How religion (possibly) works
Apr. 29th, 2013 06:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
avevale_intelligencerO'Malley should never have been driving at night, as tired as he was, but the way he was placed, he really had no choice. And on a deserted stretch of road, at around three in the morning, he swerved off the road and ran his truck into a tree. A passing motorist stopped and used his mobile to dial 999, and O'Malley was pulled from the wreckage alive, but with multiple fractures. They took him to the nearest hospital and patched him up as best they could, and when they'd finished he was stuck in traction looking more like a mummy than a man, and there he'd be for at least six weeks.
It was boring for O'Malley. He'd no wife, no kids, no family in England at all, and his nearest friend was three hundred miles away. So nobody came to visit him, not a soul, and even when he was awake he'd nobody to talk to.
And then one day he opened his eyes, and there was Father Michael, his own parish priest, sitting in the chair by his bed.
"Glory be, Father," said O'Malley, "how did you know I was here?"
"Well," said Father Michael, "I noticed you weren't there on Sunday, my son, and I remembered that you'd said you'd do second reading that day. I know you're not the man to welsh on a promise, so I went round and spoke to your supervisor at the depot. He showed me your schedule, and I told him he was working you too hard. Man drives hundreds of miles, day after day with no sleep, an accident's bound to happen. So I went round to Mrs Finnegan's and asked her Johnny to look up on the internet and see had there been any accidents in the area you were supposed to be in. By sheer good fortune he found a news piece about them shifting the tree you knocked over, so I rang round the hospitals till I found this one. And then I wondered how to get up here, but Father Liam from the next village offered to cover my services, and Davy O'Riley happened to be driving up this way to visit his daughter in college, so he very kindly gave me a lift. And here I am."
O'Malley began to laugh. "Oh, Father," he said, "and there was me thinking it was a miracle!"
It was boring for O'Malley. He'd no wife, no kids, no family in England at all, and his nearest friend was three hundred miles away. So nobody came to visit him, not a soul, and even when he was awake he'd nobody to talk to.
And then one day he opened his eyes, and there was Father Michael, his own parish priest, sitting in the chair by his bed.
"Glory be, Father," said O'Malley, "how did you know I was here?"
"Well," said Father Michael, "I noticed you weren't there on Sunday, my son, and I remembered that you'd said you'd do second reading that day. I know you're not the man to welsh on a promise, so I went round and spoke to your supervisor at the depot. He showed me your schedule, and I told him he was working you too hard. Man drives hundreds of miles, day after day with no sleep, an accident's bound to happen. So I went round to Mrs Finnegan's and asked her Johnny to look up on the internet and see had there been any accidents in the area you were supposed to be in. By sheer good fortune he found a news piece about them shifting the tree you knocked over, so I rang round the hospitals till I found this one. And then I wondered how to get up here, but Father Liam from the next village offered to cover my services, and Davy O'Riley happened to be driving up this way to visit his daughter in college, so he very kindly gave me a lift. And here I am."
O'Malley began to laugh. "Oh, Father," he said, "and there was me thinking it was a miracle!"
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-04-29 07:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-29 07:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-30 04:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-30 08:53 am (UTC)Have you read Among Others yet? If not, may I recommend it to you.