Rabbit hole...

Brendan's caught in a serious moment of chaos, in this story. Nine chapters in and everything is going fine. People think of him as an American named Jeremy Landau. He's had hints that his father may have been targeted for his attack, but only vague nothing references. He managed to avoid being seen by Father Jack, whom he knows would know him...until after the peace movement meeting, when the man comes up to speak with Maeve. He knows who Brendan really is but plays along with the charade...until he mentions someone named Joanna.

And Brendan spirals into wondering if he's spent the last eight years thinking he might have been wrong, believing that she was killed in that bombing. Because Father Jack knows he knew a Joanna, and that it was her father's shop that was targeted by that car bomb. And he's being so very deliberately nonchalant about what he just said.

Now Brendan is questioning his last memories of seeing her caught in the burning rubble. He was incontinent for 6 months, and by then the news would have moved on to new atrocities in the North of Ireland. And the thought of digging into it was too painful, so he accepted it and tried to rebuild his life.

But now he plans to visit The Derry Journal and read the articles from that time...and he will learn she survived. And has no idea how to approach her. Maeve knows nothing about her. It was Father Jack who'd  gone to pick her up, to speak at the meeting, but she had became too upset so didn't even get out of his car. He says she will be at the next meeting, in two weeks, but how can Brendan manage to wait that long?

His only other choice is to talk with Father Jack. He watched over Brendan as he healed before Aunt Mari came, so he probably had a good idea of all that was done to get him into the US. Probably knew where he was staying. Obviously, he'd kept the secret, but Brendan still does not trust the man. Not at all.

It's quite a problem, and I may have dug this hole too deep, but I already like it far more than what I had. That had been them meeting at a dance being put on the have both sides come together for fun, and their conversation had been too movie-dialogue like. And never really did make sense.

Now? It seems closer to how it might really happen. So I'm following it.