The Truth Berries

XXXIII

       Two days after she gave Nadia’s mother a visit, Helen received a call from Dr. Winson. She was on her way to take a shower when her phone vibrated. Aside from her white towel wrapped around her slender body, she was technically naked. She has spent two nights already in her mother’s house which was seven blocks away from her sealed closed apartment. Helen quickly picked her phone and answered him.

       “Helen?”

       “Yes, Dr. Winson?”

       “Thank god, you’re okay. Where are you now?”

       “Of course, I’m okay. I’m currently staying at my mother’s house. My apartment here was temporarily closed because of some investi- . . .” Helen held herself. She saw no point in telling him that.

      “Some kind of what? Is everything fine down there?”

      “Well, it’s nothing serious. I called a handyman to investigate a suspected gas leak at my apartment two days ago. He told me to find someplace to sleep for a while until he finds out what the problem really is. Are you still in Washington?”

       “No. After you left, those men came back for me. Luckily, I was already inside a cab going to the airport. Do you still have that chest with you?”

       “Not anymore. I heeded your advice. The moment my plane landed, I called the owner and returned it to her. Why are you asking? I thought you told me to turn my back on it.” Helen lied.

       Dr. Winson was silent for a minute.

       “Are you alone there?”

       “Of course, I am.”

       “Listen, ever since I learned something about that chest, I couldn’t help myself from wondering. I’ve never been this curious about something before so I kept on researching about that. Remember the ancient-looking paper with Egyptian hieroglyphs? I told you it was some kind of an instruction, right? But did you know already what it exactly says?”

       “Well, you haven’t told me yet.”

       “Right. I called an expert friend of mine regarding it. I sent him a copy of the photo and I asked him to decode what it meant, word by word.”

       “You had a copy of the pictures I sent you?” she asked incredulously.

       “Don’t get me wrong but I was only doing it for safety purposes. After those men came vandalizing my own place, I found it necessary to make a copy of my own. You know, just in case they come back and they manage to get your flashdrive. That’s it and nothing more.”

       She found his explanation valid.

       “As I was saying, my friend translated the writings on that ancient paper. It took him two full days and a thousand dollars to do so but he did it. He sent the translation to me but I can tell you it made no sense to me.”

       “Why? What does it say?”

       “You have a pen and a sheet of paper with you right now?”

       “Wait a second. I have nothing with me but a wrapped towel around me.”

       “I think I’m getting curious again.”

       Helen ignored the pun. She rummaged through the nearest drawer’s contents and found a used notebook and a pencil. Then she held her phone between her right shoulder and her right cheek while holding the pencil and the paper with her hands.

       “Okay, shoot.”

       Dr. Winson recited the message to her.

        Thou mortal who seek power through knowledge

        Must learn how to wield it first.

        With a bed from the mother’s land

        And the blood of a woman untouched

        In a place where it’s dry and dark

        Can only thy Wisdom sprout

       Helen and Dr. Winson were silent for a long time after he relayed the translation to her. Then he checked if she was still on the other line.

       “It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. How about you, Helen?”

       “It’s some kind of a riddle, Doctor. A hint about something. But whatever it is, I have no idea.”

       “Maybe it’s about something that the chest was carrying.”

       “Maybe” was all she could say to him.

       After some time, Helen thanked him for the new information and bid him goodbye. She put her phone down and went to the shower. The cold rush of water down her back soothed her but she couldn’t keep her mind away from what Dr. Winson said. She kept on repeating it even as she was in the shower, hoping that one more passage of it might somehow enlighten her as to what it really meant. She was still in deep concentration when she thought she heard something from her front door. Helen turned the water off and listened more closely. There was nothing. Helen thought she was just being too paranoid these past days. There were occasions where she felt like someone was following her or just watching her from afar. But whenever she looked back, there was no one suspicious to be seen. She was about to go back and turn the water on again when she heard it. Someone was trying to open her door from the outside.

       Adrenaline started pumping more blood to her whole body. She turned the shower on and let the water run continuously but she quietly went out of the bathroom. She grabbed her robe on the way out. Helen was currently putting her robe on when she saw her front door cracked open slowly and a gloved hand crept in to undo the chains from the inside. She was terrified but she finished tying her robe before she grabbed a heavy frying pan from her mother’s kitchen. Helen waited for the intruder behind the door, all set to swing the pan in full force on her unwanted visitor’s face. When the chains were undone, the stranger’s hand disappeared and the door was slowly opened. And then she saw it. It was a man and he had a gun held in his hands. He was tiptoeing silently as he entered the house.

       Helen raised the pan high and hit the man’s hands with all her might. The sudden powerful force sent the man’s gun flying to the center of the living area and it was lost under the sofa. The man, on the other hand, was sent plunging just beneath her feet. Helen considered hitting him again on his head but she feared that she might kill the man. Still, she clasped the pan with her two hands like her own life depended on it. The man, however, grabbed her left leg and pulled her downwards. She tried to resist him but he was too powerful for her so she fell down sideways. Helen struggled to stand up while the man kept on pulling her. Her robe was opened in the process and her whole womanhood was there for the man to see. But Helen did not give a damn as long as she can escape him. They stayed like that for a seemingly very long minute, until Helen found her opening and she gave him a forceful kick to his groin. The room was filled with the scream of pain from her attacker. Reflexively, the man let her leg go and clasped her broken nuts.

       “f*****g b***h!”

        Helen stood up very quickly and went to get her bag where she was keeping the chest. Then, without bothering to put anything on except for her white bathrobe, she dashed out of her mother’s house and blocked the first car that passed her neighborhood. Helen rapidly told the old woman to drive and take her to the nearest police station. The woman only felt obliged by his fearful expression.

       The man, however, tried to get up and searched for his gun. He was still writhing in pain but his failed mission left him no choice but to get out now as soon as possible before his target gets back with an army of police in tow. That was more than he could handle for that day, he thought. He found his gun under the sofa and stuck it behind his back.

       Then, he limped his way out of Helen’s mother’s house.