“Of course you can, Aiden. I’ll write a glowing recommendation letter, but you’ll have to gather the materials,” he laughed. “Aside from today’s lesson, you’re a fine teacher. You challenge your students and they seem to like it. I’ve looked at all your evaluations and the kids sing your praises. Now why don’t you believe it?”

Aiden pursed his lips before answering. “Entertaining students is the easy part. I blow into class telling a few jokes and stories, but I never know if they’re learning anything.”

“But they are,” Robert said with insistence. “And you know as well as I, entertaining is not the easy part. It takes a certain kind of charm to light up a room. I didn’t see it today, but that’s usually what you’re known for.”

“Charm?” Aiden frowned. The word struck him as vain and hollow. Charming is what his father tried to be when he came home with a half a paycheck after trawling at sea. “That’s not going to keep my job.”

“You’re thinking about this too hard,” Lewison decided. “There’s a healthy balance you’re unable to strike and it’s making you doubt yourself. Yes, Professor Brennan is right, you must take this next step seriously. But in the process of proving yourself, you cannot lose yourself.”

Aiden walked around the lectern and shut down his computer station. “You’re right,” he said in a tired voice.

“Perhaps you need rest,” Lewison said, peering at him. “A young lad should have a bit of merriment every once in a while.”

“Rest and merriment will come when I’ve completed a conference paper and book proposal.”

Robert laughed. “A conference paper can be finished in a day. Go somewhere and get some rest, Aiden. Hell, go to the country like you used to. What’s that place you like?”

“Tully Cross?” Aiden said as he stuffed books in his bag. “I haven’t been there in a year, not since Lisa...”

“Go there and get some fresh air. Go to the water where you belong.”

He straightened up and looked at his mentor. “I don’t know, Robert. I don’t think I have time.”

“You have the entire summer to get your head on straight. The end of the spring semester is the hardest. If you don’t take time to cut loose now, you’re not going to be any use to the students in the fall.” Robert was fully invested in this plan now. “That’s right, escape before grades are due and the conference starts.”

Go to the water where you belong. Try as he might, he couldn’t deny the powerful lure of the water, the peace he felt when he was near it. It was why he bought his Claddagh house right on the River Corrib. He awoke, each morning, with a natural source of pleasure and serenity that the middle of Galway couldn’t give him. The small village of Tully Cross, out on Renvyle Peninsula, afforded him the same peace. He’d made the trip annually since his years in the PhD program. “Maybe I could go for a week...”