Lochlainneach

Sense of Security

Featured Gaelic and Pronunciations:

- Meal do naidheachd (meeahl doh nay-ehk) - congratulations

- Ceud mìle beannachdan (keeuhd mee-leh bee-yahn-nohkahn) - a hundred thousand blessings

- Cillian (kih-lee-ahn)

- Caoimhe (kee-vah)

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7 June, 1747

Castlebay, Isle of Barra, Scotland

The entire day had been warm, but rainy. A storm had blown in from the sea and was hammering the island with heavy rain, loud thunder and quite a lot of lightning. Jamie was about to head out to the fields when a bolt of lightning struck the ocean, cracking very loudly like a sonic boom and startling the trousers off of him, nearly. He decided ultimately to stay home after hearing me list all of the things that could happen when one is struck by lightning. Eventually, the storm did calm, but not until after dusk, and it must have returned sometime in the middle of the night. How did I know this?

Because I was awoken very suddenly by the sting of my hair being pulled, followed by frightened-sounding sniffles and sobs. Lifting my head, I couldn't see very well in the dark, but when the lightning flashed, I could see that it was wee Archie, his tear-stained face and reddened grey eyes mere inches from mine. "Archie! Christ, love, ye nearly gave yer Mam a heart attack!" I snapped at him, sitting up and striking a match to light the candle on the table beside me, lighting up his face. "Oh, m'eunan , what is it?" I asked my son once I saw his tear-stained face, picking him up so he could crawl onto my lap.

"Archie?" Jamie asked sleepily, waking up from the noise. "What is it, a bhalaich? "

"Nightmare. Storm scared me," said Archie with a whine, snuggling up beside me and burying his face into my shift.

"Och, it's but a wee dream and a wee storm, laddie," Jamie said, gently rubbing his son's back.

" But Mama and Daddy both ken tha' nightmares can be verra scary, dinnae we, Daddy?" I said to Jamie, hinting at him with my eyes not to discredit Archie's fears.

"Aye, mo chuisle, they can be. I used te have them quite a bit, when ye were smaller," Jamie told his son, who was shaking in my arms.

"Scary," Archie repeated in his small voice, and Jamie and I both chuckled.

"Aye, lamb, scary," I said, running my fingers through his red curls. "Perhaps he should stay with us tonight. It is storming," I said to Jamie, who sighed, but nodded.

"Aye, but he shouldnae get used te it," Jamie said. "I dinnae want him te grow too quickly, but a lad who's coddled will never grow into a man."

"A good 'coddle' every now and then doesnae hurt, te remind him tha' we love him," I said, bending down to kiss Archie's curls. "Would ye like Mama te sing ye a wee song? It was a song my Mam used te sing te me and te Uncle Cailean."

"Song?" asked Archie, and then his little grey eyes peeked out from my shift. "Yes, Mama. Song, please," he said sweetly, and I smiled.

"Get comfortable, lamb, and I'll sing ye a wee lullaby," I told him. Both Jamie and Archie settled in the bed, Archie nestled snugly between the two of us, and while they did so, I did my best to recall the lyrics of the old lullaby my mother used to sing to me. She said once that her father's mother sang it to her, and so on for many generations before us, but she didn't know the origins - all she did know was that each time a mother sang it to her bairns, she would change the lyrics to their name or to 'children'. Seeing my lads settled, I cleared my throat to sing.