Eduardo arrived on dot at six thirty and found Francis in a state of dilemma.
"I just don't have the right sort of cloths for a soiree in a conservatory." He exclaimed as soon as Eduardo came in the door.
"Never needed any fancy outfit and have not been anywhere other than the Church related programs." He continued his explanation for not being ready.

"We are going to Lapa. It is a Cidade da Musica, Artes. It is located in Barra da Trijuca; the South West part of Rio. We will go to a place where they play Pogode music. It won't matter what you wear; it is a Bohemian sort of place, so put on your bathroom robe if you like but get ready quickly." Eduardo said in a bit exasperated voice.
By seven, they were on the way to Rua Farme de Amedo.
"What sort of Bohemian folks you think we will be interacting with?" He wanted to be sure; his past vocation had not gone out of him yet.
"Don't worry Francis, I am not taking you anywhere to initiate you in the corporal sins, just relax and enjoy the evening as it unfolds. It is a quiet place and we can talk uninterruptedly. After I am gone from the scene in a week, you can come down to this part of the city and relax. You'll need it." His companion assured him.

When they reached the destination, Francis felt very uneasy when he noticed the groups of young people having good time. Almost all couples were of same sex and then there were the transvestites. All were waiting for a table in a Bar with neon sign, "Le Boy".
Although bewildered, he refrained from asking any questions and just followed Eduardo. In spite of his own orientation, Francis was visibly uncomfortable in that ambiance. With his head slightly bent and eyes downcast, he moved behind his guide but occasionally stealing glimpses of the passing revelers.

By the time they reached to their destined restaurant, he had realized the obvious nature of the ' Le Bohemia' Eduardo had spoken about. With all the sparring still going on with self-doubts, the prickly conscience and those twenty years of shepherding of the parishioners; he was not comfortable with the idea of jumping in the Jacuzzi with bunch of like minded but strangers. However, he was feeling lot less tense about himself now, since the time he had met those two gay men wanting to get married. When they entered the restaurant named, ' Bolsa de Valores' , he was surprised by the delightfully quiet environ and the polite demure of the Maitre d' restaurant. In one corner musicians were playing soft Samba music, somewhat reminiscent of the Fundo De Quintal genre. He was now relaxing his guards and was actually beginning to enjoy. The decorum and the music took him back to his native Goa where Portuguese influence was everywhere as the land was colonized like Brazil, for about three hundred years.

Apparently, this was Eduardo's favorite watering station. Just about everyone from the staff and some from the customer pool, knew him by name and expressed their compliments. They had a booth reserved at the far end of the large hall somewhat away from the musicians. They settled down and a waiter came with two wine glasses, a Carafe of Portuguese Port and some snacks. He saluted them and Eduardo introduced Francis to him, "Look here Pascua, this is my very dear friend Seignior Francis. Make sure he is happy when he comes for dinner." With a well cultivated smile of a seasoned waiter, Pascua gave assurance that his friend will receive the same excellent service, just the way Seignior received all those years. "Come after half an hour for the order," Eduardo instructed him as he left.

They toasted to each others health after Francis completed his customary prayers over the wine and food and they settled down. After the usual small talks about the job and taking few gulps of that excellent Port, Eduardo took the initiative. Ever since they met on the beach the first time, they had been avoiding to touch the subject that lay at the very core of their future relationship- What happened to them and how their lives changed after they parted on that fateful night in Goa when Francis was a young apprentice, being prepared for the service of the Church and Jesus and Eduardo, a young rising Padre, a star performer in the service of His Holiness the Pope.

This matter had gained so much of importance to Eduardo, and reason for bringing it up at that moment was that he had carried a heavy burden of guilt over the incidence and it had been hurting him inside. He had found no relief from it, in spite of confessions, fasting and religiously praying for the forgiveness. At that juncture in their lives, they both were losers. The glorious path to accession in the management hierarchy of the Holly Church became unavailable to them; instead they had received assignments which generally Jesuits would have volunteered for. Both were assigned to the parishes in the remote jungles of Amazon and Papua New Guinea. At the end, both had lost their faith in the Roman Catholic System of top down governance and the excessive use of moral codes to shun people out of Church and from the Savior's sacraments.

Francis had rebelled and abandoned the post but Eduardo had resigned and properly followed the exit protocol of the Vatican Management. There was no return for Francis but Eduardo could seek forgiveness from the Pope and could be eligible for the re entry, provided he had retained the vows he had taken as a priest and practiced the required moral and ethical part of the RC doctrine but then years had rolled off since he gave up his priesthood. Now, it was crystal clear to both men that they were not romantically attracted to each other, as was the case in that first and the only occasion a long time ago.

