AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Priests.”
“Ah. Yes, we do like to lurk. How is your friend?” He made his way over and stood facing Vitari with his back to the prayer candles. He was in his late fifties, with a kindly, wrinkled face, tanned by a life in the sun, aging him further.
“He’ll be fine, just so long as he’s far away from me.” Vitari slumped back in the pew and lifted his gaze to Christ pinned to a cross.
“Does he think the same?” Father Federico asked.
“We’re too different, you know?” Vitari recalled how Francis had shut him down at the view over San Blas, exactly as he’d feared he would. It was stupid to want something good in his life, to want to keep Francis for himself.
“Perhaps you should ask him?” the priest said, sticking his religious oar into things he didn’t understand.
Vitari swallowed the urge to tell the priest to keep his opinions to himself. “Thank you, for helping me earlier.”
The priest spread his hands. “Help is what God is here for.”
“I don’t think God has any interest in helping me.”
“His help often manifests in subtle ways.”
“And what of sinners?” Vitari asked. “And I’m not talking about little sins, what are they called?” Francis had told him once. “The trivial shit?”
“Venial sins.” The priest smiled and gave a soft puff of a sigh. “Those who have lost their way are in the most need of a guiding light.”
“My friend would agree with you.”
“Your friend is wise.”
Vitari smiled. “Yeah, he is.”
“You care for him?”
Vitari lifted his gaze. Could this stranger know how much he cared for Francis just from meeting for a few minutes? Was Vitari’s heart that obvious?
“You should tell him,” Father Federico said.
He almost laughed. As though telling Francis he loved him was such an easy thing to say. What did this priest know of love? Still, he had the kind, aged eyes of a man who knew regret, or even remorse. Before meeting Francis, Vitari had always assumed priests had it easy. Follow God, get paid, go to Heaven. But Francis had taught him there was nothing easy in devoting your life to faith, and there was nothing easy about love either.
“Will you light a candle for my friend, Father?” Vitari asked, leaving the pew.
“I’ll light two,” Federico said as Vitari let the church doors swing shut behind him.
Vitari booked three days at a local resort hotel, then returned to the doctor’s house to find Francis sitting at Mia’s kitchen table and chatting with a young girl and her mother as though he belonged.
He watched him through the screen door, marveling at his resilience, until Francis noticed and waved him inside.
Vitari said his hellos and managed to pry Francis away from the doctor’s, then walked him down the small main street and toward the resort. They made slow progress, but after he’d shown him to their little cabana on stilts, set above the water’s edge, he left him to get cleaned up.
“I’ll meet you at the bar,” Vitari called over the sounds of the shower, then left and went in search of a cold beer and a quiet sun lounger.
Francis joined him a little while later, fresh faced and clear eyed. He still limped but had recovered well since that morning.
“Here.” Vitari handed him a beer as he sat on the lounger beside him.
Francis cringed at the bottle. “I shouldn’t, not with the painkillers.”
“One won’t hurt. We’ve earned it.” He took it, and Vitari chinked their bottles together. “To surviving, Padre.”
As Vitari took a swig, Francis stared at his bottle, thoughts far away.
