2.

See the wrong in the past, pay a penance ... then seek to better it. Yeah, he who seeks ...

Boys will be boys.

A young lad, of age yet to reach double digits, flicks up a football and catches it before those around him can do anything about it. 'This is my ball ...' he exclaims, 'and I am taking it ...'

'C'mon ... don't do that' calls out a slightly older boy, trying to be reasonable in not looking for a fight. 'You're ruining the game.'

'It's my ball, I brought it to school, and I'll do with it what I want ...'

'Why not join us, we're a player short on our team and we are only a goal down too ...'

'I said it's mine, and I'll do what I want ...'

The boy with the ball tightens a fist, ready to swing at anyone looking to forcibly take the ball from him ... such a thing though is not going to happen.

'Now, now Jacob ... that's not very nice, is it?'

The boy instantly turns a one eighty and sees a giant of a man standing no more than thirty feet in front of him. As far as all the other children in the yard are concerned, it appeared as if this giant man just appeared out of thin air. They could be mistaken about this but all of them? ...at the same time?

'Who are you?' the boy wasted no time in asking. 'And my name is not Jacob.'

'It used to be ...'

'No, it didn't.'

'Way back, long before when you and I were friends.'

'We're not friends, I don't even know you.'

The other children begin to scoot off, stranger danger and all that. The boy who tried to keep things calm is the last one to move. He does check back a few times, just in case the boy with the ball might need some help.

'It's true, whether you remember or not.'

'What do you want?'

'I do not want anything, Jacob.'

'I told you, I am not Jacob, and if you do not want anything then why are you here?'

'Just a visit is all ...'

'Well, I don't want a visit.'

'That's just fine ... I won't be staying long. Our time is not now but it will come.'

'Yeah, whatever ...'

'Oh, by the way Jacob ...'

'That's not my name ...'

'I hear they have a good training center for wrestling at this school. I think you should consider joining ... I'd imagine it would be right up your street ...'

'Mister ... you're strange. I asked you your name already too, and you never told me it.'

'Don't worry about it, you will know my name when you need to.'

The man slowly vanishes into nothing. Both boys, the younger and older, see this happen. There is a heat signature that neither boy can properly know of or understand, and it does leave a view of a rising gas, or just hot air, distorting momentarily the spot where the man had been. In the sky, an enormous bird cries out. Such an unusual thing to see such a large creature as this fly so freely and that cry is so loud it is frightening.

'My name is Jason, what's yours?' aske older of the younger.

The younger boy briefly considers being smart, but he is aware that the older boy was watching out for him, just in case that man had brought trouble with him. Appreciative as he is, he simply replies, 'I'm John.'

'Not Jacob?'

'No ...'

'Are we ready to play football now?'

The younger boy looks up at the older boy, there is about five inches difference between the two. 'Yeah, I think I'd like that.'

***

The years go ever so fast, yet Johnny Birch feels as if he has lived many lifetimes, not all of them all so great, this one being all of the not so great. There are reasons as to why he has a number of health issues. One doctor he visits with is one have nothing to do with his physical health, well, perhaps to some degree it does, and these visits are mandatory with nonattendance punishable by periods of incarceration and indeed with his health being what it is, he'd rather attend these meeting and talk bullshit rather than be cooped up in whatever sized cell that may await.

'So, Mister Birch, why is it you think you are here?'

'Isn't it obvious? I'm being punished.'

'Punished for what?'

'How the hell should I know? For being an asshole, perhaps.'

'Only perhaps?'

'Aren't you supposed to reassure me or something?'

'You know, it isn't your fault. What happened to your friend was always meant to be.'

'And there we are. It took you long enough. Of course, it's my fault. It's why I am here isn't it? It's why the threat of jail hangs over me, and if I go in there, I know I won't come out alive.'

'Now Mister Birch, that is not a great attitude to have, is it?'

'That's just it, isn't it? ... The reason why so much of my life is anything but peachy. Just who are you, anyway? Why is it I have to talk to you and not some other head shrink?'

'I am qualified to be here, Mister Birch?'

'No, I don't mean that, and you know it. I am being messed with. My whole life is a set up and you are a part of it, aren't you? Go on, you can admit it.'

'The world is not one great big set up, I can assure you ...'

'Oh, I disagree. It is a joke, a great big joke. You think the joke is on me, but wait and see, the joke ...' he coughs, '... the joke ...', he coughs twice more. 'The joke is on you ...'

He coughs again and this time he does so into a handkerchief, and when he looks, he sees there is blood. An aid worker enters the room.

