walks around in ignorance of their magical ways.”
“So that's how she got her gift of healing?” Yolanda said softly to Saoirse.
“No medical doctor, except if he's from Ireland, would accept her talents, but she has a very benevolent type of magic, a gift is a better way of talking about it. Now Americans don't understand this type of real magic being so snowed under by Hollywood's laughable little stereotypes of Leprecons and pots of gold, so, Aghna always swore me to secrecy. The only reason I broke that vow is so we can bring her back here to help pull your man Norm through his ordeal. She is a healer. She would want to be here.”
Saoirse then went on to explain the significance of the box in that it was sent from
Aghna from the Yeats Tavern in Drumcliff, Ireland. Saoirse had kidded her about living in a tavern and Aghna explained that she lived way out in the country and the tavern is the only place nearby where the mailman is sure to stop every day, so she always leaves or gets her mail through them.
So Saoirse went on the internet, and found the telephone number for the place and told Yolanda that she will call the proprietor tomorrow morning, as it was past eleven at night in Ireland and knowing Irish pubs as Saoirse did, figured it was better to talk with them when they were drinking coffee as opposed to Ireland's finest whiskies.
Sure enough when Yolanda and Saoirse met up for a late morning tea at the Zen Garden, the word was already on it's way to Aghna that her help was urgently needed in her second home, the Duboce Triangle. It turned out, that Aghna is a local legend back in the Drumcliff area and beyond. They call her the fairy girl, and they say it in a reverent, not mocking fashion. In Ireland there are those who walk and talk with the supernatural. The Irish call them the good people or the fairies and the myths about the origin, purpose and nature vary dependant upon the speaker and locale, but it is well known that these all so powerful forces are very discriminating as to whom they let into their secret world.
When Saoirse got the proprietor of the tavern on the phone, Daniel O'Rourke, the two hit it off quickly as Aghna had told him many stories about her best girl friend from Dublin. Daniel quickly realized the urgency in the situation and said that he would personally drive out to her little carriage in the country and relay the message as Aghna would want to be there with all possible speed. Daniel also told Saoirse that Aghna had lost a cherished old friend a couple of months ago, and had been in mourning. The dear old woman had been Aghna's spiritual counselor, and had help introduce Aghna to the fairies. Aghna had spent the last months alone in the valleys and hills wandering with her friends from the other world. The townspeople were all afraid that Aghna was going to go off with the fairies to their secret world for good, because she so much missed the old woman's company and guidance. However, Daniel said that she was seen yesterday shopping at O'Connor's market and taking tea with a couple of the local girls, so it looks like she pulled through it and would welcome the need to nurse Yolanda's husband back to health, as is her calling. The two talked a good hour and Daniel only hung up the phone after Saoirse had promised to come over and introduce herself in person the next time Aghna returned home to Drumcliff.
In about a week, Aghna was back in the Duboce Triangle. The neighborhood had used the time to clean up and restore the little guest house which sat in the very secluded back yard of the Johnson's house. The quaint little place had last been used by Yolanda's mother when she used to visit her daughter and son-in-law. It had been a good decade since she passed away, and the place was in disarray, but with a big community effort on the weekend before her arrival, the place became transformed into a magical little secluded cabin, with its own garden and a newly installed large oval fish pool which glimmered effervescently beneath the moonlight.
Aghna adored the place and within a week she had Norm out in her garden as they started the arduous the task of weeding out and replanting a neglected garden. Yolanda was elated to see her man up and around, albeit on crutches, but moving pretty well. It was also very evident to all the neighbors that Saoirse and Yolanda had forged a deep friendship as the two became regular fixtures at the Zen Café talking for hours over tea and snacks.
There is a bit of a mystery yet to be solved for in the middle of the night, around the time of the new moon, the residents of the Duboce Triangle are treated to the most beautiful sounds of exotic instruments playing the type of music that just puts your feet in motion. No one was ever certain of where it came from, but it seemed to emanate from the Johnson's backyard, but being that was Aghna's place now, no questions were ever asked or raised.
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