The Priest Read online

  “Sometimes I wish I wasn’t so alone. It’s painful,” Mauricio said to the wall.

  “Sometimes I wish I had the power to change the things I don’t like,” Rosie continued.

  “Like what? You’re a woman; you can do anything you want! What would you like to change so much?” Mauricio asked, interested.

  “The fact that you’re a slave,” Rosie simply answered.

  Once again, Mauricio was speechless.

  “I don’t think it’s right.”

  “I agree,” Mauricio managed to say. Something deep inside him broke at her words. “I don’t think your mother is going to be happy to hear that, though,” he said after having steadied his voice. He sounded almost cheerful.

  “No, she isn’t proud of me. I’m the daughter her publicist had suggested to hide in some forgotten college. I came here to have a child out of wedlock instead,” Rosie said in a light tone, but her pause at the end said otherwise.

  “Do they know that you are here?”

  “No. I’ve managed the impossible. I’ve tricked the whole Presidential staff, my two lovely mothers, and their less-than-lovely publicist into thinking that I was going to do what they had suggested. Everybody back home thinks I am studying marine biology in a remote college.” She laughed heartily.

  “How did you do that?” Mauricio asked to keep the conversation going. He wasn’t ready to talk at length, yet.

  “I bribed lots and lots of people. And my mothers are paying for my tuition.’” Rosie sounded satisfied and Mauricio smiled at the tone of her voice.

  “You know another thing I would change if I could?” Rosie asked abruptly.

  “No, what is it?” Mauricio was amazed that a woman with so many privileges had unfulfilled desires.

  “I would love to raise this baby by myself. Alone. Somewhere far away from Ginecea and the Presidential Palace.”

  “What will happen to you if your mothers find out?” Mauricio couldn’t imagine that the President’s daughter could escape her heritage easily.

  “When they find me, which I know is just a matter of time—I am not delusional—I’ll be stored away somewhere I can’t create a scandal. The family publicist is going to find a solution to the problem,” Rosie said the last words with a broken voice. “I’m just biding my time to give my baby a chance,” she added as an afterthought.

  “I heard what the Priestess was telling you…” Mauricio didn’t know if she wanted to talk about it.

  “I almost lost my baby and I was so worried about her; she is so tiny and I couldn’t do anything to help her.”

  “But your baby is fine now,” Mauricio repeated the Priestess’ words. He sensed something stirring inside when talking about this baby Rosie was carrying. There was this tingling in his stomach and the odd happiness that he couldn’t help feeling. Our baby… he thought. I know this is blasphemous, but this baby could be mine… Actually, I’m almost sure she’s mine. The more he thought about it, the more all the half-conversations he had accidentally heard led to that conclusion, even though Mauricio was well aware that it went against the core of beliefs on which the Ginecean society was built. I’m still alive after I was caught in Rosie’s room, and the Priestess ordered I’m not to be touched in case they still need my semen. Why else could it be?

  “Yes, she’s a strong one.” Rosie’s voice was happier now.

  “She’s going to be fine,” Mauricio said again. He had a sudden desire to hug Rosie. He imagined her small body in the cradle of his embrace. It felt right.

  “I like it,” Rosie said, taking him by surprise.

  “What?” Can you read my mind? Mauricio thought.

  “I like the way you said it, that my baby is going to be fine. You sounded so sure of it, as if you know. It makes me feel better.”

  Mauricio was pleased by her statement and the longing to be in her presence became stronger. “You know what I’d like to change at this precise moment?”

  “No, what would you?” Rosie’s voice came labored, as if she was pacing back and forth. Steps were resonating outside.

  “I’d like to tear down this wall in front of me.”

  “Why?” she asked after a second.

  “I want to hold you,” Mauricio said without hesitating. A silence louder than one thousand voices echoed inside the cell and Mauricio shivered. He slowly slid from the bed to the floor and threw his head back. He sat, staring at the dark ceiling, waiting for her to say something. When it was painfully clear that Rosie wasn’t going to say anything, Mauricio slapped his head with both hands and then pressed them against his temples to mitigate the oncoming headache. Then he heard steps coming closer.

