Aka Amy

"This is amazing. Thank you so much for sharing this," I said as I stared at the laptop screen.

Niamh had a sip of her coffee then nodded, "You're welcome. In return maybe you can help me fill in a few missing details?"

I smiled, "Of course."

Our host needed a few minutes to get over her shock after my girlfriend revealed her divine nature. Now she was showing me all the information she had on our family's genealogy. We were sitting side by side at the sturdy wood table in her little country kitchen, while Amy sat across from us. Niamh had her laptop on the table, and the two of us were looking at a family tree she'd put together. It had three branches, but only one of them was complete up to the current generation.

Niamh's branch went from her up to her father Peter, her grandfather Sean, and her great-grandfather Angus, who was the youngest of three siblings. The oldest was named Liam, and Bridget was in the middle. Bridget had a daughter named Elaine, but that's where the middle branch ended. And the first branch ended with Liam's daughter Mary. Continuing upwards from the three siblings was their mother Siobhan, her mother Riona, and the final name at the top of the tree was Maire, who was born in the middle of the eighteen hundreds.

"So Mary was your granny, who's the link between her and you?" the raven-haired young woman asked.

I replied, "My mom Jodie. She was born in nineteen sixty-five, in Toronto."

While Niamh added that entry to the screen I took a sip of my coffee, then our host asked "Is Mary still with us?"

"Unfortunately not. She died in two thousand and four," I replied.

"Ah I'm sorry," she replied as she added that data to my granny's entry. "She was only sixty-five, that's sad."

I agreed, "I was about five years old when she passed on, I barely got to know her."

Then I gestured at the older names on the tree, "So everyone on this family tree lived in this cottage?"

Niamh shook her head, "Not quite. Liam Bridget and Angus would all have been raised here, but as Siobhan's oldest child your great-grandfather Liam got it after she was gone. Bridget moved to Wexford town, and my great-grandfather Angus built his own place here in the village. After your granny's parents passed the cottage should have gone to her. Liam died in nineteen eighty-eight and Mary's mother Caroline passed in nineteen ninety, but as near as I could tell the family had lost all contact with Mary by then."

"They lost track of Bridget and her daughter Elaine as well," she continued, "I haven't found any trace of them after Elaine was born. I assume they left Wexford, but I've never figured out where they went or what became of them. So after Liam and Caroline were gone, the cottage came over to my side of the family."

She had another sip of coffee then finished up, "So the home that my great-grandfather Angus built is now owned by my aunt Fiona, and this place belongs to my dad Peter."

"Fiona's got a son by the way," she added as she pointed out the name the screen. "My cousin Aidan, he's living down in Cork these days. And I'm usually up in Dublin actually? I'm attending university there, for two more years. I'm back home now for the summer break."

I thanked her as I stared at the screen again, "So our closest common ancestor is Siobhan, our great-great-grandmother."

Niamh nodded, "That's correct. And the furthest ancestor I've found is Siobhan's grandmother Maire. I haven't been able to find any information earlier than that, but I'm sure it's out there."

"When was Maire born?" Amy asked. She'd been quiet for a while, just sipping her coffee and watching me and Niamh. She'd obviously been paying attention though, even if she couldn't see the screen from where she was sitting.

Our host replied, "Uh, Maire was born in eighteen forty-five, died in nineteen fourteen."

My girlfriend closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then responded "Maire's mother was Caitlin, she was born in eighteen twenty-two. And her grandmother was Aileen, born in seventeen ninety-nine."

Niamh glanced at me then looked back at Amy again. She sounded equal parts excited and wary as she asked, "How do you know that?"

Amy opened her eyes and grimaced slightly, "Because Aileen and Caitlin were the last to summon me before Mary. It was in eighteen forty-seven, and Caitlin's daughter Maire was just two years old at the time."

"Oh. Wow," the young ravenette half-whispered. Then as she added the two newest names to the list she commented, "You were here in eighteen forty-seven? That was during the famine."

"I know, that's why they summoned me. They asked me to help them," my girlfriend replied quietly. "I did all I could for them."

Our host was quiet for a few seconds after that. She finally sighed and shook her head, "This is starting to border on too much for me? I'm having a hard enough time accepting the idea that my family's got close ties to a local deity, let alone the fact that she's sitting here right now in my kitchen."

