Free His Father's Son: To save the son he loves, a desparate father must confront the ghosts of his past by Tony Black

sorry.”
    “Not a problem. You didn’t find them, then?”
    Joey shook his head. He felt his chances had slipped below even desperation level.
    The rest of the journey home passed in a haze. He tried to smoke hard and fill the void in him, but it didn’t work. Macca had said to be strong. Life goes on, he said. But did it really? Marti was his life. What did he have without the boy? Shauna had taken him, that said what she thought of their marriage, surely. But the boy was all that was left, the one good, true thing in his life. He knew when he looked at Marti nothing else in the world mattered. Marti was the world. He couldn’t imagine it without him.
    Joey turned into his street and immediately felt his pulse quicken. Jaysus, it was him. It was Marti. Holy Mother of God, he was back. Joey planted his foot and the car lurched forward. The boy was sitting right outside the house.
    The car screeched to a halt and Joey leapt into the street. “Marti,” he shouted.
    The boy looked up. “No,” he said. It was Marti’s friend, Jono. “I forgot he was gone.”
    “Jaysus lad, you near ended me there,” said Joey.
    “Sorry, Mr Driscol,” said Jono. “I came to get him for school. I thought it might have been a dream, but he’s really gone, isn’t he?”
    “Yes, Jono, he’s gone all right.” Joey put his foot on the little wall in front and leaned over, expelling the air from his lungs like he had been winded by a jolt to the chest. When he gathered his strength he watched Jono walking to school by himself, his little head down, looking sad like the night before, and then something hit him. “Hold on, Jono, hold on there.”
    The boy stopped in the street, stood still. “What is it?”
    “What do you mean a dream? How did you know he was gone? Who told you?”
    “Marti.”
    “What … when ?”
    “Before he left, he told me.”
    “What?” Joey bowed down and looked into Jono’s young face. He was so like Marti, weren’t they all alike at that age, he thought. They all had the same bag of tricks and this one knew something for sure. “Jono, now you must concentrate and tell me everything.”
    The boy scrunched up his nose. “He said he was going on a train and a boat, or was it a plane?”
    “Oh God, where? Did he say where, son?”
    “No.”
    “He didn’t tell you?”
    “No.”
    “Shit,” said Joey. He stamped his foot in the red earth and cursed the heavens.
    “But I know where he’s going. His mam told my mam. I heard her say yesterday.”
    Joey grabbed Jono’s shoulders and looked deep into his eyes. “Where?”
    “I don’t think I’m supposed to say … she was mad at me for even knowing about the train already.”
    “Look, Jono, this is very, very important. You must tell me where they went. You won’t get into trouble for telling, I promise you that.”
    “She said they were going to Ireland.”
    Joey raised his hand to his mouth and spoke through his fingers, “Never … I’d never have believed it.”
    The boy looked confused. Joey patted him on the head and said, “Thank you, Jono. You’re a grand lad, a real grand lad.”
    “Can I go now?”
    “Jaysus, yes, sure ye can go, son. Off ye go to school, and thanks, thanks a million. You’re a real little lifesaver, so ye are.”
    Jono smiled for a second and then turned to go to school. Joey watched him walk for a while, saw his little head sink into his shoulders again, and he felt his hurt. Something awful had happened – people were hurting all over the place. He couldn’t bear to think how Marti must be feeling, on his way to Ireland.
    Joey went inside the house and sat in silence. What had happened here? Ireland, it was the last place she would take him surely. Wasn’t she through with the place ten years since? Wasn’t Ireland nothing but bad memories and broken hopes? Wasn’t Ireland where her family was, and his, Christ, his that he hadn’t heard hide nor hair of for the best part of ten years. Wasn’t it the