Ranell’s Garden Party
“How long has it been since you’ve been to confession, my son?” The question came from his friend, Monsignor Rafael Mendoza. The priest wore jeans and a polo shirt. Ranell had invited him to a party at his house, to celebrate the enormous success of the airship project.
Ranell made a show of screwing up his face. “Hmm… let me see. There was that time I stole a bike in the sixth grade… oh, then there was the time I jaywalked across that street in Orange County.
Mendoza was not amused. “You should not joke about such things, Josef. I haven’t seen you at Our Lady of Refuge in several months.”
A wave of guilt passed involuntarily through Ranell’s conscience, and he grew serious. “I’ve been meaning to get back to church, Rafael, but work had me so busy traveling that I just haven't been able to find the time." Normally, Ranell would have addressed Mendoza by his honorific title ‘Monsignor,’ but this was a casual setting. It was a quiet garden party with a few intimate friends in Ranell’s backyard. The two men sat in the pergola on cushioned chairs. It was a beautiful, balmy California evening.
Mendoza said nothing but delivered a skeptical look from beneath his bushy, gray eyebrows.
He’s heard this all before, Ranell considered dourly.
“Tell me how you’ve been, Josef.” One thing Ranell loved about Mendoza was that you spoke with him, he listened intensely. He would hang on to your every word as if your story was the most important ever told. “When we last spoke, you were struggling with GML. It seems things are going better now. Is that true?”
Ranell lifted his crystal tumbler that held a finger’s worth of Talisker, the single ice cube tinkling merrily inside as he proposed a toast. “Here’s to GML! The most resilient, most vibrant, most interesting corporation that ever spanned the globe!”
For some reason, Mendoza’s expression remained skeptical. “Estaba tan buena, huh?” Mendoza wanted to know if it was really that good, or if Ranell was being sarcastic.
Ranell chuckled, leaned back in his chair, crossed his legs comfortably and said, “Seriously, it’s that good.”
Choose Option 1: Discuss the Marriage
Choose Option 2: Ask about Mendoza