CHAPTER 19

THE LUCK OF THE IRISH

I went to Japan after India and was surprised to find that Japan is very hot and very humid and they drive like ants on steroids. But the Japanese were so honest and so generous. I left a package with some expensive gifts for the Houses in a store and when I came back an hour later, they were still there. When I admired a woman's purse, she dumped the contents out and handed it to me. I learned that I had to be careful of what I was doing. One time I stood up while I was eating and discovered thatI had insulted the group of Japanese that I was with. I learned a lot about honoring different customs. I spent time with a young Japanese couple, Hiro and Keiko. I slept on tatamis and ate sitting on the floor. I took a bath by heating water in a bucket, squatting over wooden slats, washing and then rinsing out of the bucket. After I was clean I was then allowed to climb into the bathtub and soak in very hot water.

I also went to a public bathhouse and was stared at because of my white skin and long blonde hair. Everywhere I went the Japanese would come up and touch my hair to see if it was real. I was amused.

I spent time on Lake Hakone and Fujiyama. I backpacked around the country for two months and then flew back to Italy for the fall and winter. I thought it was time that I started writing so I asked the Ferraris if I could stay at their guest house on Lake Cuomo for the winter. Since they didn't use the villa and guest house for most of the winter, they had no problem. I took my car and drove up to the Lake. It was spectacular and I was in love with the area. I spent the mornings walking the edge of the lake and talking to the residents, the afternoons writing and the evenings visiting or reading a book. I thought about Greg at night and wondered if he ever thought of me.

In April of 1994 I had told the Ferraris that I would be out of their guest house. The Ferarri's told me that I could stay as long as I wanted but I felt that I had worn out my welcome. I decided that I would move to Ireland and rent a flat somewhere to finish my book. I drove my car and took the ferry to Dover, crossed Britain and took the ferry to Ireland. I arrived in Dublin and rented a flat near Stephen's Green. Ireland was a great place for writers. Writers were cherished by the Irish and even given special tax breaks. I wrote several chapters each day and then went out in the afternoons to the local pub, "Brogan's" where I played guitar and sang songs with the locals.

It was in Brogan's that I met Toby O'Laughlin. Toby was average looking but he always pulled the women because of his great charm and sense of humor. He started coming into Brogan's just to talk to me and I was flattered. I found out that Toby owned the local IBM plant and they were starting to manufacture computers in Ireland for sale in Europe. He was incredibly rich but I didn't know that at first.

Within months of his not-so-subtle flirting, I was living with Toby and he was begging me to marry him. I refused. I told him that if he continued to ask me, I would leave. He stopped asking for a few months. We often traveled to Europe to see the Ferrari's and we would ski in the Alps on our way back. I was happy and I rarely thought of Greg anymore. The Houses did come and visit me in Ireland and they, like everyone else, fell in love with Toby. He treated them as if they were his own parents and doted on them.

One day when we were in bed talking about our upcoming trip, he asked me to marry him. I told him that I loved him but I didn't think it was the love you build a marriage on.

He asked me,"Is there someone else?"

"Not anymore. He's moved on with his life and so have I."

"Something tells me that he may have moved on, but you're still stuck lass."

I just shrugged my shoulders. "That train derailed years ago and I was the casualty. I'm sure he got on the next train. I'm just having a harder time trusting my instincts when it comes to men. I'm sorry Toby, if you want me to leave."

"No, I'm an optimist, hoping some day you'll see I'm the next train."

I loved living in the Wicklow Mountains just outside of Dublin. We lived in a manor house overlooking a beautiful valley with a tall waterfall and sweet creek running through it. I would take long walks and talk to the local farmers and shopkeepers. I thought to myself that I really belonged in Ireland. I had the same white legs and freckled nose.

In January, 1995 I sent my manuscript to Professor Perkins and asked him to read and edit it. He sent it back with suggested changes and I made some of them, ignored others. He also sent me the address of a book agent. I sent the manuscript to the agent along with a letter of introduction from Perkins and I was so excited when I received the letter saying that I had been signed. In the Fall of 1995 I received my first check for my book, "Sherpa." It didn't make it to the top ten, but it did get up in the top 25 and I received lots of praise for a "first work of fiction." The story centered around the life of a Sherpa family. It was loosely based on Tng Na's life, the Sherpa who accompanied me with the cooking gear up the mountain. I was rather proud of myself.

