CALUM, June 2016 – Messenger:

C. MCDONNELL: I’m not sure what to say. Never figured I would be invited to an Argentine wedding.

PABLO MORENAS: I would like to see you, and so would my daughter. She joked that I was always very bad at making friends, so when I finally do, we should celebrate.

C. MCDONNELL: I guess not killing me at our first ‘meeting’ is a good start.

PABLO MORENAS: …

C. MCDONNELL: Oh, sorry about that. I didn’t mean to bring that up now. The past is past. The war was a long time ago.

PABLO MORENAS:You are right. It still makes me sad, though.

C. MCDONNELL: The war?

PABLO MORENAS:Yes, and everything it caused after it ended. To you, to me.

C. MCDONNELL: At least your daughter invited you to her wedding. Trust me, you haven’t been doing so bad the last 30 years.

PABLO MORENAS: You’re not invited to your daughter’s wedding? I do not understand.

C. MCDONNELL: Well, it was a small ceremony. They didn’t have a lot of money, but I guess, yes, it was about me.

PABLO MORENAS: May I ask what happened?

C. MCDONNELL: Sure. It was ten years ago–we have patched things up since. At least I think we have, Caroline and me.

PABLO MORENAS: You mean you have not seen each other since?

C. MCDONNELL: Oh yes, occasionally. It’s difficult when she lives in the United States, but I’ve been there. They’ve been to Scotland a couple of times.

PABLO MORENAS:When was the wedding?

C. MCDONNELL: Let me see. She met Jonathan in ’05. They married the same year. She was pregnant.

PABLO MORENAS: I understand.

C. MCDONNELL: It’s not quite like that, or at least I think it wasn’t quite like that. Yeah, they did love each other. But my grandchild … Well, let’s just say she wasn’t planned.

PABLO MORENAS: Maria is pregnant as well. I did tell you?

C. MCDONNELL: Yes, you did. I hope things are well with her.

PABLO MORENAS: They are. 

C. MCDONNELL: Caroline had some difficult years in college. She never finished college. Her best friend–man, it’s hard. Her best friend committed suicide and Caroline quit college and went to South America. Then she came home and hooked up with this guy, Jeremy, I think his name was. He was bad company.

PABLO MORENAS: You not owe me explanation. You do not have to tell me anything.

C. MCDONNELL: Pablo, I think I do. It’s hard … but anyway, Caroline began taking drugs and all kinds of things. And then her brother died.

PABLO MORENAS: In Afghanistan.

C. MCDONNELL: Yes. Anyway, so she ran away from this guy and got on a plane to Scotland and was there for the funeral. She was in a bad way. I only just got sober at that time. But now my little girl–Oh, god, I was more worried about her than I was sad about my son. I feel … ashamed about that.

PABLO MORENAS: Do not be. It was the same for me. When I lost my brother. All that happened in Panama. 

C. MCDONNELL: You’re too damn polite, Pablo, but I appreciate it. Anyway … I knew that if she went back to the States like that, she’d probably die. So I arranged for her to… Do you know what ‘cold turkey’ is?

PABLO MORENAS: No?

C. MCDONNELL: Well, when you’re dependent on drugs or anything like that, you… You can stop it from day to day, but it’s hard, and you need help. And you probably also need to be locked up to prevent you from starting all over again.

PABLO MORENAS: And that happened to your daughter?

C. MCDONNELL: That’s what we did, yes. She was furious, even after she got clean. And she did get clean. She did stop.

PABLO MORENAS: But she must have known it was bad for her, and that you helped.

C. MCDONNELL: It’s complicated. Let’s just say that she didn’t take too well to being forced.

PABLO MORENAS: Callum, you may have saved her life. 

C. MCDONNELL: But at the time, it felt like I had lost her again after all those years after the divorce when I didn’t want to talk to her and she didn’t want to talk to me. I had just gotten her back, and then when she left for the States, I thought I’d never see her again. But at least she was alive. And now it’s been ten years. And as far as I know, she hasn’t touched coke again. 

PABLO MORENAS: Then you have nothing to be ashamed of, my friend. She knows you did the right thing.

C. MCDONNELL: I think part of her still resents me, though, for the way I handled it back then. Maybe I’m just imagining it. Sometimes I wake up at night just… feeling so bad about it.

PABLO MORENAS: Like I do with my brother.

C. MCDONNELL: You’ll tell me about it when I meet you at that bar in Punta Arenas—like we talked about. The one with the view of the mountains.

PABLO MORENAS: One day. We will meet there, or I will see you and the mountains where you live on Isla Skye. They are beautiful on the photos.

C. MCDONNELL:The beinns as we call them are not as tall as the Andes, but they have their charm. Me going back to Argentina–who would have thought?

PABLO MORENAS: During Malvinas war, we did not have anything like Internet. Who would have thought? 🙂

C. MCDONNELL: Yes. Goodnight, Pablo. Or is it good morning down there?

PABLO MORENAS: It does not matter. It is just a good day when we can talk.