The Truth Berries

LV

       “Pack up your things. We’ll leave early in the morning.”

       “That could be done in less than a minute. I only have two sets of clothes with me.”

       They were seated side by side with each other at the balcony fifteen minutes after their lunch. The old woman was out in the kitchen, cleaning up all the dirty plates from the dining table. Miguel and Helen kept their voices low while talking. He tried to reassure her that she was trustworthy but she insisted on being discreet.

       “Bring them all. We can’t be sure how long it would take us to get back here with that thing.”

       She had a worried look on her face and it did not take long for him to notice it. So he took her hand with his two hands and shifted sideways to face her.

       “Why? What’s bothering you, Helen?”

       “What if you’re right, Miguel? What if it’s all just a freaking legend?”

       “You don’t believe that yourself, do you?”

       She slowly looked up and held his stare. Helen saw in his eyes a man renewed of his purpose in living, along with the glint of dedicated revenge. Then she realized he was right. The things that they had gone through did not happen by mere chances and random loops of fate. It was all connected by only one reason and that sole reason took away the lives of two innocent people already. Not to mention the lives that went spiraling out of their normal orbits after they made contact with its seemingly malevolent touch. He was right. All of those things were more than just a legend.

       “What if those men are already waiting for us to get back there?”

       “That’s why I’m bringing Mary with us.”

       Helen’s eyebrows rose.

       “Mary? Who’s Mary? You never mentioned her before?”

       “That’s because we just met.”

       “Yeah? How sweet!”, she said sarcastically.” I can’t wait to meet her.”

       “No problem.”

       Miguel reached behind his pants and pulled out the Magnum .357 from his late father. Then he laid it on the space between them for her to see.

       “Helen Sandoval, I want you to meet my new friend, Mary. Now feast with your eyes. But I wouldn’t tell you to get to know her so much. I never trusted women who know how to handle that kind of firepower.”

      “You named your gun Mary?”

       “Yeah. Fancy name, isn’t it?”

       “Why Mary?”

       “Because one kiss from that maiden can get you all bloody. Just a single kiss, no second one needed.”

       She stared at the menacing gun beside her. Helen had seen a lot of handguns before but she never saw one that looked so heavy and so big. And by the looks of it, she guessed that it was made not for humans but for beasts. She winced at the image in her mind of someone getting hit by the gun’s bullet and it made her look away in a sudden.

       “I would say I wouldn’t want you to bring that cannon with you but I think we have no choice. I just hope that your Mary could do her job without any bloodshed happening. You can take her away now.”

       Miguel took the gun away and tucked it behind his pants once again.

       “Let me tell you a fact that no one else knew but us policemen and soldiers. We never liked gunfights and war. If anyone could hear all the men and women’s prayer of peace, you’ll surprisingly find out that a big percentage of it were from us.”

       She looked at him in disbelief.

       “That can’t be true.”

       “Really? Okay, now tell me something I do not know. When a war breaks out, who are the first persons that the governments send to fight the rebels and terrorists?”

       “The police and the soldiers.”

       “Right. When some armed men enter your homes and try to take your hard-earned money and belongings, who risks their own lives to face them?”    

      “You.”

      “Didn’t we? It’s us who take the fall whenever something life-threatening happens anywhere. Nobody of us likes to die but we do our duties whole-heartedly despite the risks that it brings. So don’t think that we love bloodshed. We’re not savages, lady.”

       “I’ll keep that in mind from now on, Sir.” she said friendly.

       “But that doesn’t mean I would let them hurt anyone I hold dear. And that includes you now.” he said softly.

       He was looking far out to the trees outside when he uttered those words with truthfulness, so he never noticed her cheeks getting colored after she heard it. When he realized what he just accidentally said, he looked at her with embarrassment all over his face. Helen flashed him perfect smile.

       “I mean – “, Miguel stammered as he searched for words.

       “You mean that? Well, you can’t just take that back, would you?”, her smile still intact.

       He felt his tongue shrinking further down to his throat. He knew that it was too early for him to say that. But he was also certain that she would be hurt if he would take his words back. So he just fell silent as he tried to hold the tender look of her eyes. They remained like that for another quiet minute before the air around them got a little too awkward for the both of them. Helen was the one to break first and she decided to ask something to get rid of the icy tension between them.

       “Was Mary your service firearm when you were still active as a policeman?”, she asked while brushing her hair with her fingers.

       “No. I held something else when I was still active. That came from my father.”

       She looked surprised.

       “I thought you never saw your father after your eleventh birthday?”

       Now it was his time to be surprised.

       “That’s precisely right. How did you know that one?”

       “Nadia mentioned it on the day you two got married.”

       “Ah. He just disappeared one day and nobody ever saw him since. When I grew up and I became what I am right now, I tried to do some private investigation. I always wanted to know the truth about him never showing up again. I always thought he had another family, somewhere my mother never knew about. But he was clean.”

      “Have you tried – “

       “I have tried every possible way there was. I asked the people who mother knew he once worked with but they were all clueless. I dug through police records and saw no unsolved cases of a man resembling him. I even tried handing out missing person copies to every person on the streets. But it seemed like he just vanished in thin air. No trace, no records and no nothing.”

       “I’m sorry.”, was all she could say.

       “Yeah, I know. Me too. But when I was about to go back for you a few days before, I asked Aunt Inday for a gun. Honestly, I never expected for her to give me anything. But she did. That was buried for a long time, she said. And now I have the only thing that my father left for me. Except for this house, that is.”

       They both fell solemnly quiet after that. Then suddenly, the old woman went out of the house carrying an old and tiny leather pouch in her hand. She put her right hand on his slumped elbow and handed him the thing she had with him. Miguel looked at the mysterious thing and then he looked at her.

       “Auntie, what’s this?”

       “That gun was not the only thing your father left you before he vanished. The night before he disappeared, he frantically knocked on my door while I was sleeping. He was soaked by the lashing rain that night and he was shaking. But I saw in his eyes that it was not because of the cold rain. He was shaking with fear, something that I have never seen from him. Then, he rapidly spoke to me in a way like he never ever did before. You should know Miguel, your father was a calm man of precision and methodical research. But that night, something drove him mad. I asked him to calm down and to speak slowly, but he refused to do so. He told me that he had no time to do that for they were after him.”

       “Who are ‘they’?”

       “He never told me that. But he told me to give this to you once you are old and wise enough to have it. And I think time proved you to be both of that now.”

       “What is this, Auntie?”

       “Why don’t you open it so we can all see?”

       Miguel looked at Helen and she nodded back at him. He recognized they were right. He drew a big breath of air and untied the small bag with his fingers. Then, he poured its content on his hand. The bag contained an envelope and its corners were already yellowing from the long period of hiding. Miguel felt something solid inside like a coin and he wondered what it was. He carefully tore the end of the envelope and peered inside. Then he upended it and a folded letter came out with an ancient-looking key. They were all surprised.

       “What does that key opens?", they all asked each other after a few shocked moments.

       No one really had any answer.