The Sins and Heresies of Johnny Ash: Pride

With the wind lashing at his face and the spray plastering his hair to his head, Johnny leapt off the cliff and into the sea. The shock of the frigid water and the force of the impact nearly knocked the air right out of his lungs, but he forced himself to release only enough to keep water from filling his nose as he pulled himself deeper into the green-blue depths. His arms strained against the violent temper of the surf, struggling to pull him further out to sea. For a few terrifying moments it felt as though Lir himself was conspiring against the Irishman, seeking to dash his body against the rocks and leave his corpse for the crabs rather than welcome him to his domain. But whether it was determination, zeal, or luck that convinced Lir to allow the young man safe passage Johnny never found out, for soon he was out in open waters, swimming his way to nowhere.

“You damn foolish brother of mine,” was the first thing he heard as he opened his eyes. The eldest of his two sisters, Mary, was standing over him and scowling. “What were ye thinking? Were ye thinking that you'd just swim off and get yourself killed? Or maybe you were chasing a mermaid; one o' them sea-women catch your fancy, then? Lure you out to sea so you could have your way with her afore she took your soul with her to Holy God knows where?” She took a menacing step forward and clutched the handrail of the hospital bed, her knuckles turning white.

Only now was Johnny able to understand that something bad must have happened and that he was in a hospital bed and hooked to several beeping and buzzing machines, their displays wavering in tune with his fluctuating vitals. Aeslan—the younger of the two sisters—was sitting in a chair in the corner, clutching her crucifix to her chest and looking relieved. Apparently whatever accident he'd been in had been severe; at least that was what he made of Mary's tirade and Aeslan's worried body language. He looked up at Mary and smiled.

“He's smiling now,” Mary blinked in disbelief. “Jesus Christ I must o' failed in raising you for as sure as there'll be Divine Retribution for the hell you've put me through you'd have never o' smiled at Mother and Father after a stunt like what you just pulled!” Placing a hand on her forehead in frustration she started towards the door. “I'm going to go tell the doctor that you're awake,” she said, trying to regain a bit of composure, “but you'd better think about what you've done.” Stopping before she exited into the hall she turn and shot Johnny a venomous look; “And you better think hard, Johnny Ash; if you pull one more dickless, Jack-lovin' stunt like that again I'll personally pull your balls off and milk them dry! You may be the only way this family has to carry on the Family Name, but science has made it so that you don't have to be alive to do it!” And with that she stormed out.

Aeslan rose and placed a warm hand on Johnny's shoulder. “Don't mind her,” she whispered comfortingly, “she's just been worried too.”

“You think I couldn't tell?” Johnny tried to chuckle but only managed a humored wheeze. “Normally she doesn't threaten me with science until after I've recovered enough to take a beating.”

Aeslan smiled, but after a moment it drifted down into a concerned frown. “Why did you do it?” she asked.

Johnny shrugged; “Can't say I really remember what I did in the first place.”

“A fisherman found you floating fifteen miles offshore. It was a damn miracle he found you too; another day in that water and you'd have been dead.”

Abruptly it all flooded back to Johnny, his memory and body submerged in the icy depths of the Atlantic as vividly as if Lir himself had battered down the hospital walls to reclaimed him. His vision blurred and he blinked his eyes against the icy spray of the ocean and fought desperately to stay afloat as wave after wave fought with an ancient fury, seeking to drive him back down again. Yet on he swam, the fires of his passion stoked and the stubborn core of his strength steeling himself and preventing him from stopping.

Were it not for the fact that the face of the world had been sculpted over the eons by the sea he may have won, but his body was neither rock nor sand and eventually he felt himself bleed out into the water. What was he doing here? Where was he trying to go? The world started to sober and cut slowly into his battered senses like a dull knife. He blinked.

“Johnny?”

Shaking his head to clear the water from his eyes he looked up at his sister as she floated next to him on a wooden row boat. He blinked again and she was standing over him in a hospital room—the hospital room, he correct himself—looking expectantly at him, waiting for an answer.

“I think,” he began, “with a beer.”

With a sigh of frustration Aeslan sat back down; “Do tell.”

“It was Michael who was buying, and it was Michael who was saying we should take the fight to London, cutting down anyone who saluted the Butcher's Apron.” Johnny sighed as the memory of what he'd set off to do returned; “I said that was a damn good idea and that was what I was going to do. He laughed at me and said I'd never make it onto the shores of England, let alone into London. Said I'd be nabbed at the port here at home.”

“So you had to go and prove him wrong, I suppose.”

“Aye,” he answered, staring up at the ceiling, “told him I'd swim, and then everyone laughed.”

“And then you just off and jumped into the sea without nary a thought of what your poor sisters would think?”

“You more than anyone should know,” he said, turning his head to look her straight in the eyes, “ain't nothing or no one going to tell me what I can and can't do.”

Aeslan started to say something but looked up as Mary walked back through the door, followed by a doctor.

“Found the doctor,” she said as she moved to stand next to the bed. “Now you keep your rotten mouth shut and lay still for the doctor, or when he's done fixing you I'll make sure he gets some extra work putting you back together after I've had my turn.”

Johnny winked at Aeslan before settling back and letting the doctor start his examination.