title: The Heart of Everything
author: Cleary, Mike
description: “The Heart of Everything” The first time Magnus Flaherty, a swaggering, young Irish actor, hears that intriguing expression is in Paris in 1967. He and Maggie Leyton, a perky, headstrong daughter of a Hollywood screenwriter, thanks to a chance encounter in a theater line, dance through a twelve-hour romantic idyll replete with museum visits, park strolls, bistro dining and champagne at the Ritz. They part at midnight with her whispering, “This is the heart of everything.” He doesn’t hear that expression again until forty-eight years later. Enjoying a drink in a Berkeley, California bar, Magnus overhears a genial young man with insurmountable wedding woes use the term. It results in a magical reunion with Maggie Leyton and an opportunity to rekindle their short-lived Paris relationship. But sticky and challenging situations arise that require their attention. Taking pity on the young man intent on getting married despite parental objections results in them becoming accidental wedding planners. Then there is the floundering Shakespeare theater that needs rescuing. Magnus is recruited as a director to stage what becomes one of the more outrageous productions of As You Like It? Through it all, Magnus and Maggie come to terms with their long dormant-relationship and what for them is the true meaning of the heart of everything.