Sarah stands behind Carl, both her hands resting on his shoulders, while he tries to compose himself. Jennifer is also touching his arm from where she is seated. Everyone is quiet and appears strangely moved, if a little embarrassed, and Tommy just sits there taking it all in. Carl dabs his eyes with a serviette, squeezes Sarah's left hand with his right, and mumbles, "Thanks, you guys. Sorry..." Then smiling, he says, "Hey, at least my sister isn't here to see any of this", and we all start laughing.
We all wait for a while, smiling, then Matthew says,"You have been incredibly generous to us, Carl. But", and here he pauses awkwardly, as though not knowing how to spit out what he has next to say, then says it," I think at our next meeting, we need to talk more about money. I mean, especially now that Douglas is gone."
"We could put you in charge as treasurer and I could administer to you the funds, whatever you need", says Carl.
"That is something I am not willing to do", says Matthew. "And besides, some of us already have independent incomes. I and Glen and Sheila, for example all receive government pensions, Francois is still on the Catholic payroll, and I understand that George and Jeffery are still being generously remunerated by the abbey in exchange for their silence..."
"Which is also why we are not telling you any of the juicy details", quips George...
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