  “Mistress! What are you doing out here, alone?” It was a young woman’s voice.

  “Hi, nurse Celia. I like to come here at night and sing to my baby. The eucalyptus tree keeps me company and the view of the lake is too beautiful to miss.” Rosie’s voice was subdued and not at all haughty.

  Mauricio wondered why she was being nice to the nurse.

  “Don’t worry; I won’t tell the Priestess that you leave your room at night. But you have to promise me to be careful. Don’t do anything stupid to compromise the health of your baby girl,” Nurse Celia said.

  “I would never do anything to harm her. You know that. She is the only thing in the world I care for,” Rosie said, lowering her voice.

  “You are going to be a wonderful mother.”

  For several minutes, neither the nurse nor Rosie said anything and Mauricio imagined that they were contemplating the view he would never see. He stared at the wall instead, waiting for the nurse to leave. He wanted to talk to Rosie, to apologize to her. He knew he had spoken out of line.

  “Mistress Rosie, I will accompany you back to your room. It’s very late and it’s starting to rain,” Nurse Celia said with a tone that didn’t allow cajoling from Rosie.

  “I guess that’s all for tonight then, my dear friend.” Rosie had come closer to Mauricio’s wall. Her voice resonated loud and clear through the window’s bars.

  “You really like this tree, don’t you?” Nurse Celia asked with an amused laugh.

  “I do,” Rosie answered immediately.

  Mauricio heard the steps growing softer and was left with the urge to bang his head against the wall. He was happy. And completely exhausted. He climbed back on the bed, hugged the rough linen of his sheet, and fell asleep immediately. He dreamed of Rosie and of a young girl with Rosie’s features and his colors. The girl, three or four years old, was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, and he knew he loved her.

  Chapter 6

  Mauricio woke up the next morning to the sound of chirping birds, which he now knew lived on the eucalyptus tree just outside his cell. The rest of the world was so close to him, yet still miles away. But his happiness from the night before lingered, and the sad consideration didn’t change his mood. Rosie had called him ‘dear friend.’ She hadn’t been offended by his words. He felt energized.

  When the new guard came, he wasn’t surprised to see a different woman banging good morning on the bars of his cell. He thought that as women went, this one wasn’t terribly mean. For example, she banged only twice instead of the usual half a dozen attempts to destroy his ears. Although he couldn’t find anything else decent about the guard, he decided it was enough. Mauricio was surprised that, instead of taking him directly to the deposit room as usual, she opened a door that led to a place he had heard about, but had never seen. He was even more surprised when the guard ordered him inside.

  “You have ten minutes to eat,” the guard said.

  He had never seen so much food, and his stomach started rumbling at the sight. He couldn’t believe he had been admitted inside a dining room. And he was completely alone. He ate until he felt his stomach would burst, and he still had time to waste. The idea that maybe he should have been worried by the unexpected boon passed through his mind, but he was full for the first time in his life and yet he decided to re
ach for another helping.

  “Time’s up,” the guard announced from the doorway. Mauricio couldn’t eat anything else, anyway. He grabbed a few pieces of bread while passing the table and stuffed them in his pockets, which he realized the guard caught him doing, but she turned her head away. He started worrying.

  “The doctor will take a look at you now,” the guard said, without the customary sneer. Mauricio went through the door she had opened for him and braced himself for the worst.

  “Remove everything and wear this gown,” the doctor ordered Mauricio. He went to the corner behind a screen and did as instructed. He felt a distinct sense of déjà vu. He was subjected to the same treatment he received four years earlier, down to the cold fingers probing him in an uncomfortable way. Even the request at the end was the same.

  “Fill the cup,” the doctor said.

