“You two need time!” Sinead announced as they drove away. “We’ll leave here early tomorrow. Tonight we’ll stay at the motel just out of town.” Neither Julian nor Joe objected.
After the meal barely touched, Sinead whispered to Julian, “I’ll read or watch a bit of TV in our room. You and Joe need a ‘wake’ I think.”
“Thanks, darlin’”, he whispered back.
The bar was fairly crowded but they found a table in the far corner. Drinks ordered, silence prevailed for the first couple of minutes. Each was full of thoughts and feelings but sparse on words to express them adequately.
Eventually Joe spoke softly, “He’s gone – so hard to believe. And yet he hasn’t gone… hell, Julian, what am I talking about!”
Julian answered, “Yes, Joe, you’re right. Eddie’s spirit will always live on. And, I think, it will inspire folks around here for many a day.”
“You’re right there,” Joe replied.
“This is so different from Simon’s death.” Julian spoke his thoughts. “Simon… Eddie… both tragedies. But their parting! Simon – still questions. Eddie – a long painful journey to the end, but still swamped in love and care… and peace due to Eddie’s acceptance.”
“Yeah,” Joe responded. “You’re so right. There are still questions unanswered regarding Simon’s death. But Eddie… yes, so different.”
Changing the subject, Julian spoke softly, “Mate, there is something else that Eddie has asked me to tell you.”
Joe frowned.
“It’s all right,” Julian continued. “Just days before his death, I was able to answer Eddie’s life-long question. For years he has been asking himself where did he really come from. In the last couple of years he has asked me to help him find out, if possible, who his parents are. It has been a bit of a search, but I cracked it – the answer was waiting for me when we returned from overseas just recently. Eddie’s birth father was Tony’s brother, Ron, as you know a fairly unstable character killed in a car crash many years ago. His mother was a young Aboriginal girl who worked at the family home. Apparently, when she found herself pregnant, she vanished – I suppose she knew that Ron would deny being the father. It was fairly difficult tracing where she went, but I was lucky. She didn’t return to her tribe, instead lived in the bush. When the baby was born – who helped her we can only guess – she kept him for a week or two, then one day turned up at the orphanage and left him there. She left hurriedly. No one seems to know where she went from there. They guessed she was a sick girl and died soon after. That part is only guessing. Perhaps Tony’s father knew the truth and encouraged Eddie’s adoption. But, again, it is only a guess.”
“You told Eddie all that?” Joe questioned.
“Yes,” Julian answered. “He was grateful. He’d always questioned his heritage. But Margie and Tony would always be the real parents to him. Then he asked me – in his own quiet way ordered me I suppose! – never to tell anyone, his family especially. He made one exception and that was you.”
Joe was silent for a few moments before he commented softly, “He’d know his secret was safe with you and me.”
That thought tapped their storage of memories. For hours they relived parts of the past – their initial dreams and hopes, the fading of many, the new hopes, the twists and turns of their life journeys.
“In twenty years life has certainly changed,” Julian commented. “And so has the Church – in a much smaller degree – from the one we knew at ordination.”
“Yes,” added Joe slowly. “And we wonder… how will life have changed in another twenty years? Where will the Church be then?