Irish-Indian: Love Deferred

A Story by Abishai100

A short-lived Northern Ireland love-affair illuminates some bright ideas regarding the resilience of the human condition!

An unusual Belfast love-tale inspired by not one single film but a collection of films/stories about discovering magic/romance amidst complicated political conditions. Hope you like it (signing off...tired!),

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Belfast (Northern Ireland) is colored with lights at night, despite its long history of Catholic-Protestant strains created by socioeconomic disparities, finally being addressed by Sinn Fein and Parliament. It's where a young beautiful Irish Catholic librarian named Shelbye is running into a strange dashing man from India and might alter her consciousness in the modern United Kingdom.

SHELBYE: I've been working at the Belfast Central Library for 2 years now, and I consider it great and inspiring work.

Shelbye is a stunningly beautiful Irish Catholic woman who was born and grew up in troubled Belfast (Northern Ireland). She's a fan of James Joyce (the famous Irish writer) and Riverdance (the iconic Irish folk-dancing theater!) and is currently single, having graduated from college and looking for a nice man to court, but she's not met anyone yet, so she continues her nice work at the Belfast library.

Shelbye's grandfather was brutally killed by vengeful 'Black-and-Tan' British Protestant gov't-commissioned street enforcers, pseudo-ultra-police, who mistook her grandfather as a member of the Irish Republican Army resisting British rule in Northern Ireland. Shelbye's been scarred by this memory and is very reserved about feeling outgoing towards foreigners in Northern Ireland whom she might court as eligible bachelors. She keeps a photo of the hauntingly brutal Black-and-Tans in her secret bedroom drawer for psychological reasons. She's currently taking prescription Klonopin medicine (a psychiatric drug) to calm her mental nerves. She won't throw away this photo of the Black-and-Tans.

Amlan Satan's an underground leader of the new world group called the Foreign Irish Republican Army (F-IRA), composed of mostly non-Irish Catholics who're recruited for guerrilla intelligence regarding terrorism-financing blood-diamond pirate interceptions with Interpol-relations as well as underground communications with Sinn Fein and N-IRA. Amlan (code-name: Storm-Shadow) arrives at the Belfast International Airport to meet with an associate of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.

AMLAN SATAN ('Storm-Shadow'): My family relations include members who're part of the Quit India rebellion against England.

In fact, Storm-Shadow (Amlan Satan) was born in India and is half-Indian and half-Algerian and is a US citizen and a prominent secret member of NORAID. He's been part of North American and European blood-diamond raids of corrupt baron bank safe-boxes to subvert terrorism-financing in the UK which is destroying normal activities and resourcing between standard IRA groups working through Sinn Fein for Catholic-Protestant pluralism negotiations in British Parliament. Satan (Storm-Shadow) has worked with other guerrilla intelligence volunteers of the F-IRA for blood-diamond work and keeps a photo of one of his team-organizations called RASCAL.

Amlan is walking out the Belfast International Airport and gets into a taxi and heads towards a very nice hotel in Northern Ireland when he spots Shelbye walking down the street some distance away from the airport in the heart of Belfast weeping. He tells his driver to pull aside so he can entreat her to get into his cab and take her where she wants to comfort her obvious sadness. She's shocked by his politeness and agrees.

Amlan took Shelbye to a rooftop Belfast restaurant where they enjoyed some very nice Belfast Tonic Wine and Irish scallops in their cold-season coats/jackets and gloves, giggling about their odd meeting. He tells her he's pleased he eased her depression and that she agreed to get into his Belfast cab which got her to this more cheerful Northern Ireland restaurant rooftop, and she laughs and agrees!

He takes the lovely Shelbye to the Belfast Art Museum (BAM) and shows her some very nice Irish paintings he admires and takes a photo of two Belfast kids sitting on the floor and admiring one of these naturalistic paintings. Shelbye kisses Amlan.

Shelbye then shows Amlan a painting in that same museum she likes very much, depicting an incident in Irish rebellion history in Northern Ireland. He asks her what her level of education is regarding Irish resistance to British rule, and she grudgingly tells her new date the sad story of her grandfather killed by the ruthless Black-and-Tans. Amlan knows Shelbye showed her this Belfast art-museum painting of an Irish historical resistance incident because she's falling for him.

That night, Shelbye spends the night with Amlan in his hotel-suite and they make love. She's relieved she's finally confided in someone about her horrible memory of the brutal Black-and-Tans, but she does not yet know of Amlan's double-identity as 'Storm-Shadow' leader of the F-IRA (Foreign Irish Republican Army). Nevertheless, it's a night of great romance for this very odd couple in modern Northern Ireland.

The next day, Amlan shows Shlebye photos of an old time Northern Ireland jewelry store. She asks him with surprise, "Why'd you carry such a photo of Belfast jewelry shopping, my dear?" Amlan then tells her his double-life as a F-IRA blood-diamond terrorism-financing interceptor as well as a Commander General of the F-IRA and explains what the F-IRA does to forward Catholic-Protestant talks through Sinn Fein in Parliament. Shelbye knows Amlan has shown her this old-world Belfast jewelry-store photo because he's fallen in love with her!

AMLAN: Let met take you to a real Belfast jewelry-store, so I may buy you a diamond earring, my dear.

SHELBYE: I fear this is a doomed and short-lived affair, Mr. Satan.

AMLAN: So what?

Amlan tells her he'll always remember that 'one night' in that Belfast hotel sharing more of that delicious Belfast Tonic Wine before telling her he has to return to the underground and eventually to North America and Europe to continue his F-IRA missions for Sinn Fein and Gerry Adam's associates. She's heartbroken but admits she's not regretful for this short-lived Irish-Indian love-story.

SHELBYE: Why didn't you tell me of your double-identity before or earlier, Satan?

AMLAN: I didn't want you to be part of my political life; I was simply in love with you.

SHELBYE: We're a short-term fate.

AMLAN: Well, you'll remember me as Amlan...not Commander Shadow.

When Amlan returns to North America and reunites with his Irish-American girlfriend there, Dolores, he decides to make her some delicious curried Irish baked potatoes one night, using a secret recipe his short-lived Belfast girlfriend (Shelbye) told him. He doesn't tell her about Shelbye, however.

Shelbye discovered Amlan's Boston part-time address and had some Oh Ryan's Irish Sweet Potatoes mailed to him for St. Patrick's Day. The note read, "To an old Belfast friend who helped me forget about an old scar in the UK."