The Troubles by Unknown Read Free Book Online

really continue to live as an immortal? As the story unfolded in my naive mind, I had excitedly learned I could take on the fish’s preternatural wisdom and the ability to solve all adult quarrels. According to the pagan legend an ordinary salmon had eaten nine hazelnuts, which fell into (Tobar Segais) the well of wisdom from nine hazel trees that surrounded the well and with his consumption, the salmon had gained all the world’s knowledge. The legend decrees that the first person to eat of the salmon’s flesh would in turn gain this knowledge.
        A poet, Finn Eces, spent seven long years fishing for the salmon and finally one day she caught the Fintan fish, giving the fish to Fionn, a servant and son of Cumhall, though with strict instructions not to eat it. Fionn cooked the salmon for his master, turning it over and over, but when Fionn touched the fish with his thumb to see if it was cooked, he burnt his finger on a drop of hot cooking fish fat. Fionn sucked on his burned finger to ease the pain. Little did Fionn know that all Fintin’s wisdom had been concentrated into that one drop of fish fat? When he brought the cooked meal to Finn Eces, his master saw that the boy’s eyes shone with a previously unseen wisdom. Finn Eces angrily interrogated Fionn if he had eaten any of the salmon. Answering no, the boy explained what had happened. Finn Eces realized that Fionn had received the wisdom of the salmon and in a generous gesture gave him the rest of the fish to eat, knowing that the deed was done. Fionn ate the salmon and in so doing gained all the world’s light. Throughout the rest of his life, Fionn would draw upon this enlightenment merely by biting his thumb. The deep knowledge and wisdom gained from Fintan, the Salmon of Knowledge, allowed Fionn to become the leader of the Fianna, the famed heroes of Irish myth.
         Ena had given a childish, gargantuan yelp of glee as her hands darted between my legs. “I’ve got it, there’s a fish right under that rock!” In my excitement, I had lost my precarious footing and falling back my arms wailing like a windmill, had landed right on Ena, who fell forward into the river.  In nothing flat, I was on top of the hapless girl, smothering her with my dead weight increased by the sodden spun yarn of my uniform. Without anything to grab onto, we were both frantically clawing the rough boulders of the shore with little avail as they were displaced in an unequal fashion with huge plots of deep water next to elevated stones. As my friend struggled, she pulled me further down into the icy, dark water and because I was the smaller of the two, this quickly transformed our silly dalliance into something lethally dangerous. It was fortunate that I managed to gain my footing and with adrenaline encompassing all my miniscule atoms, I had twisted 180 degrees to assess how I would pull Ena out. Taking in a gaping breath of cool air deep into my smarting abdomen, I had plunged myself forward and down in her direction and in what seemed like the longest moment felt her frigid fingers grasping mine. Her pretty face was stony as she emerged with an expression of serious duress, no longer healthily tanned, but blanched and bloodless. There was a waxen terror stuck in her eyes, yet her lips chattered and her fingers held a fearsome strength as I continued to still grip her. ‘’Jesus Christ,” the child croaked out her very first curse as we both began to hysterically sob drenched in the middle of the River Lagan. Now years later, I amusingly surmise that our hunt for the salmon of knowledge produced the opposite effect than that of acquiring wisdom.
         We both did not disclose our harrowing near drowning to not one of our classmates nor our parents as it was yet another secret; this one the pillar of the abject foolishness of our youth.
     
     
    CHAPTER 10: Ge mills am fion, tha e searbh ri dhiol. (The wine is sweet. The paying bitter)
     
         Alastar