another of the aunt's boring stories

The aunt began.

"I met someone you'd have found interesting today. He went out with one of my daughters for a while and he stayed in touch with us when they broke up. He's been working as a guide at one of the museums in Paris. He called to the house today. We talked through the window because of the virus lockdown."

The noble Heelers tried to maintain a polite expression while she gassed away.

I did not expect to be in the slightest bit interested in her visitor, no doubt some privileged supercool high living world traveller who after years of subsidised dating at Irish universities courtesy of the Irish taxpayer, now lived in Paris courtesy of his Daddy's trust fund, and was personal friends of Bono and Bob Geldoff, and blah blah blah. I know the type.

The aunt continued.

"He was working in Paris in 2015 when there was a terrorist attack. Do you know anything about that attack?"

Bored as I was by her story, now I perked up a bit.

This was more like it.

This was my department.

I told the aunt that in November 2015 Jihadis had launched coordinated attacks on Paris, one outside a football stadium, one in the streets, and another in the Bataclan theatre where a rock concert was underway. According to the official death toll, 130 people were killed.

The aunt nodded and resumed her narrative.

"That's the one. He was cycling home from work and he cycled right into the middle of the attack. There were five people dead around him. On the spot he turned to God. Now he travels the world preaching the gospel. He talks about Lourdes and Fatima, He tells people to pray the rosary. You should see him. He wears a crucifix around his neck and rosary beads. He's been arrested all over the place, in Spain and in the Vatican and wherever. I'm not sure why he gets arrested. Maybe it's for travelling during the virus lockdown. Maybe it's something he says. He warns people that we are living through the times foretold in the book of Revelation. He told us he was outside Kilcullen church this morning listening to the mass going on inside. The public aren't being admitted because of the virus. And he was displeased that other services are open to the public but the church is locked."

By this point of her story, I had gone a bit quiet.

Unaccustomed to long silences from me for any story, the aunt paused  and peered at me closely.

"What's the matter?" she said.

I blinked a bit.

It was like there was something in my eyes.

For long moments gentle travellers of the internet, I was too stunned to speak.