09:22 <Quaker> In the restaurant by the lake, in a bay window flooded with light, across from an old friend and eating food he had made, it was hard to believe that a few days before she had been shooting, running, swearing in sodden, haunted fields. “Cheers.” “To your good fortune, Agostina. And may the Prophet grant you a long, happy life.” It already felt like it had happened to another person. 09:23 <Quaker> Badawi drinks half of her glass of wine in a single pull. “Some of us have had more fortune follow them to England.” 09:25 <Quaker> Vincenzo puts his hands out in the universal gesture for ‘what can you do?: “To live and be free is fortune enough. And look at us, enjoying ourselves in a beautiful place. And you getting to do something exciting, and me being able to help a friend. And collect my fees from her.” 09:26 <Quaker> Badawi: “Sure. Let’s not talk about my work. I’ve got at least a few days away from Manchester to put it out of my head.” 09:26 <Quaker> Vincenzo nods. “The past is not such a bad country to live in. There, my hair wasn’t so white…” 09:28 <Quaker> They eat in silence for a bit. She got the scallops, and he made himself carbonara. 09:28 <Quaker> Badawi: “I saw a…Mexican…place across the street. The Burrito Bandito.” 09:30 <Quaker> The aging Roman pours them both a bit more wine and laughs. “Ah. Good people. From Essex. One of those states next to Jalisco, I believe.” 09:30 <Quaker> Badawi: “I don’t know. You don’t think burritos may be a bit too exciting for the English palate?” 09:32 <Quaker> Vincenzo: “Eh, the food is not so bad as it was. My god, thirty years ago…they would piss their pants if you showed them a chile.” 09:32 <Quaker> Badawi: “That’s the nice thing about England so far. You don’t have to eat English food.” 09:34 <Quaker> The thief thinks back to the smell of asado, bread, and beer in a back yard… 09:36 <Quaker> Vincenzo is good company for her, not least because they don’t interrupt each other’s drifts into memory. He, too, is looking at the lake and seems lost in thought. 09:37 <Quaker> Suddenly, he thinks to ask: “Ah, I know it’s work, but did your rifle perform alright? Mauricio wanted to know.” 09:37 <Quaker> Badawi nods. “Sure. No problems.” 09:38 <Quaker> Vincenzo: “He seemed excited about the model.” 09:38 <Quaker> Badawi: “Just a Chinese rifle. A gun is a gun is a gun.” 09:41 <Quaker> Vincenzo strokes his short, white beard. “I try to tell him that. In this business, it’s about providing the right tool to the right people. And the people will be more interesting and more important than the tools. Hobbyists belong on youtube, making video about guns.” A darker mood passes over him. “My god, sometimes, he goes on…the F900 Colt this and forty-five milimeter that…he sounds like an American…I should 09:41 <Quaker> have said something to his mother about those video games…” 09:42 <Quaker> Badawi: “You’d rather he be a banker?” 09:43 <Quaker> Vincenzo makes the sign of the cross. “No, thank God and curse the devil. No more banking in the family for a hundred generations, if we can help it.” 09:44 <Quaker> Badawi: “If your uncle could hear you say that.” 09:46 <Quaker> Vincenzo looks around at the other patrons to make sure no one sees him do it, and then spits on the floor. “Ha! No, thank God, the bastard, may God rest his soul. No, Licio would not understand.” He pours them another glass. “As your uncle would not have understood.” 09:47 <Quaker> Badawi shrugs in turn. 09:47 <Quaker> The gentle sounds of the restaurant and the fireplace wash over them. 09:49 <Quaker> Vincenzo: “There is a beautiful path we can walk up later, if you are up to it. It leads to a very picturesque crumbling ruin. I believe it’s associated with one of the poets…Wood…Wadsworth. Whitworth? One of them.” 09:49 <Quaker> Agostina nods. “That sounds lovely. Count me in.” 09:50 <Quaker> She raises her glass in a toast. “To disappointed uncles.” 09:50 <Quaker> Vincenzo raises his. “May Hell have no disappointments for them.”