âThereâs a lot more good in the world than one might think,â Camilo concludes after giving the table another critical once-over. âThe best in people usually comes out in times when need is greatest. Weâve been very lucky in that regard. Every box on that table has the potential to change someoneâs life in ways you could not imagine.â Heâs seen the difference it makes firsthand, oftentimes slipping some of his own earnings into the boxes before theyâre sent out to new homes. His cut of the profits the fight ring yields may be meagre at best, but thereâs something deeply satisfying about using Theodoreâs blood money for a cause most might deem a waste.
Harry reiterates his distaste at the thought of a career change and Camiloâs smile remains. âWell, I canât say I blame you for not jumping at the opportunity. I wouldnât want to venture into the field of politics if you armed me to the teeth and offered me a mansion to boot.â It takes a certain kind of person to thrive in a field built on lies and the exploitation of the masses â requires a ruthlessness that Camilo simply does not possess. A ruthlessness, heâd venture to say, Harry doesnât have in him either. August, on the other hand, seems to have been made for it. Meaganâs darling husband although he may be, Camilo can count on one hand the amount of times theyâve seen eye-to-eye on a matter. Consequently heâd stopped accepting dinner invitations from the pair long ago.
âWonderful. And Iâll most certainly take you up on that offer for after mass if it includes coffee.â Itâs been a long and strenuous week, filled with too many funerals and confessions so troubling theyâve been adding to the list of reasons he canât sleep at night. Camiloâs never figured out how to leave the job at his front door â so far itâs proven a sisyphean task. Instead he carries shame and guilt around with him like accessories.
Noticing Harryâs gaze travelling back to the apse, Camilo uses the moment to drink the rest of his water. âDo you like it? Iâm sure it isnât as grand as what youâre used to, but itâs still quite something, no? I sit and stare at it for hours sometimes. When the light comes in at just the right angle⌠itâs beautiful.â
âIf only the media could focus on that, instead of all the wrong doings of men,â but that wouldnât sell paper or screen time. People wanted to watch the failures of others, the struggles and pain of others. That didnât leave Harry with a lot of faith in humanity, but when he went to church, he seemed to regain some of it, if only for a few others. His conversations with Camilo also managed to do that, and that was one of the reasons that led him to visit him often enough.
 That man was kindness in the flesh, and that had the same effect on him as taking a deep breath by the sea front. His smile dimmed. The government should have been doing this, not the Church. Though the people of their congregation were generous, Harry believed that wealth should be more evenly shared, which was perhaps a bit cynical coming from someone who lived in a house with ivory walls and marble floors. âI sometimes wish I had met August before he started his career, see his evolution as a politician,â but he also wondered if he might not have been disappointed to see that the ruthlessness of that man was there from the beginning.
You didnât get to rule a country such as theirs while acting like a lamb. Even the socialists were, wearing their best sheep skin on top of their carnivorous bodies, he had no doubt about it.
âCoffee, and no discussion of politics,â he scoffed. Because Harry and Camilo while they werenât in disagreement about many things, most likely would clash in some aspects of politics. Harry believed that you should protect entrepreneurs, investors and the likes, as they financed the country, and he knew Camilo wouldnât ever agree to this.
âOf course I do, itâs wonderful.â The mention of light coming from the perfect angle made him smile. âI read the other day, that even during antiquity, builders could perfectly align the entrance of buildings with the sun on the winter solstice. Do you think this is what happened here? Built to be most beautiful at a certain time of the day? Or year?â Such matters were fascinating to him.
âIt might not be Saint Paulâs but itâs absolutely charming,â he directed his eyes toward Camilo and then glanced back toward the paintings. Then, clearing his throat, pressed his lips together. âI donât want to waste any more of your time. Perhaps you have matters to attend to.â