The day I received my first check, Greg House met Stacy during a game of paintball. Less than a week later she was living with Greg. Greg told me later that he enjoyed having a woman living with him again. It had been so long since I had left that he had almost forgotten what it was like when we were together. He told me that holding Stacy in his arms and sharing a bed with her sometimes reminded him of me. Sometimes, just for a brief moment, a wave of sadness and grief washed through him. It was gone and he was back with Stacy both physically and mentally. Over the next five years something would trigger a memory of me and Greg would become melancholy. Stacy never understood what would trigger one of Greg's "moods", but she told him that she would step out to give him time to get over it. As long as she stayed back and let him work it through, they were ok.

I was now using a computer to do my writing and backing up my work on floppy disks. I had started my second novel about an Italian family, a rich Italian family. It had a few more characters in it, but the flavor was Ferrari all the way. I had to stop my writing because Toby had been intrigued by my Sherpa story and we were now training to summit Everest. We spent a lot of time on Ben Nevis in Scotland and several mountain areas in Italy working with mountain climbing instructors. Toby was a natural, I was not. I had to really work at it because I didn't have the upper body strength he did.

In April of 1996 we flew to Nepal and were met by our guides. One of them was Roger and it was great seeing him again. Toby had paid the $70,000 each for us to summit.

"Man, I had a lot of American men who saw you in our promotional photos ask if they could get their picture taken with just you. When I had to tell them you no longer worked for us, they'd hang up. I lost more business because I couldn't produce you than because of price or amenities. Why don't you come back and cook for me?"

He knew this was a long shot. After all, I was standing there as a paying client and I was dressed in the latest and greatest alpine gear. My wardrobe literally screamed,money.

"Oh Roger, been there, done that, bought the t-shirt. I don't think I'll be cooking at the bottom of Mt. Everest unless your cook dies on you in the next six weeks!"

We spent weeks acclimating at Base Camp and then moving up the mountain. We went over the Icefall at about 6:00 a.m. If you go over the Icefall when the sun is too far up in the sky, you bake. It gets really hot and you can get disoriented. After the Icefall is the Western Cwm which was not too bad. But climbing the Lhotse Face took a lot out of me and I was wondering if I was going to make it. There were scores of people trying to go up Everest and they were practically falling all over themselves. It slowed the ascent down considerably and when you try to go up Everest, you want to move as fast as you can. We stayed at Camp III waiting for our opportunity to climb the Hillary Face and then summit. The camp was crowded with dozens of people who wanted to summit the next day. Roger came to us and he didn't look happy.

"Maggie, Toby, this is a circus. I don't like it one bit. There's too many people trying to get up the mountain and a lot of them haven't trained very well. The Aussies lost two on the way down yesterday. I'm going to try and summit tomorrow with those who want to go. But I'm very worried. The crowd is going to slow us down. If we don't get up and off the summit by 2:00 p.m. we're going to be in trouble.

I think Toby will make it, even if we have to slow down because of the traffic. But if we get going too slow just the lack of oxygen for a prolonged time is going to weaken us and make it more difficult. Maggie, if you get any weaker than you already are, it's going to make it tough for you to get up and back. By tough, I mean you might not make it. You know how much I care about you so I'm asking you not to summit."

Toby balked, "Wow, to come all the way to Camp III and not summit? No, I'll watch out for her, I'll make sure she gets up and back." Toby was upset. He wanted me to summit with him. The idea of doing it without me was unthinkable to him. He thought I would be as devastated as he would be if I couldn't go to the top.

But I knew Roger would never suggest this unless he was truly worried. Toby hadn't babysat a radio on summit day and listened to the body count of people you had eaten, laughed and lived with over the last six weeks. I knew this was an unforgiving mountain.

I turned calmly to Roger, "I won't go. I'm not going to hold up the expedition and more importantly, I'm not going to risk my life. Roger, I know this was hard for you to do, but I trust you. So, I'll make my way back to Camp II while you go up tomorrow."

"Maggie!!" Toby was shocked.

