Monague O'Hara Paranormal Detective

Monty was back at the little corner in the Brooklyn College’s Academic Library, that he has made his own. The group of nerds that he has caught the interest of are hovering around the place again today. Today he was going to look at any references to the strictly Irish magical characters,

Fear Gortas, the Irish zombies from the great famine for example. This would be a tricky one though, as the brain eating Hollywood type of zombie was everywhere. But if any zombie stories turned up, outside of Ireland, that the creature did not want to eat your brain but provide you with a moralistic lesson that we should all strive to feed and look after each other in times of famine, that would be the Irish version of the beast.

While he was pondering where it would be a good place to start this search, he noticed that Mira Watson, the head nerd had quietly approached and was now looking over his shoulder at his notes he had made. The word “Fear Gortas” was written in block capitals and underlined.

“Why do you wish to know about Fear Gortas, Irish zombies, from the great famine. Having read you PhD thesis, I would think you would know all there is to know about those.” Mira remarked.

Just as he was about to come up with an answer, Hank Jackson and an officious looking dude that was with him approached Monty.

Hank Jackson, had, as he has been a lot of late, since the birth of his twin boys, asleep at his desk. Newborn twins awaking to be fed and changed every couple of hours. Being employed looking after the academic library, here at Brooklyn College, with an out-of-the-way office, deep within the bowels of the building, a convenient thing in his life at present. He would get in a good days sleep in at work, and take over the night shift back at home, so his wife could catch up a bit as well.

Lucky for him, he was not in a deep sleep, when there was knock on his door. He had managed to quickly awake and snap into hard at work mode just as his boss walked in.

“Hank I have noticed there has been a stranger sitting at one of the desks accessing the library. This person I have noticed is here quite often lately. Do you know anything about this man?” Dr Jefferson inquired.

The smart cookie that he was, Hank was prepared for someone further up the ladder asking this sort of question. He informed his boss that this was a Dr Montague O’Hara an old colleague from his post graduate days at Oxford university, a specialist in old European Folklore. He is visiting New York at the moment. Dr O’Hara has heard wonderful things about our library and has come to me and asked if he can check us out.

Walking up to where Monty was seated, with Mira hovering behind him. Hank began to talk.

“Dr O’Hara, may I introduce you to my boss, Dr Jefferson. I have informed him how you begged me to let you borrow our library while you are here on holiday. He has promised he will try not to get in any ones way over here in the corner.”

Taking the lead from Hank, Monty continued on.

“I am pleased to get this opportunity, Dr Jefferson, Hank would tell me what a great library you have over here. One of your students Ms Mira Watson is going to help me see what you have here on Fear Gortas, the Irish zombies from the great famine. European Folklore is specialty of mine, so it will be interesting to see what you have here about this sort of thing.”

“Pleased to meet you, Dr O’Hara. While, you are here take a good look, at what we have. When you have finished I would be interested if you could let me know what you think of our library before you return home.”

Shaking Monty’s hand, Dr Jefferson and Hank Jackson turned around and headed back towards Hank’s office.

On the way back to his office Hank mentioned Monty’s thesis on European Folklore and how there was both a hard copy and digital copy in the library. Dr William Jefferson decided he would check this document out, see what Dr O’Hara is all about.

After the two visitors disappeared from sight, Monty turned towards Mira and said.

“Well what do you think? Would you and your friends be interested in doing a wee job for me? I am looking for references of Fear Gortas occurring outside of Ireland. If you and your team want this task and perform it well there may be other small things you can do for me.”

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” exclaimed Mira, not able to contain her excitement at this request.

This was the best thing. The only thing she could think of that would be better would be, James Hennessy realizing he should fall madly in love with her, they would make an excellent team together.

Monty stressed the importance that these had to be occurrences of proper Irish Fear Gortas, not the slightest hint of just being another common old brain eating Hollywood zombie and being completely outside of Ireland.

“Make use of all the tools you can think of, internet libraries whatever comes to mind.” Monty told her.

He then pulled one of his cards from his wallet and gave it to her, so she knew how to contact him. You would think he had just given her an artifact, or something else of great value as she carefully took this card and gently placed it inside her wallet.

That night Monty had another of the dreams he has experiences lately. This one had a bit of everything, banshees, the Abhartach, a vampire character in Irish folklore, there were some Werewolves of Ossory, the mythical Irish man-wolf. In this dream there were so many mythical creatures for him to save Gloria from, by the end of it all, he felt rather tired. Of course the Leprechaun O’Hara was present, offering his best encouraging words, with a “well done son” and a few “that’s the way boy” thrown in, but no actual help to keep Gloria safe from all these monsters.

One new dimension, that had not been part of these dreams before. When he had chased away the last monster, saved Gloria yet again from this imaginary dream world he has been finding himself in, Gloria rushes toward him, throws her arms around him and gives him a great big kiss.

“Thank you my love, you have kept me safe” were her words after the kiss.

“Look after that fine young lady son.” These were the words uttered by the Leprechaun O’Hara just before waking from this strange and vivid dream.

Tucked away in her own bed, Gloria was basically having the same dream. That hansom Monty O’Hara was busy saving her from all sort of terrible creatures. The Leprechaun O’Hara was there as usual, offering plenty of encouragement but no physical assistance. This finished with a dream new twist. After Monty had managed to save her from everything, she rushed over, threw her arms around him and planted a huge kiss square on his lips. It was an awesome kiss, there was even a bit of tongue in it. At this point she woke up, feeling all warm and tingly inside. This was all becoming even weirder.