Eduardo opened up awkwardly.
"I would like to touch a subject. It is personal and I assure you our conversation will remain in confidence as if it is a confession. Of course, only if you do not have any reservations and do not wish to talk about it. The reasons for dwelling in that past event is bit complicated but not doing so, will have a profound impact on my life and future plans. We met here unexpectedly after over two decades; perhaps there is a divine intervention here; a hope for a more meaningful life for both of us. If not, we may never see each other again. "

Francis was surprised and became very tense as he saw feeling of distress in the older man's eyes. Somehow, he too was wondering about their future relationship and curious about the man's life as he had disappeared from the scene all together. In the early part of his career when he had inquired about his whereabouts, he was discouraged and admonished for not devoting his time for the appropriate tasks he was prepared for.
After arriving to Rio, he felt there was some mystery about the whole business of getting a job in the city and meeting someone he had loved all his life in a sort of abstract way, only to discover that the memories of an attractive man he had held in his bosom, were actually an illusion. Now that they had come together, there was no real emotional or sexual bonding between them at all. Perhaps it was the age difference, absence of libido or, appearance of same man without the dignifying gowns and the impressive head gear with golden borders, that made him look more regal then, made now less attractive in the outdated cloths of an ordinary hombre. Francis looked up in his eyes and said to him in a low, apologetic voice:

"I never had much of a private life, so what personal life you wish to know about, that is not included my bio data? Go ahead and ask and I will do my best to fill in the gaps."

"It is not what happened to your career I want to learn about; I know you walked away from the Church in a rebellion. I just want to know how you got affected by that incident in Goa when you were so young and innocent about the ways of the adult world. My conscience has been eating me alive ever since that night. I feel responsible for your falling out of favors and eventual rebellion against the Mother Church. To this day, I cannot fathom why and how that force of passion overtook my judgment, integrity and honesty; but then I must confess, I did not feel remorse or a sense of guilt about the feelings, passion and the event itself. The thought of its adverse consequences, perhaps you were forced to face alone, only that gave me the guilt. After your arrival here and during our meetings, I felt you are hurt badly and are bleeding and I did not know what I could do to comfort you. Do you think we could share our memories, thoughts and see what will be the right course for both of us to take that may ease, if not eliminate our sufferings?"

Eduardo spoke in a quivering voice that was full of concerns for the younger man and his eyes had nothing but the compassion for the man he thought he had wronged.

Hearing that monologues speech, Francis was shocked beyond belief. He did not expect a topic of this nature opened for discussion with him by the very man who had seduced him a long time ago but, since their meeting in Rio, had behaved as if nothing had ever happened between them. During that speech, he was sitting with downcast eyes staring in the wine which he had barely sipped. Attentively he had heard every syllable and synthesized the message. His mind was searching for the meaning hidden behind the words and phrases, as if he was expecting something subtle; an offer, a proposal, perhaps a plan for the future, which he desperately needed to feel acceptance, comradeship, a relationship which was warm and humanistic and not the business like bureaucracy which the UN agency had given him already.

The waiter had returned a few times to check on them and having found them in a deep and intimate conversation, had gone back to do other things. This time he seems to have made up his mind to disrupt their conversation and take an order, if at all there was to be an order for him to deliver it to the kitchen. Seeing him coming, Francis began searching for the menu items and Eduardo told him not to bother.
" I know what is good here; allow me to order for you."
Francis nodded and gave his consent. When the waiter was gone beyond the earshot; he began collecting and arranging his thoughts so as to give meaningful responses and draw an accurate picture of his mental state. Eduardo watched his face with compassion but also intently in order to pick signs of distress and pain. It appeared that he had prepared himself carefully for that event and had some plan in his mind.

The first sentence from Francis' mouth set the tone of that speech:
"Eduardo, my dear friend, I want to assure you that the event you referred to, had not made any additional or special negative impact on my life. Personally, that event introduced me to the reality of life which I, and others like me, were kept away from. That was the one and only event that gave me a sense of belonging to the human race. When I look back on my life, I find a huge void in learning to build a natural and humanistic relationships with the world we live in. I did not have a childhood nor did I grow up gradually, making errors and gaining benefits of those experiences. I did not learn how to deal with human touches, caresses and sexual impulses as I was stepping into my adolescence.