"Toby, it's my life and I'm not going to play Russian Roulette with it just so I can wear a sign that says I climbed Everest. I'm ok with this...it's you that has to accept it."

It was decided, I made it back to Camp II the next day while Toby, Roger and four others tried to summit. At Camp II I huddled with several others around the radio and became sick with worry as a spring storm swept in unexpectedly, trapping a lot of people on the summit, the Hillary Face and other various paths. 1996 turned into a bloodbath on Everest. I still get chills thinking about all the people that were lost. Luckily, Roger had gotten our group going fairly early and they were already off the summit by 12:30 p.m, before the storm hit. They were able to get down to Camp III and make it through the night.

I was in my tent listening to the storm rage outside and worrying about everyone on the mountain. I heard something outside but Lynn, my tent-mate, told me that it was nothing. I kept hearing moaning. I finally got my alpine gear on, grabbed my flashlight and handed Lynn the end of a piece of rope and wrapped the other end around my waist. If I was blinded in the storm at least I could follow the feel of the rope back to the tent. It was pure hell. I couldn't see anything and I was so light that I was getting blown around. In fact, I fell over the guy when a gust of wind whipped me around. He was moaning and almost unconscious. I started to drag him towards the tent. I had a hard time because he was heavy and I was gasping for air. I eventually made it. We got him inside the tent and I put as many blankets over him as I could. It was sad, part of his nose was black, indicating severe frostbite.

By the next morning, he had improved and told us that he had summited but that he got lost in the storm on the way down and had ended up here. I heard on the radio that Toby and Roger were fine, so I helped four others drag this guy down to Camp I. From there he was taken down by others to Base Camp and flown out.

As the helicopter life-lighted the guy away, I looked up at Everest and knew, I'd never be back.

CHAPTER 20

COMING TO AMERICA

In 1997 my book, "Mama's Table" was published and it did make it to the top ten list, but not number one. My agent wanted me to come home and do a book tour at all the major institutions. As I landed in New York my heart raced. I was back on American soil. It felt good to be home.

I started my tour at Harvard, then ESPN in Washington D.C. where I stayed with Krista. She gave me the fifteen packages I had mailed her over the last eight years. They were all finished journals that I didn't want to lug around with me. After my four days in Washington D.C. I drove up to Princeton for their literary festival. I didn't know it at the time, but I was within a five minute walk to Greg's office. He was now the head of Diagnostics at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. Later, when I got to the west coast and stayed with the Houses, they told me where he was. I imagined what it would have been like if I had run into him and his girlfriend. That would have been difficult, but I thought that I could have handled it. After all, I really did want Greg to be happy, even if it was without me.

The tour ended on the west coast with me doing a couple of local talk shows. I spent two weeks with the Houses and then I flew back to Ireland and to Toby. He asked me to marry him again. I moved out.

"Toby, you need to find the woman who will say yes and it's not me. I'm sorry. I will always love you but not the way you want me to."

He was not happy but he did give me one last bit of advice that I was grateful for -- he told me that they had lost a large order for computers and it didn't make sense to him. He was worried that the boom in technology was slowing. He suggested I reconsider where my investments were at the time. I called my broker and he kept pushing technology. I told him to switch over to blue chip stocks, non-technology. My investor wasn't happy, but when the bust came a short time later, I was very happy.

I decided it was time to move back to the United States. I loved California but I wanted to be in the mountains, so I bought a ranch near Estes Park, Colorado. I spent over $1.1 million on it and took out a mortgage for half of it. With my writing I was now making a comfortable living and with my savings, I could easily afford never to work another day in my life. My agent wanted me to commit to a book for 1999, so I did. I received an advance this time in the amount of $250,000. I was happier than I had been in years even though there wasn't a man in sight.

The ranch, which I named, Snickers, was at the base of a mountain. It had meadows and stands of pine trees that covered over 170 acres. I had no clue what I was going to do with all of it, but the property came with horse stalls, a ranch house, a bunk house and several corrals and fenced areas. It had once been a horse ranch where horses were raised and sold. I realized pretty quickly that I was going to have to hire someone to take care of the ranch in my absence. I hired a forty year old cowboy and his girlfriend, Jack and Tina. They moved into the bunkhouse (which was more like a guesthouse than bunkhouse.)

