Winner Energheia Ireland Award 2025

The orange of the fading sun cast a humbling hue through the tall trees and onto his face. He lay still, lounged on a reclining patio chair, absorbing it all.
The weather that day had been great. Twenty-one degrees – not bad for the first day of an Irish summer. The cool of sunset swept through the garden, between the low walls surrounding him, the warm comfort of Chianti Riserva bringing contentment and with it, memories of his time living la dolce vita in Italy. The faint sound of lonesome country echoed in the background, while the starlings chirped and the jackdaws howled, all making for their beds.
What a day.
What a life, so far.
How privileged he was to be so at peace…so present.
That girl from his hometown with whom he had once been besotted, where was she now? His best friend from college? That sweet girl he met one summer in the Land of Smiles. He hoped all his old school teachers were doing okay, and that they missed him, as he missed those days. That ex-almost mother-in-law he might’ve loved more than her daughter…where was she now? Would she still be wishing him well?
He had travelled far and wide and taken paths his parents hadn’t exactly praised – but it had all felt right at the time. So too in the present.
So much more to see and do—and how lucky he was, still young, with so much life left to live.
Oh, to have such time.
The aching hearts in the background were muffled by a soft rustling, like a distant waterfall. His head tilted slightly, and his eyes drifted above the Ray-Ban’s perimeter. A commercial plane was flying overhead. That would be him soon, he thought, gazing with childish awe. Where were those people going? Weddings? Funerals? A semester abroad? Their first backpacking trip? Their last? Oh, how he longed for it, though he didn’t have long to wait.
Only twenty-five days until he would be on that plane, headed West for four months; six if he budgeted well.
As the plane faded away, he acknowledged how blessed he was. What a privilege to be so young, so healthy, and with so much more time to live, to experience it all.
To enjoy every moment.
So many would dream of this – to have so much time on the clock.
Condensation now coated his glass, the wine becoming slightly chilled, as were his exposed lower legs. No matter, it had warming properties. And besides, he couldn’t go indoors. The sunset still had life in it. How he would savour it just as he would every drop of red. He always had done, as though every sip would be his last.
But it wouldn’t. He smirked, exhaling softly.
Staring out into the orange, he noticed that same gushing sound had returned. Another plane, he thought, although this seemed different. Somehow, it felt closer.
He removed his headphones to gauge the noise better. It seemed louder than before. Had his ears been so muffled before? Had he really been listening?
The wine glass murmured to the round glass table it was perched on, voicing its concerns while clinking and rocking about. The rumbles of the sky had a three-dimensional quality.
He stared upwards and caught sight of the plane – this one bigger than the last.
Or…was it closer?
Could it even fly that low? Was that even allowed?
Still reclined, he angled his left ear toward the sky, his eyes now playing a supporting role. The noise had risen such that his bones could hear it.
The plane wasn’t fading away as the last one had. If anything, it was approaching. Rapidly. Nose first.
Tail.
Right wing.
Inverted left wing.
Nose again.
It was coming, sure as sunset – but with conviction.
Faster.
Darker.
For a split second, everything stilled, his breath caught somewhere between ribs. Like waking from a dream mid-fall – the kind where you never hit the ground, only this time, the ground was rushing up to hit him.
The plane had run out of sky and he, out of luck.