The Messenger Dialogue

Ed is glancing at his broken and bloodied face in the bathroom mirror when a knock on his door startles him. "Come in!" he yells from afar. The door opens and lo and behold, it's Audrey. She sees herself in accompanied by the Doorman following excitedly behind. As Audrey makes her way through, she notices Ed and is shocked.

"Geez, Ed!" she gasps loudly, "What's happened to your face? Have you seen the doctor? My Goodness, you look horrible!"

"Thanks alot," Ed says sarcastically as he makes his way towards Audrey, "It's alright, I guess. Anyway this is part-and-parcel of being the messenger in this shithole. If you really want to know what's going on, then grab a chair alright?"

Audrey nods and grabs a folding-chair lying about. "Alright Ed, spill will you?"

"Well, after completing the first card; the Ace of Diamonds, I felt that I was invincible. I had comforted Milla, taught Sophie to run barefoot at a major race, and even had that bastard rapist taken care of. I was really on a high during the next few days. I felt there was nothing I couldn't do. But what I hadn't counted on was the next card. Reality struck when my house was broken into by a-"

"Broken into?" shrieks Audrey; cutting in, "what happened? Are you all right? Did whoever broke in do this to you?"

"No, no," says Ed reassuringly, "these wounds are 'messenger-related' injuries. Don't worry yourself about it okay? By the way, the guys who broke in weren't ordinary burglars either."

"Weren't ordinary? How so?" Audrey looks puzzled.

"For a start, they were the most incompetent burglars alive; very much like the gunman. Secondly, they were here on behalf of some mysterious person who somehow knows that I am a messenger."

"Mysterious person?" asks Audrey, "could he or she be the one behind this whole messenger shit?"

"Most likely," agrees Ed, "anyway, these burglars did knock me around quite a bit and upon leaving, handed me an envelope containing you guessed it, the next bloody ace. But unlike the first card, this one didn't have any addresses scrawled on it. Instead all it said was 'Say a prayer, at the stones of home.' Needless to say, the next few days were filled with fruitless searches."

"How did you manage to find it? If it was so cryptic"

"By luck really. On one of my night shifts I again had an encounter with the weird. My last passenger was some freaky-looking guy who somehow knew my name and forced me to drive all the way to the river down by the park. When we reached there, he did a runner on me and by sheer coincidence; or at least I think so, he led me to the large rocks by the river bank."

"The stones of home," Audrey whispers knowingly, "I got it! If I can remember correctly, you and your younger brother used to hang out quite alot among those rocks right? Way back when youse were kids. You guys would spend so much time there that youse would even call it a second home. Thus, the stones of home."

Ed nods happily while clutching Audrey's hands. "And carved into one of those rocks were the names Thomas O'Reilly, Angie Carusso and Gavin Rose."

"Thomas O'Reilly... O'Reilly," Audrey thinks out loud, "you mean Father O'Reilly? The priest we helped to fill his church up right? I had a feeling that he was one of your messages."

Yeah that's him," smiles Ed, "how can he be a priest without anyone coming to visit him at his church? It just doesn't make sense at all. He's a pretty nice guy as well and has a great sense of humour. I'm glad that we all chipped in for this one. That 'Meet a Priest day' was huge fun wasn't it Audrey?"

"Sure is! I had heaps of fun. Did you see how many people turned up? For God's sake, even Marv and Ritchie tagged along, and you know how they feel about all this religion! How's the father now?"

"The father's doing fine actually," Ed confirms, "I've been to his church once more and although it wasn't filled to the brim like at the Meet a Priest day, it still was alot fuller than last time. It's satisfying to know that he can get back to do what he loves; proper priesting in a proper church."

"That's good to hear," beams Audrey, "Now let's hear about the other two. I want to know what 'Superhero Ed' has done to change their lives."

"Superhero Ed? Are you kidding me?" Ed looks shyly at Audrey now, "there was nothing really special about the other two, except that I got beaten to a pulp by one. But that's for later. Now, let's talk about Angie Carusso."

"Sure, Ed. Go on."

"Well, Angie's message was simple but a very touching one. The first thing you have to know about her is that she is very beautiful. She has short dark brown hair and a nice smile. She is youngish, about thirty plus I would say and works at a chemist part-time. Angie has three kids and judging by their ages, she must have had them quite young; a typical teenage mother. To tell you the truth, those kids are an absolute handful! Every afternoon I see her and her kids down by the park. Every afternoon I see the kids wolfing down an ice-cream of some kind. Every afternoon I notice her sad, distanced face and wandering legs."

"Sounds like you like this woman," teased Audrey, "so what did you have to do for her?"

"Very funny!" Ed shot back, "what gave me the answer was her wandering legs. They move slower than what's