The Peacock 73

 "I was just twenty when Kenny died.  I never felt so vulnerable, so utterly despoiled, alone and empty.  I was also no longer safe at St. James.  Griffin was still marauding, and Aaron was there sometimes, but the parish gossip about him was never favourable."

"He was talked about."

"We had certain privilege in the server's guild.  In exchange for helping out during mass we were also privy to all kinds of talk and chatter that would best have been unheard and unsaid.  And if Griffin were presiding, there would be no end to his lamentations.  Should Aaron show up for one of the weekday masses, it was all we could do to not bodily restrain him from physically expulsing the poor guy from the church.  And his only crime, so far as I could understand, was that he had the courage to stand up to him.  I secretly admired him.  We rarely crossed paths, except on a couple of occasions"

"Tell me", Carl says.  

"The first time was in early June, 94.  We were all seated at the same table in the upper hall following high mass on a Sunday.  Aaron announced that he was about to spend a couple of weeks in Costa Rica.  People seemed very happy for him, and I think because he was very poor and at that time very dedicated to serving and ministering to the most poor and most marginalized in society.  Despite Griffin and other detractors, Aaron also had friends, and those who didn't hate him seemed to love him all the more fiercely.  And he was admired all the more because he'd just sold a bunch of his paintings and that was how he was funding the trip.  He actually showed me some photos of his work. Tropical birds really beautifully and powerfully rendered.  And this hotel in Richmond had commissioned from him a bunch of huge parrot paintings.  

"I found myself really liking Aaron, even though we inhabited rather different worlds.  I really admired him.  In fact, for a while, I had a huge crush on him."

"I still do", Carl says, grinning shyly.

"No, really?  Oh!  You're blushing!"

"Oh stop!  I'm going to die from embarrassment."

And now, we are both really laughing!