Always a pleasure to have the opportunity to visit your portfolio, Angelo! As always, I think you did a great job with this story. I'm always impressed with your ability to describe period pieces so vividly; no matter what the time period it always feels as if you're writing like you've had the personal experience of being there and can bring the reader along with you thanks to your nuanced descriptions. Your characters were also well-developed and the dialogue effectively helped to move the story forward.

I don't really have any suggestions, per se, but the one thing I did have a little bit of trouble with was following along with all the characters that were mentioned. In addition to the actual characters in the story there were also numerous character names referenced during the conversation, which created a bit of confusion about who was who as the story progressed.

Overall, despite the relatively minor note above, I really enjoyed this story. I think you did a great job with the characters, the dialogue, and the story, enough that you were able to keep the reader's (or at least this reader's!) attention throughout this short, compelling contest entry. Nice work!