"Sorry Niamh," Amy smiled. "If it helps, maybe try and think of me as Amy Price, college student?"

"Hard to think of you as a normal college student when you're telling me about that time you visited my ancestors a hundred and seventy-five years ago," Niamh stated.

Amy apologized again, then all three of us were quiet for a few moments.

Eventually our host asked me, "I take it you learned some of the family history from your mother? Enough to get you here anyways. But you didn't know about the rest of the family, like we didn't know about you?"

"Not exactly," I replied. "I don't think my mom knows too much about the family in fact. And I think that's because of my granny, I get the feeling she didn't like to talk about her past? I knew almost nothing at all about the family until a little over a year ago, when my mom gave me some of granny's old things. There was a journal, that um, left me thinking Mary was some kind of witch. There was also a scrap book, that had a photo of my granny as a little girl. She was standing out front of your home, along with her parents."

Niamh's eyes lit up hearing that, and I ended up pulling the picture up on my phone so she could see it. She looked at all the pictures from before Granny left home, then asked "I don't suppose you have that journal here with you?"

I shook my head, "Sorry. It's back home in Canada."

"Ah well," she sighed. "I'd have loved to see it. I've not come across anything like that while digging through the family history around here."

After a pause Niamh added, "I wonder who Mary learned those secrets from, and why the knowledge seemed to be otherwise lost?"

My girlfriend answered, "The knowledge was handed down through the Cleary line from mother to daughter, except Mary learned it from her grandmother Siobhan."

"Siobhan probably taught her daughter Bridget too," I suggested. "But if she moved away and they lost contact with her, I could see Siobhan sharing it with Mary too? She probably wanted to ensure it remained in the family and in the area. And Mary would have been the only granddaughter available, since Elaine was elsewhere with Bridget and Angus's child was a son."

Niamh agreed, "So she shared it with Mary, but then Mary up and left just a couple years after Siobhan died. The family secrets left with her, and the knowledge was lost. Until you found it in her journal."

Our host turned to my girlfriend and asked, "Can you tell me what became of Bridget and Elaine? Did Elaine have any children, is that branch of the family still around someplace?"

"Sorry," Amy shook her head. "I was dormant through that time, and neither Bridget or Elaine prayed to me or summoned me. There was nothing at all until Mary called for me in sixty-four."

From the look on her face I could tell my cousin had a few more questions about how that worked, but she was perhaps wary of asking. Or maybe she was trying to decide if she really wanted to know. It was clear though that my girlfriend wasn't omniscient, and it seemed like there weren't going to be any easy answers regarding the mystery of that middle branch on the family tree.

Instead Niamh asked, "Do either of you know why Mary moved to Canada? Or why she seemed to have cut off contact with the family here? And Theresa, you said your granny didn't like to talk about her past, that sounds like she had a falling out with the rest of them?"

"Yeah," I grimaced slightly. "It's a bit messy and I don't have all the details, just what I got from my mom?"

I briefly told her about Mary's assault and how she was treated afterwards, what her limited choices were, and her decision to leave home and start a new life overseas. I also told her how she ended up sharing her life with another woman, but I didn't mention that woman was the Goddess and also my girlfriend.

Niamh listened quietly then commented, "Thanks for explaining that. I'm sorry for what happened to her, but glad she found love and happiness elsewhere."

"It's ironic though, that she was forced to leave or be ostracized as an unwed mother?" our host added. "Considering I haven't been able to find any marriage records for any of the women in our family tree. My aunt Fiona's the only one I know for sure got married. The men have all married. Well, except for Aiden but he's only twenty-six."

I grimaced, "My mom's married. Twice actually, she and my dad split up and now she's with her second husband."

"And I'm engaged!" I added with a grin as I showed off my ring. "We haven't set a date yet, but me and Amy are planning to get married in two years."

My cousin's eyes widened as she glanced to my girlfriend then looked back at me again. "You're going to marry a Goddess?"

"She's going to marry Amy Price," my fiancée clarified. "Tess and I are engaged, Amethyst the Goddess is... I guess more like an in-law? I'd rather not go into too many details Niamh, sorry."

Our host looked thoughtful for a few seconds, then asked "So I take it you're no longer our local Goddess then? You've moved to Canada, are you looking after a little farming community there?"

