Collin Doherty: Three chairs and a double yellow line

Horsefeathers, Collin said aloud from the bench in front of St. Patrick's. Fall's golden leaves fell onto his head and lay crumpled at his feet. The snap, crackle, pop of the leaves under passersby's feet was just about the only thing that day that didn't raise his blood pressure.

All the trouble began when Agnes married that Balmoral man. No, it began before then -- it really began when Annie Kate Limerick moved into the house with Siobhan. He loved his sister, but she had no idea how to handle her mother-in-law. Annie Kate had dictated when Agnes would take her piano lessons, which books she'd read, what picture shows she'd see. She'd advised Patrick on science lessons (of all things for an Irish immigrant to talk about), told him that obeying Prohibition was for ninnies, and said, don't rush into marrying that Conaghy girl, there'll be plenty of girls when you're in your twenties. And now it looked like Patrick wouldn't ever get married. How could he? He'd probably never rub two dimes together.

He looked at the newly paved street. Those Roosevelt people, they were always doing things to his Philadelphia. Why'd they have to paint the roads? Why couldn't they just leave things be? But no, everything had to change. Hadn't Collin endured enough change? He had to sit here and look at these stupid double yellow lines. Why'd they have to paint the roads? They never needed lines back in the horse and carriage days -- back before he'd gone into the priesthood and he had a narrow waist, broad shoulders, and hard muscles.

Why do Siobhan and Patrick have to move to Washington? Ever since Agnes had left and Annie Kate had died, his sister had worn a blank expression. She looked like she'd had a stroke that killed the emotional side of her brain. She never smiled, she never laughed, she never complained, she never got angry. And his nephew never did anything except look at his mama and do whatever she asked. Why couldn't Patrick stiffen his spine a little bit?

Times, they'd been changing too much lately. He rose from his bench and went back into the church. He'd been reading mass for almost thirty years and had another one to do.