Teo drags himself outside the church where it is not congested. He holds his nape as he stretches his neck with eyes closed. Frantically, he breathes in the air then sighs them out; as the fatigue of being sleepless starts to take its toll on him causing him to struggle to catch his breath. His heart beating excitedly and his eyes begin to feel heavy with his right eye lid twitching uncontrollably
"You let your wet clothes from last night dried on you Segnor?" a feeble voice enquires from the belfry, "You might catch a cold with that"
Teo walks into the belfry upon recognizing the voice;
"Mang Isidro" he nods at the Limp, "I was just about to go home to change. And about last night, I apologize if I had stormed out of your lair without a word. I had to be somewhere else as fast as I could,"
"I figured that out, Segnor. I was just looking for dry clothes then so you could change, but you already disappeared when I finally did find a decent clothes to lend you" the Limp smiles warmly
Teo awkwardly stares at the bell ringer and struggles to keep the conversation going. While he was at the church earlier, he was contemplating of visiting the Limp after the mass out of guilt for dragging him all these years into Lito's death. If there was one thing that Teo can agree on with what Fray Luciano claimed, it was his partaking in pinning down the Limp as the cause of the death of Lito. He must have not directly pointed it at Sid as the one who has killed his childhood friend, but at the burned man, who was obviously molded after Isidro. From his burned marks to his wobbled right foot, even the hooded cloak that Sid favored to wear. The burned man's description have worsen and got darkened over years; which also has gone greatly exaggerated by words of mouth, to the point that he was even believed to be a walking corpse in its final stages of decomposition. Still, the basics of his description closely resemble those of Isidro's.
"The boy has finished his cleaning works and was allowed to go home. He even had the Captain to take him back home" Isidro exclaims as his loud voice interrupts Teo's sudden silence
"I heard, finally" the young man responds
"That boy talked rapidly and never did he run out of stories to tell. He had so much dreams for his family, for his mother mostly," the Limp laughs
"Boys always have soft spots for their mothers," Teo answers with an awkward smile
"That boy reminded me of another boy whom I had known years ago. Though I never asked for him to but he always brought left over meals for me. He must have thought of me as homeless and starving that he felt obliged to feed me. I did appreciate the boy's sincerity, though. Children usually get frightened with my presence and they tend to run away from me; but that boy seemed oblivious of my burned marks. It was admirable of the boy to be compassionate with someone else and without prejudices. The boy looked beyond my appearance and saw a man in need, instead. Sadly, that boy is no more. He was killed in an accident after another boy found him with me in the dark at the ruins. The other boy expectedly got scared of me and pushed him off and ran away. He did not even bother to look back at the fallen boy who hit his head. His death did not come along shortly as he was still breathing when I left him, that made me equally guilty of his demise as well. I was left alone in the ruins trembling at the sight of the boy's blood on the ground, scared that I could be held liable for the boy's death. I decided to ran away, and retreated into the old belfry. Then several boys came and found the lifeless body the next day. It must have been the loneliest hours of the hapless boy's remaining life having to lay there on the cold ground until morning came when his weakened body gave in to death" Isidro sadly exclaims
Teo appears to be taken aback by this revelation; making him uncomfortable to learn Lito's slow and painful death;
"Did you know how the friar found out about the death of the boy?" Teo enquires
"I told him what I have witnessed, Segnor. Bizarrely though, the boy's death was proclaimed to have resulted from him tripping into a large piece of marble scattered on the ground after getting lost in the old church ruins. What was more peculiar was when people started to claim that a cloaked man with burned body took the boy which was obviously pertaining to me, but the other boy who pushed him off never got mentioned at all as if he never was there that fateful night. The tale of a burned man resembling me made it out into the public instead" the Limp responds curiously
Teo unconsciously traces the hem of his sleeves with his hand, a sign that he is tensed;
"Did you know what happen to the other boy?" Teo asks sternly
The Limp sighs and shakes his head in disapproval;
"He was never even mentioned at all despite the fact that I did tell the friar that it was him who pushed the poor boy and killed him accidentally. I must have been an outcast of the this town; constantly maligned and thought of as imprudent but I still know the rules, Segnor" Isidro retorts
Teo twitches his head;
"what rules, Mang Sid?"
The Limp breathes in while staring at the young man in disbelief;
"The usual rules that govern every society which sadly only apply to small and powerless people, Segnor. The rules that dictate us, the powerless, are under those who are above us; and that we have no other choice but to comply to their liking, however they want to toy us around. We should never complain and just play along obediently. The boy who pushed the poor boy could be a child to a wealthy family or a powerful man; that was the only reason I can think of as to how he got exonerated from the crime. Wherever he maybe at this moment, I sincerely hope that he uses the privilege of immunity properly and not to take advantage of others" the Limp rants
Teo nods gently as he stares at Isidro longer as if he is assessing the old man if he really could not recognize him to be the other boy which he kept referring to.
" I think the mass has just concluded. If you could excuse me Segnor, I'd still have to ring the bells" Isidro turns his back away from Teo and carefully drags his limped right foot to the stairs to climb up the bell tower
Teo keeps repeating the Limp's final claims in his head with his own voice;
"The boy could have been a child to a wealthy family or a powerful man; that was the only reason I can think of as to how he got exonerated from the crime"
It is at that moment he agrees with the Limp as he finally realizes who the powerful man was behind his being exonerated from the crime of accidentally killing Lito, his foster father.