โMy mom... She was amazing. Strong, kind, and always full of life. She had this way of making even the most mundane moments feel special.
You know, I remember the times we used to go hiking together.โ
โฃ
A pause ensued, the request seeming to momentarily catch him off ใ คguard. His eyes, briefly widening, transitioned to a ใ คthoughtful furrow.
Amidst his own impudent antics, it struck him as ใ คintriguing that the priest had ใ คnot responded with rebuke. โ
Enrico Pucci played the part his collar demanded of him, and he played it ๐ฐ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ.
His expression shaped into that which befit the role of a concerned guardian, a priest โ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ค๐ช๐ง๐ถ๐ญ and ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ-๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐จ๐ช๐ท๐ช๐ฏ๐จ, especially to that of such Troubled Youth. โ
His tone, now ใ คhushed, adopted a guise of gentle ใ คapprehension.
Craftily assuming the demeanor of a child merely ใ คfearful of the world, he aimed to project ใ คvulnerability where none ใ คgenuinely existed. โ
'โฏ'An invulnerability in regards to me, a mere child?'โฏ'
His voice ใ คdropped, just ใ คloud enough to hear. 'โฏ'You're a fool, an ignorant one, and I shall delight in enlightening you.'โฏ'
The ใ คyawning hush between them ballooned into a silence so ใ คresounding, it swathed the world around them in ใ คirrelevance.
A fractional squint in his eyes, the sinews in his hands taut, that ใ คsingle query transcended the boundaries of a mere question, ใ คventuring into the โ
Sometimes the city of Port St Lucie, with its deep parks and its balconies, like any other city, seemed to have a climate of its own, a window of clear sky, perhaps, unshiftable for days, or more commonly a random storm attracted to the concrete and the bricks while all the โ
A pause lingered before his stride ใ คrekindled, yet this time, it traced a circuitous trajectory, the orbits of a predator surveying its ใ คquarry.
'โฏ'Your sensibilities should be more refined. Do you, perchance, assume that your status as an adult extendsโ'โฏ' โ