liveru

The Beginning.

It was an extremely cold night, even for the middle of January. The fire was roaring. Ozzy, my dog, was laying down in front of it. Hogging the heat whilst watching the flames flicker up the chimney. Emma and myself had just settled down to watch a DVD.

As I sat there picking my nose whilst John Travolta sang love songs to Olivia Newton-John, the phone started to ring.
"Who on Earth is calling at this time Stephen?" Emma asked, sitting up from her half laying down, half sitting stance. As she moved she dug her elbow into my thigh, prompting me to reply, "if I was psychic I wouldn't have to answer it, would I?"
Emma gave me a filthy look, giggled, threw a pillow at my head and continued to watch the film.

"Hello?" I asked as I pushed the little 'answer' button on the phone.
"Hello? Is this Mr. Ruane?" said the voice on the other end. This fellow on the phone had a very thick accent. It took me a while to pick up on the fact that it was in fact Irish.
"Yes, this is he." I replied, trying to tone down my own accent as I knew it could be hard at times to understand me in the flesh, let alone down the phone.
"My name is Thomas Long. I represent a Mr. Andrew O'Callaghan."
I froze, then swallowed hard before asking, "Are you the lawyer of that bloke who's car I scratched with the trolley in Sainsburys car park?"
"I'm sorry, no. Mr. O'Callaghan is the chairman of St. Patrick's Athletic."
I recognised the name of the club. I'd used them on FIFA 08 before. I didn't actually know anything about them.
"So?" I asked, trying not to let my impatience start to show in my voice.
"So, I have phoned because Mr. O'Callaghan would like a meeting with you."
"With me? Why would a football chairman want a meeting with..." suddenly it hit me. Could this Irish fellow be offering me a dream start in football management?
"I cannot divulge any details at this precise moment but I have it on good authority that you will enjoy this meeting."
I thought to myself that I might as well hear what this bloke has to say and soon enough we were discussing where and when I will meet Andrew O'Callaghan.

As I re-entered the room, I couldn't hide my excitement. I kicked open the door and started singing to the song that was currently playing on the film.
As I picked her up and swung her around, Emma laughed, "why are you so happy? Who was that on the phone?"
"It was some bloke called Tommy, Thomas or summat." I replied, "his gaffer is Andrew O'Callaghan!"
"What the former Liverpool player?" Emma said as she sat down and paused the movie.
"No, that's Ian Callaghan."
"Oh. So who's Andrew Callaghan then?"
"It's O'Callaghan and he's the chairman of St. Pat's Athletic!"
"Who the hell are they when they're at home?" Emma by this point wanted to continue to watch the film, I could tell by the tone of her voice, but I was too excited to be bothered.
"St. Pat's are an Irish Premier Division side." I said, "Mr. O'Callaghan wants to meet up with me!"
"You haven't signed up to some weird chatroom that I don't know about, have you?" Emma said sarcastically.
"No. Look, I'm meeting the bloke tomorrow. I think he's going to offer me a job."
"In Ireland?!"
"Well, yeah. Where else would it be? Anywho, I'm now off to bed. I need the sleep. You watching the rest of the film?"
"Yeah. Take Ozzy up with you."
I walked over to Emma. Gave her a kiss and called Ozzy. He jumped up with the excitement of a child and bundled upstairs.
"I love you." I shouted to Emma as I closed the door. Sure enough, she shouted it back and I headed upstairs to bed. As I lay down in bed, my mind started racing. Thinking about what it would be like to be a real football manager. Then I drifted off into the land of sleep.