SHORT STORY COMPETITION:The winner of the Powers Gold Label Short Story Competition is Jane Burns from Dunboyne, Co Meath. This is her story
LIKE MANY of my generation, I left Ireland in the 1980s hoping for a chance at a future, some payback for my parents’ sacrifice to send me to university. They were proud when I graduated, the first one ever in our family, but their pride was tinged with sadness as they knew I would have to go away to earn a living a make a life for myself.
My father, a man of few words, handed me an envelope with €500 in it and said: “Son, take care and call your mother every Sunday.” Mam, well, she just cried and put a jar of homemade jam in my rucksack and hugged me.
Every Sunday I would call. Da would answer and the conversation never changed. “How’s the weather?” “Do you need money?” “When you come home, get me some Powers in the duty free.”
Things were going well. I was able to come home more and more often and each time Da would pick me up at the airport. I would deliver, as promised, the Powers, and his eyes would light up when we got home as he’d pour us both a short one.
Eventually I met the woman of my dreams. We moved back home to Ireland and got married. I got a great job that took me around the world and anytime I went away, on the way back I’d always get the Powers. Even though I could have claimed the taxi on expenses, Da always picked me up. We used to joke it was for the Powers and not to see me.
When my own son was born we gave him my father’s name. We thought he would be thrilled but all he said was: “That’s a fine name.” On the day of the christening, there was a wonderful atmosphere, all the family so happy and proud.
Not long afterwards, Mam called; my father had died in his sleep. When we got to the house, she took me out to his old potting shed. There on the back shelf were all the emptied, cleaned bottles of Powers that I had brought him over the years. Inside were little bits of paper.
I took one out. It said: “Seán has met the girl of his dreams, she’s Irish, they’ll be home.” All the rest were time capsules, relating to events about me when I brought the Powers, along with a wish from him.
Tucked away in the right-hand corner, at the bottom of the shelf, was a full bottle with a note underneath it. I opened it. It said “Little Seámus born today, hope he is as good a son as mine.”