Most of the neighbors knew me as the "Writer from California." They were nice enough, but I got the feeling that they were checking me out. I spent a lot of time writing, but in February 1999 I received a telephone call from Gianni. We spoke in Italian and he told me that Mama had died the night before of heart failure.

"I'll be over as soon as I can get a ticket. I'm so sorry Gianni."

I cried all the way over. I was still somewhat of a miser, but I decided to step up a notch and fly business class. I was glad I did, it meant the seat next to me was empty and I was able to cry without keeping anyone awake.

The whole family was at the Villa and as soon as I arrived, Mama's youngest sister and I began cooking to feed everyone. After the meal . we cleaned up. An hour later we all went to view the body at the church. The service the next morning was moving and inspiring. Mama Ferrari had touched many lives and the church was full of her admirers. After the service we returned to the Villa, Gianni took me aside.

"Maggie, walk with me." He said to me in Italian.

I grabbed a jacket and we went outside. Gianni put his arm around me and we talked all the way to the garage about his mother.

"My mother loved you like a daughter. She wanted me to marry you, but I told her that I always had the feeling your heart was somewhere else. She said you were good for me, made me laugh and made me have to think about what I was doing. You helped me find my direction in life and my mother was always grateful for that. So she left you something."

He opened the garage. I always loved coming to the garage because they kept at least a dozen vintage Ferrari's and they were fun to look at and drive. He handed me a set of keys.

"It's not the most expensive one in the garage, but she thought it fit your personality the best. It's that one." He pointed to a little red hardtop sportscar. " It's a 1958 Ferrari 250GT Berlinetta 'Tour de France'. The Coachwork was by Pinin Farina Scaglietti. It's a pretty little thing, just like you."

"Oh God, I can't take this car! This belongs to the Ferrari family."

"You are the Ferrari family. Mama loved you. If you do not take this, it is in her will that it be destroyed. She knew you would make a fuss."

"Oh Gianni, I wish it had been you. We have so much fun together. I do love you."

"I know darling. But the heart is fickle. You just threw yours away on the wrong man. I wish I could go to the States and find this Greg House and knock some sense into him."

The papers to the car were transferred to me. I paid the import duty and almost fainted when they told me the estimated value of the car for the purposes of duties was $790,000. I had my car shipped to New York. It arrived in May. I flew into New York to pick it up and then I drove it across country to Colorado. It was in mint condition and it purred all the way home. I was stopped by a lot of car enthusiasts on my way and on one occasion a man followed me to a diner and offered me a cool million for the car. Obviously, I didn't accept it but I would be lying if I didn't say I was tempted!

When I got back from the funeral, I finished my next novel about a busker in London who lived hand to mouth. I simply entitled it "Busker." It also made it to the top ten, but not in the top five. Still, I had a nice following and made good money. I also spent time with Jack, who had sent his girlfriend packing. Jack and I spent some time selecting our horses to breed and I learned a lot about picking out good studs. (Horses, not men.)

Gianni had made me promise to return for the Millennium in Venice. His cousin had loaned him his Villa on the Grand Canal and Gianni was going to throw a huge party. I made my reservations to return to Italy, even though everyone worried about planes falling out of the sky because of Y2K problems. I called Toby, my technology wizard, and he told me it was all hype and not to worry.

I arrived safely in Venice and spent a glorious Millennium with Gianni, who now had a girlfriend. She was gorgeous, Italian, and jealous of me. Gianni thought it was funny, but I was uncomfortable being around them because she would snipe at me when Gianni was out of the room. So Gianni roped one of his cousins into taking me around Venice and entertaining me. His name was Alberto and he was hot -- probably the most gorgeous man I have ever seen. It didn't take asking me twice for me to jump in bed with him. He even had a respectable degree in engineering from Oxford. On New Year's Eve of the Millennium, we watched the fireworks from the dock in front of the villa. The Grand Canal lit up and people cheered from every corner of Venice. It was romantic and thrilling. Alberto and I had a very "Romantic ride" in his boat on the way back.

I came home from Italy in once piece but not without wishing I could bring Alberto with me. He was so generous in bed that I wanted to bottle him up and bring him home. Lusting can be so much fun.