The Peacock 35

 "You said it was a suicidal depression?" asks Carol. "What exactly happened?"

Aaron says, "I just couldn't go on.  I felt helpless and paralyzed against the monolithic Big Church. If they still had absolute power I would probably have been burned at the stake.  I was going to overdose on painkillers.  Instead, I phoned a friend.  She came over and helped calm me down and on my request she took the pills away.  The next day I wrote Stephen a letter explaining exactly what really did happen, without Gloria or Griffin around to twist and lie.  We soon got together for coffee and he gave me a full and sincere apology.  He was also already taking seriously the importance of getting Griffin out of the church.  Fortunately, after a few months, as the truth about him really began to surface, he was finally kicked out of St. Jude's.  Of course, being Anglicans, they lied about his dismissal, and simply he had taken early retirement.  No accountability."

Looking at Carl, Aaron says, "That would have been just before you met Robert Griffin for the first time."

I ask, "How did he end up in Switzerland?"

"The way Robert described it to us," Carl says, "Following his dismissal from St. Jude's, and it was a dismissal, no matter what other kinds of lies were being told,   Robert was a broken man.  When Melissa and I were staying in his house with the banker dude, Robert had already put the place up for sale."

Melissa interjects, "That was the other thing they were yelling at each other about.  That was why they went outside, since they didn't want us to hear any more."

"And," resumes Carl, "he ended his relationship with the banker dude, and came to visit our community.  He had already been there several times, but always under the guise of the charismatic rebel priest.  And he had a lot of people there awed and wowed.  He did pack quite the personal charisma."

"He still does," Carol said.

Carl says, "It must be getting close to supper, and I am sure some of us must be getting hungry.  Shall we resume tomorrow, everyone?  We have only just begun..."