“No,” Raju says, not giving either of them a moment to think about it, in that moment very certain. Maybe he hasn’t thought about it. But Francis has heard the worst of Raju and stayed through all of it; Raju should be able to do the same, if it ever came down to knowing the man Francis used to be, somehow. Besides: “The core of a good, kind man was always there. You wouldn’t have been able to grow into him later if it wasn’t there already. I would have seen that.”

In this Raju is very certain, too. Of course he would have. Maybe things would have been different, but he would have seen the kind of man Francis is underneath the rest, even if it was deep underneath. Raju isn’t blind.