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part two: The Stones of Home, 7♣, 8♣, 9♣, 10♣, J♣, Q♣, K♣ 

Summary: 7♣ the priest  

Ed goes looking for the first name on the list and finds two T. O’Reillys. Tony sends Ed to his brother Thomas in the slums with a message of his own, that greed hasn’t yet ruined him. Tony warns Ed that Thomas is a priest. After he arrives at Thomas’s run-down house, Father O’Reilly invites Ed inside. Father O’Reilly moved from the church rectory to the slums to be nearer to the people he wants to help. The church itself is dying with only a dozen regulars every Sunday. Father O’Reilly believes Ed has a providential purpose and tells Ed to have faith he’ll receive direction. Ed delivers Tony’s message and it touches Father O’Reilly. 

At the friends’ card game following his visit to Father O’Reilly, Ed nervously asks his friends to attend a service at the priest’s church. Marv expresses concern about the reputation of Catholic priests as pedophiles. Audrey suspects Ed is on a mission. When Ritchie agrees to go, the other two agree as well. Ed recognizes that his mission is to fill up Father O’Reilly’s church. 

Summary: 8♣ juveniles  

Ed plans and finances a community event, Meet a Priest Day. The draw will be free beer. The friends round up barbeques, a jumping castle, a karaoke machine, food, and beer. Marv and Ed spray paint an invitation on Main Street at 3 a.m. The day before the event, Ed is stunned when Father O’Reilly visits to tell Ed he sees God working through him. Ed remembers Sophie’s similar words. Ed then invites Sophie, Milla, and Tony O’Reilly. The event the next day fills the church. Father O’Reilly involves his neighbors in music and scripture reading. His sermon speaks about being a community. Father O’Reilly ends with a prayer of thanksgiving for the moment in time. The event is an enormous success. 

Summary: 9♣ the cops show up  

The night of Meet a Priest Day, Father O’Reilly comes to see Ed and chokes up trying to say thank you. Later, the police bring scrub brushes and road wash, and Ed once again is on Main Street at 3 a.m. scrubbing off the invitation he and Marv spray-painted on the pavement. He feels happy to have been of service.

Summary: 10♣ the easy one and ice cream  

Ed finds Angie Carusso, a single mother supporting three young children on a part-time pharmacy job. Once a week she takes her children to the park and buys them each an ice cream. Ed sees she feels trapped in her circumstances. Ed then finds Gavin Rose, a bully whose brother Daniel abuses him. 

Summary: J♣ the color of her lips  

Ed buys Angie Carusso a double waffle cone. She savors it while telling Ed that she loves her children, but she feels very alone in the world. His message to her is that someone sees her sacrifice. 

Summary: Q♣ blood and roses  

After the Rose brothers fight over Gavin getting into Daniel’s things, Gavin goes to the curb to sulk. Ed brutally attacks him, punching his face and stomach and kicking him. He’s never laid a finger on anyone but he feels it is necessary in this case. Ed calls the Rose house and tells Daniel that his brother needs his help and then hangs up. He sees Daniel helping Gavin limp back to the house. 

Summary: K♣ the face of clubs  

Ed goes back to the river to check the stone with the names. Ominously, someone has etched a checkmark next to Thomas O’Reilly and Angie Carusso but not Gavin Rose. One night while buying medicine to help him sleep, he encounters Daniel, Gavin, and four friends. Gavin identifies Ed as his attacker and they beat Ed, with Gavin delivering the final blows. Ed staggers home with two black eyes, a swollen jaw, and a bleeding nose, surprised to see something similar to the face of clubs looking from the mirror. 

Analysis of 7♣, 8♣, 9♣, 10♣, J♣, Q♣, K♣ 

Helping a priest is an unexpected intervention for Ed. In the popular imagination, priests’ vocation confers God’s favor and thus eternal security. Suspicion also follows Catholic priests, as evidenced by Marv’s question about the Chesters, a reference to the child abuse scandal in Chester, England. Ed finds Thomas O’Reilly through his brother, Tony. Tony’s ironic message to his brother about not being swallowed up by greed indicates they’ve disagreed about life choices. Thomas, now Father O’Reilly, evidently warned his brother of the dangers of money as a goal. Ed finds Tony intimidating and builds a profile in his mind of Tony as belonging to the criminal element. 

Father O’Reilly breaks the sanctimonious stereotype. He’s a down-to-earth servant of God to the people, whom he loves not despite themselves but for themselves. His character brings focus to the book’s central theme of proactively reaching out to people. Ed’s collaborative event planning and execution reinforce the message: Audrey, Marv, and Ritchie all pitch in to bring Meet a Priest Day to fruition. Father O’Reilly has long recognized that God’s work can be done by anyone, not just priests, but Ed hears that message for the first time. It echoes Sophie’s asking if Ed is a saint. Ed seeks out God for confirmation while he’s scrubbing the road, and as if in answer he receives a sense of joy.

Ed observes Angie Carusso’s life for a week. He identifies the syndrome of the teenage unwed mother, raising three children on her own. Ed keys in on Angie’s “wandering legs,” a description that calls to mind a restless spirit unreconciled to the choices she’s made. When Ed buys her the ice cream cone, he interrupts the solitude that envelops Angie. She confirms she’s become trapped in isolation from friends and family, loving her children but fighting regret for the loss of control over her life. Ed doesn’t take much satisfaction in his simple message that someone sees her sacrifice because it doesn’t change her circumstances.

Ed’s intervention with Gavin Rose shows a shrewd assessment of Gavin’s real problem. His bullying of vulnerable people stems from his mistreatment by his older brother Daniel. Gavin inflames Daniel’s temper when he gets into Daniel’s things at home, looking for a closer relationship with his brother. Any attention, however painful, is better than none. To interrupt the cycle of Gavin being punished for his need for affection, Ed devises a message that will bring the brothers together over a shared grievance. His beating of Gavin provides the impetus for Daniel to see his role as protector. Ed has no prior experience with hurting anyone. The Edgar Street intervention exposed a new dimension to Ed’s messenger responsibilities. He sees administering brutal thrashing to a young kid as a mission. Unlike the rapist, whose own violence on his wife brought violence upon him, the harm done to Gavin requires a balancing answer. The stone testifies to the unfinished business with Gavin Rose’s name showing no check. Ed’s choice in how to help Gavin appears to have not truly helped yet.

Ed loses sleep wondering what else he should do to complete the assignment and doesn’t understand there’s a cost to be borne for his solution. The consequences arrive while he is seeking relief from his anxiety, buying sleep aids at the drug store. Daniel seeks justice for his brother Gavin’s beating, exacting revenge by mobilizing his friends to help deliver a greater beating to Ed, who accepts the beating as the price of the mission. He sees in his black eyes and bloodied nose “the face of clubs,” an ironic wordplay on “the ace of clubs” that started the mission. Ed hardly recognizes himself now that he has completed half of the missions mandated by the messenger. His identity is changing dramatically from the self-centered, passive jokester at the bank holdup.

Previous section part two: The Stones of Home, A♣, 2♣, 3♣, 4♣, 5 ♣, 6♣ Next section part three: Trying Times for Ed Kennedy, A♠, 2♠, 3♠

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