  Mauricio went behind the screen and did his best not to disappoint the doctor. Somehow he knew that if she wasn’t happy with the result, his day was going to change drastically. He closed his eyes and tried to forget that on the other side of the thin layer of rice paper, the doctor waited. He breathed slowly in and out, and the image of Rosie appeared behind his eyelids. Mauricio’s mind slowly relaxed and his body followed.

  “Done?” The doctor tapped on the screen’s frame.

  Mauricio closed the lid tightly on the cup and put it on the window-tray at his side. The doctor heard the click of the tray receding inside the window and told him to wait where he was. He remained seated to contemplate the white wall before him. Mauricio was good at waiting; he had done it all his life. Normally, he just let his mind wander between thoughts. It was his way to escape from his imprisonment. But this time, something was off. The meal he had stuffed into his hungry stomach was a sign of something he couldn’t fathom; the doctor personally supervising his production was another clue of a larger picture he wasn’t seeing.

  “Well, at least you are good for something,” the doctor commented.

  Someone entered the room. Mauricio peeked through the frame of the screen and saw his new guard walking toward his corner. Shortly after, the imposing figure of the Priestess filled the space, and the doctor bowed to her. He sat down.

  “We finally have enough to freeze. The semen is in perfect condition, despite the treatment the semental received during the last month,” the doctor said.

  “Thank the Heavens I came back in time to supervise the whole procedure,” the Priestess commented and then added, “We are done with him.”

  The guard moved the screen, one hand already on the whip.

  “It will never happen again,” the Priestess said under her breath when her eyes found Mauricio, sitting on the chair. He shivered at the tone of her voice.

  The guard sensed his hesitation and tugged him by his sleeve. He moved along but gave a last look at the Priestess. She looked back at him with disgust. He walked, knowing exactly what was going to happen. He wasn’t useful anymore. His days as a semental were over. He was going to be employed in the fields. Finally, he was going to see the sun. Finally, he was going to have a place among the other slaves. This should have been the happiest day of his miserable life, but he could only think that he would never hear Rosie’s voice again.

  He knew that she was going to leave him soon anyway, but he thought that he still had some time to spend talking to her from the safe haven of his cell. Now, it was all too sudden. He followed the guard back to his cell, putting one foot in front of the other automatically, so it came as another unpleasant surprise when he realized that he was somewhere else entirely.

  “Get in,” the guard commanded him with a gun aimed at his head.

  Mauricio thought that it was uncalled for since the collar on his neck was already stinging painfully, and he wasn’t even tugging at it. He climbed two steps and found himself inside a small room, about the size of his cell, with two rows of seats facing each other. There were two more men sitting down, strapped to the seats and firmly shackled to the floor. His guard pushed him into the first free spot and briskly anchored Mauricio on the seat like the other two slaves. From the painful expression on their faces, their collars were giving them hell, too. A metallic shutter rolled down and walled the space where the bars usually were.

  The room was humming. Mauricio felt the roar vibrating under his feet and spreading though his body. The guard sat on the opposite row facing the three slaves. She, too, strapped her body to the seat. The roar became louder and the seats moved. Or, was it that the whole room moved with the seats? Mauricio didn’t have time to speculate further about what was happening because the most excruciating pain exploded in his neck and traveled up to the roots of his hair and down to his toes. He couldn’t help but scream as the pain spread to his teeth.

  “Shut the collars off!” the guard yelled and banged on the wall. A metallic sound resonated in the room. She repeated the order twice and kept banging on the wall until someone from the other side shouted back.

  Mauricio noticed that the pain was gone, but his brain wasn’t responding to outside stimuli. He kept twitching.

  “I thought you had shut them off already!” A window on the wall opened, or more precisely, a section of the wall went down, and the face of a woman bathed in a bright glow appeared. Mauricio’s eyes were offended by the sudden luminosity and he shut them tight.

  “No. That was your job, not mine,” the guard answered. “You better hope that these slaves didn’t suffer permanent damage. The manager at Tarin is going to demote you as soon as she finds out,” she added, almost gleefully.

