Ramud pulled the last line back on to the boat and surveyed his haul. 12 medium sized herrings, some still flopping, sat between his legs in the reed boat. He wanted to surprise his wife on her birthday with a celebration meal and the waters were kind today to provide such a catch.
He gutted the fish at the shore and brought the flesh in to their reed house to slowly cook on the central fire. Hazi was still washing clothes downstream with other village women and he looked forward to the smile on her face as she smelled the food on her return.
“Nice” the red curly haired, freckled faced, 20 year old said as the he returned the book to shelf in Shannon Town library. “That guy sure paints a picture”.
Sam’s Detroit flight home had been delayed 6 hours at Shannon Airport so he had grabbed a cab to explore the local town.
He then noticed a talk was starting up. A lady rose to her feet and addressed the 10 or so people seated around. My name is Olive and welcome to World Wetlands Day here at Seán Lemass Library in Shannon.
As she explained the origins of the yearly celebration in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea a shiver passed through Ramud the Marsh Arab’s great-great-grandson 100 times removed and Sam sat down to listen..