The artificial divinity bestowed upon me was a cruel joke that kept my siblings, males and females of my age away from me as if I was a precious crystal to be admired from the distance but not touched. Early on I was set to traverse only on the vestibules of purity; in the house of God, where the sinful humanity waited at the gate to have a glimpse of the pure and unblemished child; a future leader of the Apostolic traditions. I was submerged in the sea of adulation, prestige and superstitions and even though it pleased me to see elderly men and women doing salutations, I was feeling empty inside. Those longings for physical love, for a simple sensation of a kiss, all were gone that night. That was the first time I felt the normal feelings about being a young man;not an angel or miracle child. I was not hurt as you thought, instead, a seed was planted in me that the love of our Master has many pathways and depicting Him born as a man, sans humanistic attributes in itself was nothing short of puritanical, arid view of living, ignoring the fact that displaying love between the two individuals can be a catalytic event for the followers to learn to love each other; albeit it had the effect of a scratch from the Cupid's arrow."

At that juncture, he stopped and took a large gulp of Port in his mouth and slowly allowed it to go down while preparing for the next load of emotion filled sentiments to be laid in front of the man whose sweet memory he had kept hidden in his heart for a long time. Eduardo also took time to nibble on the tit bits which came with the wine. He too was silently processing the information to understand the mental state of his former colleague. Unlike Francis, he had not preserve the soft memories of a handsome young man in his mind and only his conscience had carried that sense of wrongdoing for all those years.

Finally, Francis picked up the thread and resumed his discourse:
"My early youth activities, education and the subsequent ascension to priesthood were set up with practically no participation in any decision making processes by me. By the time my education was finished, I had not developed any independent will of my own. I also built a personality that was always eager to please others; especially those who were in power and had all the commanding virtues which the commoners held in the high esteem. My living values were not learned but injected in me. I was the epitome of purity then even to myself; the unblemished child whose body bore the visage of Christ at birth. There were lofty expectations of me and I was to fulfill them not for my personal benefits because I did not know the concept of having a personal 'thing. I was convinced to believe in -born to serve the Lord- that too through our mother church, mantra. I did not mind the attention and enjoyed the honors and praises. I simply floated on that current like a rafter rides on the hot air to reach great heights. "

Francis took a break and reached for the glass of wine. Eduardo was simply amazed with the eloquence and the clarity of the man's speech and thought, he must have been preparing for speaking with him sooner or later during their sojourn in Rio. He felt relieved of the burden of making Francis trust him and open up his heart; it had happened naturally. Same moment, the waiter came up with the food. They sat quietly polishing of the spicy, Bourbon Stake and the red wine of Portuguese vintage.

Eduardo had not plan that evening to go this way; he had only hoped to gain the younger man's trust and friendship. Rest would have come later, gradually and perhaps incrementally. He was in fact astonished that Francis had so much to empty out from his bosom in just one sitting and then he realized that as much as he thought of him as a past acquaintance, that much more Francis had looked upon him as a senior clergy; a man who is in habit of taking confessions and advising the confessors; a man of the Church; an emissary of H.H., The Pope- just the way the young man had seen him during their first face-to-face encounter, two or so decades ago.

The thought unsettled him. That was not his present status and he had given up the collar a long time ago. He too had left the priesthood like Francis except that, he had followed the proper path and resigned without any protest and with the permission. How then this evening was to end? He couldn't show Francis that he was not so much interested in the details of his biography but was mainly interested in finding what Francis was going to do later in life. The UN appointment was a short one with no hopes of continuing beyond the present two years term. What comes after that was the matter of interest to him. "I have to look after him" was the thought he was carrying in his head. Eduardo decided to bring in the filler events so as to deprive Francis an opportunity to continue the subject at that time. It was a delicate situation that warranted a well thought out plan and that needed time which was short. He was returning to his home in Italy in just two days. As they stepped out, he took Francis with his elbow and said:

"I hope you are not in any hurry to hit the bed and if so, let me introduce you to few of my friends who will be of considerable support to you after I leave Rio; you can count on them I assure you."
By the habit of not resisting any suggestion or even think of an alternative scheme, he simply agreed and then started walking towards the beach in silence. They reached Lapa, located in Barra da Trijuca in the South West Rio.
" That's the Cidade da Musica, Artes, we have a balcony box there and our group meets there almost every weekend after dinner."
"That's marvelous idea." Francis tried to participate in the conversation.

As they got into the building, several men and women came forward to greet Eduardo. Some spoke in Italian and French and others in English. He was introduced to all members and they shook hands with him and welcomed him to the group. The musical was about to commence so they moved to their box on the second floor and soon it became dark and performance began.