  “Why should she? Nothing happened. It was just an oversight. Nobody died,” the woman behind the window replied, ignoring the tone of the other.

  “Tarin’s manager doesn’t like damaged goods,” the guard kept pressing the subject.

  Mauricio hoped that they would stop talking. He was still in a considerable amount of pain, and the room was moving, making him even more uncomfortable.

  “They’re still in one piece,” the sitting woman proclaimed with a shrug and disappeared behind the opening.

  Mauricio felt the urge to throw up. His stomach heaved and he couldn’t do anything to stop it. In a matter of seconds, the food he had eaten with such abandon was cast on the floor. The man closer to Mauricio cringed and tried to move his shackled leg away from him. The guard, whose boots had been soiled by his breakfast binge, howled in fury.

  “Great! That’s the last thing I need today, a carsick slave.” She slammed her right hand on the wall behind her. “Stop the van. I need to open the door for few minutes to let some fresh air in.”

  At her words, the roar ceased and the room stopped moving. Mauricio raised his head and turned around in time to see the guard standing up and pushing a button next to the metallic shutter.

  “Much better,” she murmured under her breath when the wall rolled up with a clattering sound and the room was filled with bright light and crisp air.

  Mauricio wasn’t sure what he was looking at, exactly. The quality of the light and the scent in the air were completely different from what he was used to. When his eyes finally focused beyond the brightness, Mauricio gasped and, at the same time, the guard pushed him out. He hit the ground, his feet fumbling in the air and his hands barely breaking the fall. The rich flavor of dry dirt filled his mouth, tickled his nose, and made him sneeze.

  “I’m going to unlock your hands, so you can clean yourself up. Don’t try anything, or you’ll regret it.” The guard came closer, waving a key in her left hand while her right was ready on the holster, showing him what her intentions were regarding punishment.

  I’m outside… I’m outside… I’m really outside. I can’t believe it. Since birth, Mauricio had spent all his life inside, moved from one wing of the facility to another. He had dreamed of this moment and recently, thanks to the window in his cell, he had even had a limited experience of what lay outside, which, in turn, had led him to fantasize even more about seeing the world outside hi
s cell. But he had never expected that actually seeing the outside with his eyes was going to be so intense as to leave him incapable of following the guard’s order. I’m going to faint again. This, this air, is making me lightheaded. I like it. It’s so bright out here, so many colors. What’s that? His head snapped to follow every little change in the scenery. Something moved on his far right, but it was too far away and too fast; a gust of wind transported small, light-green leaves from a nearby tree to his feet, but they were gone already by the time he thought of catching one in his hands. Come back here.

  He almost didn’t hear the woman yelling at him to get going, nor he did he seem to realize that she had thrown a rag that hit him in the face. His legs were trembling, but he felt better than he had ever felt. He bent to pick up the rag and acting out of sheer habit, he cleaned himself. All of his senses were focused on basking in the sunlight and breathing in the air that smelled of the flowers and trees he had never seen. This is what outside looks like. A smile appeared on his face before he could hide his joy from the guard.

  “What’s up with you? The electricity fried your brain?” the woman asked under her breath.

  “We have to move, otherwise we’ll never reach Tarin before tonight,” the guard behind the wall called with an annoyed tone.

  Please, please let me stay here. Mauricio’s eyes filled with angry tears. Another fast-running dot crossed the field. I’ll never know what that is.

  “Almost done here. Don’t complain; it’s your fault for not having shut off the collars before leaving the Temple.”

  “Your fault, you mean. I drive; you take care of the slaves.”

  Please, I’m not done yet. I haven’t had enough time outside. I need more. I need to know what those things are that are running so fast.

  “Whatever.” The guard, satisfied by Mauricio’s cleaning, tied his hands together, nudged her gun against his shoulder blades, commanded him to get inside the van, and pushed the button to roll down the shutter again.