pen picture with a punchline

Afternoon coffee with Ron Hayes.

He is my most improbable friend.

A lifelong communist, now 72 years old, he spent his much of his youth working for the revolution in Africa and elsewhere.

He bears the marks of a life lived hard.

And he ain't afraid of nuthin.

Around us the cafe buzzes with life.

My communist friend sips his coffee meditatively from a right hand which is missing a finger.

"You'll be pleased to know that I've found religion," he tells me.

"Really?" I reply, indeed quite pleased.

"Well not quite," he chuckles. "But when I'm admitted to hospital for this damned stroke, I've started filling in the forms with a religious preference."

"Why?" sez me.

"The Muslim doctors," sez he.

"How do you mean?" sez me.

"For Muslims it's no crime to kill an atheist," he informs me matter of factly. "They can kill an atheist without any thought or guilt. For the first time in my life I'm claiming to be Christian on the hospital admission forms. Muslims consider it's more acceptable to be a Christian or a Jew, than an atheist, as long as you know your place."
I stared at him.
I had my doubts about portions of his final sentence.
But it conveyed a certain truth.

If the lifelong hard men commie atheists among us are now living in fear of Muslims, Ireland really has come much nearer to the Caliphate than even I suspected.