Leonard and Hungry Paul

by Ronan Hession

After dinner each evening, he would sit on the couch in that customary way of single men for whom time is something to fill rather than spend.

The true tale of history was worryingly short of comeuppance.

And yet, when you love somebody it can be hard to know where the boundary of solicitude ends and interference begins.

What I learned is that everyone in your life has an invisible number on their foreheads, which represents the number of times you will see them again.

Her heart felt like a chapel that had survived a bombing blitz and took on a divine status afterwards.

As Helen had often observed, there is no better cure for one’s own worries than to help someone else with theirs.

Leonard wore a new feeling of peace. He had always associated peace with the idea of happiness, as if it were some sort of steady state that happiness turned into when it was for real. But now he realised that peace is independent of any one feeling. The deep peace that he now felt was in a minor key. It was not blissful, but melancholy. It was a profound acceptance of things as they were, devoid of superficial preferences. The weight of effort that it took to be happy was lifted from his bones.

But it was the nature of being a parent. The kids’ lives are their own. From day one you are handing it back to them bit by bit, until they move on.