'If you go with Judy here, she'll make sure you are seen too.'

He wants to fuss some more but doesn't. Judy takes him by the arm to lead him to aid. He wants to jerk away but again doesn't. In the office from which Johnny has only just left, his doctor takes notes and places them into a beige folder which so happens to have a falcon icon on its cover.

3.

Approximately a week prior to that hottest and brightest of days came for all that it is and was and still yet to be, he, for reasons he himself does not fully comprehend, finds a church at random, enters and sits. It is just a church, any church, one he may have even been inside of at some time in the past. A weight is about to revisit him, and he knows it is coming so within a place like this is where he feels he needs to be.

Is it forgiveness he seeks? Perhaps he hopes something will come and connect with him and offer peace. He briefly moves on to his knees and prays momentarily before returning to a seated position where he will remember that moment with which has him here. It is time to once again endure the call that was.

It has been five years, how is that possible? It is possible for it is fact, but still. Five years may have passed quickly but they have always been there. It hardly seems as if he ever lived in a time before that day. Five years since ...

'Johnny ... that you?'

'Jason, what's up?'

'Oh, nothing much. I'm just in the middle of a final moment, that's all.'

'What do you mean by that?'

'It's my moment to check out ... ya know what I mean?'

'Jason, are you driving?'

'Oh yes ...'

'Sounds like you're doing a hundred ...'

'More like one twenty.'

What's happening? What are you up to?'

'Told ya already, checking out. Look, Johnny, I'm sorry. I did a pretty shitty job of taking care of you. I know we're not related, and I owed no one anything, but I should have been a better big bro, you know what I mean?'

'No, Jay, I don't understand. Slow it down a bit there, c'mon over and we'll have a beer or three ...'

'Sorry bro, no can do ...'

It happens. The sound is sickening and more than enough to inform Johnny that the worst has happened, but it can't properly sink in, not yet at least, hell five years on and it still hasn't quite sunk in.

'Jay, Jason ... answer me, damn it ... Jay ... what just happened?'

Playing it over in his head brings him to tears. And the memory of it being him who had to go identify what was left of the best friend he had ever known ... It is a moment no one ever should have to go through. The call itself was not meant as punishment, just the opposite actually. It was to be the end for Jason, one way or another, and Jason wanted to spend his final moments in the company of his buddy.

And in that too, he was truly sorry. Jason, whatever he became, felt he needed to protect his slightly younger friend as if he were a younger brother in need of protecting though Jason himself became troubled and never discussed with Johnny as to what this could be. He couldn't ever tell Johnny. He truly believed that checking out was the only option. Johnny doesn't accept that, and he can't get past the fact that he never had an opportunity to help Jason see differently.

It is a little odd that he came to a church on this day, with what would come in a week's time and all. There is a mishmash, and a hell of a lot with which Johnny, John Birch, Jacob, might never understand. Something is there though, something is with him, not quite a holy spirit ... but ... something.

'Are you alright my son ...' a voice speaks from one side and from a slight bit behind.

Johnny wipes his eyes and turns to see a young priest, a man more than a fair bit younger than himself. If he were to be given some words of wisdom on this day, something he had not wanted or expected, then it might come from a man his own age or older, an older priest with many years watching over his parish, but no, this fellow really is just a young lad.

There might have been hope or opportunity to chat with an older pastor, a wise man so to speak, but a young man? What could he possibly know being so freshly out of nappies? He wouldn't talk anyway, whether he'd want to or not, sure he has time set aside for that as it is and still, he'd rather avoid it.

'What brings you to Saint Michael's on such a lovely evening as this one?'

'Oh, a bit of this and a bit of that, Father ...'

Johnny stands and checks his surroundings for anything that might be his, giving the impression that he'd rather do anything rather than extend this very moment. The priest surveys the fellow before him for a moment before making a suggestion.

'You know, if it would make any difference, the confessionals are free right now ...'

'I appreciate the offer, I really do ...'

'But you gotta go, right?'

'Yeah ...'

'If you need to, you can find either myself, I'm Father Eckles, or Father Boyle, we'd be available most any time.'

'That's most kind, thank you.'

A week passes as does three more days. Three days after the hottest of hot days, Johnny Birch make a return to that church and doesn't have to even make an enquiry about Father Eckles. He sees the priest within the church as if he had been waiting on a return. Odd, in such a short time, two entities offer themselves up to him.

If one were to wrestle an angel, well, that would be one thing, though when it comes to a demon or demons ... well, that's something else entirely.