Hello

1964.

Miss Taylor looks ancient. She is very wrinkly. She reads from ‘The Song of Bernadette’. It is a great story. That’s what she says. She tells us she is leaving school at the end of term to do God’s work as a missionary. Along the corridor the music class sings ‘She Love’s You, yeah, yeah, yeah’.

Hello

1967

Monday morning. Mr Penny the ‘head’. Hands up. Who was not at the chapel on Sunday? He has one of those sing-songy-Welsh-accents. Ann Brown raises her hand. She is made to stand up. It’s a mortal sin. No lilt in his voice now. Hard as iron. Hell has a place for those children who don’t go to mass. He stops. She sits down with her tears.

Hello. Are you there?

1971

Any questions? Is it wrong to play with yourself? Giggles. Laughs. Father McGlynn is taking the sex ed class. The Church – capital C, all other churches are small c – teaches that it is a sin. Said with a wink and a grin.

Hello. Are you listening?

1976

Pauline McManus is in trouble. Sixth Form. All hushed up. An early marriage to Joshua Flynn. It’s only much later we hear and understand all of this.

Hello. Peek a boo

1981

University. The Dominican service one Sunday, and the Franciscan the next. It’s true what the say. One appeals to the head, the other to the heart. It’s only the ones in brown that are ever seen around town helping the downs, the outs, the beggars, the drunks, the dirty, the ill.

Hello. You can’t go on ignoring me.

1997

April first. Sorry I’m late. I’ll explain later. He hurries up to the altar. It’s at the end, with the parish announcements, that he tells us why. The Pope has just announced there are to be women priests. The date does not click with anyone.

Hellooooooooooo.

2005

He is in good form this Sunday, although the words ‘good’ and ‘form’ go nowhere near an explanation. A rant about single mothers and the solution. They should keep their legs shut.

Hello. Ready to speak?

2021

He gave up believing years ago, although it took longer to give up on the Mass. And yet God is always there. That little voice in his head reminding him that he may have given up, but God has not.

Hello. Told you so.