Situation typical...

I was falling into the trap of pushing the events to go faster when Brendan kicked me in the ass and told me to slow down and pay attention to reality. He arrives into Derry on the 2nd of April, 1981...which is a Thursday. The hunger strike has been on-going for a month, as have the demonstrations and protests and mini-riots, and two more young men have begun to refuse food.

It's a tense period, to put it mildly, so it's good he is presenting himself as an American instead of an Irish lad. Things don't go exactly according to plan, but so far the only people who suspect he's really Brendan aren't the ones who would hurt him with it.

Well...except for his little brother, Kieran, who's sure he knows everything about anything and has a strong sense of self-righteousness mixed with an angry condescension. Typical 14 year-old.

So the next week, Brendan needs to go with Maeve to a meeting of her peace group, which I had on the following Thursday, completely forgetting that the 9th is the by-election to put Bobby Sands into Parliament. Which he wins. So they wouldn't be having a meeting that day, and the following day would be non-stop celebrations.

But that has to be the meeting where he first hears Father Jack reference a Joanna who might come to speak, sending him into emotional chaos. If I move it back to a Tuesday, that could work...because the election would give him an excuse to go to Magherafelt to check on his parents' marriage.

But it would also mess with his followup plan to see Eamonn. I need to figure that out, better. And it all has to happen before May 5th because that's when Bobby dies and things explode.

So, effectively speaking, Brendan has to go through all the crap of the story's first half within 32 days. And right now, my scheduling is off. Dammit.