Amy smiled slightly as she shook her head, "I've sort of reinvented myself? I'm a queer goddess, I look after queer people. LGBTQ and so on? And demi-humans as well, there's some overlap there."

"Demi-humans?" Niamh asked as her eyebrows shot up.

"Catgirls, wolfgirls, bunnygirls, that sort of thing?" Amy responded. "They're rare, but thanks to magic they really do exist."

After a moment she added, "Though to be honest, I'd appreciate if you kept all this to yourself Niamh? At least the part about having a goddess here in your home. I'm just Amy most of the time, I'm only the goddess when I need to be."

Niamh looked like she had plenty more questions, but she sighed and nodded slowly instead. "All right, I understand. My parents will be surprised enough as it is, to find out I've met a long-lost cousin from Canada. They probably wouldn't believe me anyways if I tried to tell them I met a Goddess too. And I don't even know what to think about the demi-human stuff."

"Can we stay in touch though?" she asked both of us. "Actually what are your plans, where are you staying? How long are you going to be here?"

Amy and I both grimaced. I replied, "Actually we've only got a couple more hours before we have to be on our way. We have to meet Amy's sister and her beau in Wexford town for dinner tonight. Then tomorrow we're heading to Rosslare Harbour, and Friday we'll be on the ferry going over to Wales."

When I saw the disappointed look on my cousin's face I apologized, "Sorry Niamh. If I'd known for sure I had family here I'd have tried to schedule things differently? But me and Amy didn't even know if we'd find the cottage, let alone any living relatives. So we only set aside this afternoon for visiting the town here."

"If it was just the two of us our schedule would be more open," Amy added. "Unfortunately we're travelling with my sister and her partner, so our itinerary has to mesh with theirs."

Niamh frowned, "Is your sister a Goddess as well? Is she from around here too?"

My girlfriend smiled, "No, sorry. Hailey's very much human. Same as me, when I'm not being the goddess. And the Price family comes from Wales, which is why we're heading over there for the second half of our vacation."

"I see," my cousin nodded slowly. "I'd have loved for you two to meet my parents but they're not going to be back for another week and a half. I was hoping to introduce you to my aunt and uncle too? I'll call Fiona anyways and see if she's available, but Colin, my uncle, won't be home from work till after you've had to leave."

The three of us all made sure to exchange contact info at that point, emails and phone numbers and all that. We also took some pictures of each other, and group selfies too. And I got some pictures of the inside of the cottage while Niamh showed me around. I also got a copy of that family tree, so I could send it to my mom later, and gave my cousin copies of the pictures from granny's scrapbook.

Then Amy suggested, "Now that we've met and we know Tess has family here, we could always plan another visit in the future? Maybe next summer, we can coordinate something with everyone involved. Maybe even a family reunion, get Jodie to come over as well?"

"That'd be nice," I smiled. "It sounds like a lot of work though."

My cousin agreed with that assessment, but we'd definitely be talking to the rest of the family about it in the future.

On that note Niamh called to invite her aunt over, but apparently Fiona was up in Gorey for the day and wouldn't be back until later this evening, so the only relative here was Niamh. Which was fine, now that she'd mostly got past the shock of meeting the Goddess she was friendly and excited that me and Amy were there with her.

She filled us in on what our other living relatives were up to, I learned that her dad Peter worked in a factory in Enniscorthy and her mother Aisling had a part-time job at a grocery store in the village. And I found out the two of them were off on holiday in Spain, while Niamh was back to look after the house and tend to the chickens and the garden.

Her uncle Colin had a good job as a software engineer in Wexford town, and her aunt Fiona did volunteer work with the local church. And cousin Aiden just graduated university with an IT degree, he was now living and working down in Cork.

Amy and I ended our visit with another little walking tour around the village, but this time my cousin was with us to show us around and tell us about some of the local history. Me and my girlfriend took lots more pictures as we followed Niamh around and listened to her stories.

She also pointed out the house where Fiona and Colin lived, which was a fairly modern home. The old cottage her great-grandfather Angus built was still there too, but it was more like a quaint little guest house compared to the larger house next to it.

When the time came we all said our goodbyes and promised to keep in touch. Then my cousin went back home while Amy and I got into our rental car and set out to meet Hailey and Alex in Wexford town.