When it comes to prodigal children, returning home at the end of their races to the place where it all started, the history of Scott Arfield requires a little beating.
His second coming in a 5-2 victory against Partk Thistle on Saturday was so dramatically perfect, so stimulating and, at the same time, so impossiblely moving that it could well have been a script of movies.
It would have been rewarding enough if the transfer of the day of the deadline of the 36 -year -old midfielder Wanderers to Falkirk has been nothing more than an attempt to fill the circle and return something.
The football of the years over the years has had two periods with their first club. Not so many have seen their days of the game there, they had a significant impact and have done so on such emotional circumstances.
First, football. Arfield raised his second debut to another level completely at home the opening goal after only 45 seconds at the Falkirk stadium and adding two more goals, one from the penalty spot.
While Thistle played most of the game with 10 men, Brian Graham was sent controversial in the 37th minute when the score was 2-2, it was an exciting performance that restored Falkirk to the top of the championship table.
Scott Arfield offers its characteristic greeting after scoring a hat-trick on your return to Falkirk
Arfield turns a penalty into the second half in Falkirk's 5-2 victory against Park Thistle on Saturday
Arfield does not use 37 in memory of Craig Gowans, a friend and teammate who died in 2005
It was also Arfield's first game for Falkirk since 2010, when a goalless draw with Kilmarnock consigned his team to the descent of the Premier League. He had no idea what would happen for the next 15 years in the lowest divisions of Scotland.
While Arfield went to pursue the dream with Huddersfield Town, Burnley and Rangers, Falkirk slipped to the third level, fought to go out and, in the process, discarded the youth academy that produced it.
It would mean a lot to him if he could help restore them to the highest category, playing the type of football under the current manager John McGlynn for which they were known under John Hughes when Arfield was emerging.
All that would be lovely, special, in fact, but it is not yet what makes this story unique. What distinguishes it in the imaginable more cruel way is the tragedy behind this, one that Arfield and Falkirk will carry with them forever.
In 2005, Arfield's Falkirk teammate, Craig Gowans, died in a training accident. The 17 -year -old defender was electrocuted when the metal post he had taken at his Base of Grangemouth made contact with upper power cables.
Devastated by the cruel loss, Arfield set out to play in his friend's memory, even after he left Falkirk. When he joined Burnley, he wore no 37 in tribute to Gowans and has done so in each of his clubs since then.
He does not care to admit that the opportunity to do it once again, in the colors of the club where he and Gowans arrived from the ranks, was another factor in his decision to return.
When Falkirk agreed to get the number of retirement gowans, Arfield contacted Craig's father, John, to verify that there were no family objections. “Use it with pride,” was the answer.
And boy did. Arfield could not have dreamed that he would write down a hat-trick in his first appearance, held by a multitude of 6,471 that can feel the return of the old days. They will strengthen their career control for the title if they beat Ayr United in second place this weekend.
At the end of Thistle's game, Arfield mixed with a group of young followers next to the tunnel, offering selfies, exchanging the five and signing autographs. He was old once, dreaming of doing it big.
Thus, it was also Gowans, a defender who plays the ball who never had the opportunity to play in the English Premier League, win trophies with Rangers or reach a final of the Europa League, as Arfield did in his busy career.
Worse, Craig Gowans never had the opportunity to share it with his parents, start his own family and, in later years, enjoy the innumerable other pleasures that many of us take for granted.
Life is precious, like football and other meaningless obsessions that enrich it. If Arfield's return to Falkirk reminds us of something, it is necessary to be grateful for those trivial activities. To enjoy and share them and, as Arfield has done, make the absolute most of them.
For those who did not have so much luck, it is the best possible tribute.