“I just happened to meet Father Horan, so I said I'd bring him in.”

“I'm pleased to meet you, Father.”

“My pleasure, Miss Mangan. And this is your poor father.... ”

“Isn't he a pitiful sight, Father?”

“Do you mind me asking, but... how long is he... like this?”

“Almost a year. The morning after-”

“The first non-stop flight around the world took place in 1949.”

“That's all he ever says, Father. Oul' gibberish about aeroplanes.”

“The morning after my mother died, we got the news about my brother. He was living in Florida. On the way home for the funeral, his plane crashed right after take-off. His... his body was never found.”

“I'm so sorry.”

“When I told Daddy, he didn't say a word. Just went to his room. No matter how I pleaded he just screamed at me to go away, that he had nothing left to live for anymore.”

“The poor man.”

“Our parish priest came over, but he still refused to go to the funeral. Someone from the college stayed with him and when I got back, he never even mentioned Mom or Michael. Just asked for those books.”

“Books?”

“He was always a great man for the learning, Father.”

“Books about aeroplanes, the history of aviation. I tried to talk about the funeral, but he just covered his ears and said how much he needed those books. Eventually, his friend agreed to go to the library and, when he returned, Daddy shouted at us to go away, that he had work to do. When I looked in again, he was exactly like you see him now.”

“God help him.”

“Over the next few months, he was taken to different hospitals, seen by every kind of specialist. But it was no use.”

“They had no idea at all?”

“They could find no organic disorder. They were all agreed on that, but I've lost count of the other reasons they put forward. Catalepsy. Catatonia. Post-trauma stress syndrome... or was it post-stress trauma? I can't remember. He just withdrew into himself.”

“Do you know something, Father? He was the finest man that ever walked this town. ” continue