‘Wonderful. So is he going around with a smile on his face?’
‘You are joking, aren’t you, sir?’
‘Lovely, Colom. I’ll see you next year.’
‘You’ll be very welcome here, sir.’
*
Later that day I saw Nick, the fishing friend who’d recommended the hotel to me. He’d just got back from Norway. He had some great stories about standing up to his chest in fast-flowing rivers and catching and returning huge fish. I listened to it all with the slightly smug feeling of someone who has a little secret of his own. Eventually he asked me how I got on, and I casually told him about my twelve-pound spring salmon from the river, the only one caught all week.
‘Well done! Great stuff. You know, Dave, I enjoyed Norway, I enjoyed it a lot, but I sort of missed Ireland. I’ve been going there every year for, oh, I don’t know how long. It’s so relaxing. I bet you felt really good after your week away.’
‘You’re absolutely right, Nick, and d’you know something? It’s a feeling that’s still with me.’
[First serialized in six parts in the literary magazine Waterlog Nos. 39-44, 2003/4]