Until The Very End

CHAPTER 15: Rodolfo's Panic

            Eigengrau was once more present. Night air howled. Matt could hear the nearby trees’ leaves rustled. Yet again, he exposed his body to cold air. He placed his left palm on the bottom of the door and attempted to knock. But produced no sound out of it. He folded his hands, desiring Rodolfo to visit outside so Rodolfo could see him. Along with the rustling leaves, he heard a bark from a neighbourhood dog. It was even more loud than the sound of his body hitting the Petterson’s door. He sat at the Petterson’s doorsteps, feeling hopeless. The dog’s barks continued.

            A long moment after Matt’s body made a thud on the door, the door opened, and Matt fell on the floor completely. Rodolfo panicked to see the weak Matt on the floor. Rodolfo helped Matt to stand up, but Matt fell on Rodolfo’s arms. When Rodolfo realized that his friend was half-unconscious, he shouted to the top of his lungs;

            “Fabio! Fabio! Come down this instant and take my phone with you!”

            Matt heard someone running down the wooden stairs. Rodolfo took Matt to the couch and sat with him. Matt bent himself out of the cold. The one named Fabio came to them, panting, giving a phone to Rodolfo. His worried face appeared. Rodolfo took it immediately and called for help. But, when Rodolfo answered ‘hello’, Matt grabbed the phone and ended the call. He tried to put away the phone from Rodolfo’s reach, hearing his friend, say;

            “Matt! You need a hospital! Give it to me!”

            Matt gave the phone to Rodolfo. He doesn’t have enough energy to fight Rodolfo’s strong hands. After he gave it, he muttered. It was very unclear to Rodolfo, “Wo – o – m.”

            “Wwo –ws,” Matt said again after Rodolfo made a confused face.

            Dialling again to his phone, Fabio stopped him. Fabio came closer to Matt, put his ear near to Matt’s mouth, and tried to understand the words. Matt was repeating the same two words in a whisper. Until, seconds later, Fabio got it. He told it to Rodolfo right away.

            “He meant ‘home’ and ‘house’! Probably best to take him back to his house. Maybe that’s what he wants.”

            “The problem is, I don’t know where he lives!” panicked Rodolfo. His eyes were big and his face was turning white.

            Fabio examined Matt. From the inside pocket of Matt, Fabio saw Matt’s phone. Without looking at any other, he took it and surrendered it to Rodolfo, speaking, “Here. Use this.”

            “How would I – “ Rodolfo began to question.

            “Just tell a command!”

            “What?!”                                             

            “Every phone has a virtual assistant. Surely your friend’s phone knows its owner address. All you have to do is ask the virtual assistant.”

            Rodolfo nodded, completely blank. Fabio shouted at Rodolfo for his last response so that Rodolfo would come to his senses. “CARRY HIM! I’ll open the car door, then I’ll get your things upstairs! Ask the phone once you two are in the car!”

            Then Fabio rushed outside. Rodolfo noticed for the first time that Matt was shivering in cold. He took off the jacket he was wearing at once, then put it on Matt with care. Bare-chested, ‘cause the jacket was the only clothing wear that he wore to cover his upper body, Rodolfo bridal carried Matt to get into the car. There was no time to help Matt walk. At the car, Rodolfo, who was breathing heavily, carefully helped Matt to sit on the seat beside the drivers’. Rodolfo took the driver's seat, wear the seatbelts to both of them, took Matt’s phone from his pocket, used Matt’s finger to open the phone, raised the phone, and asked clearly.

            “Hey. Find a route to get home.”

            The phone’s virtual assistant did not answer. He asked again the virtual assistant, but it did not respond to whatever he said. It will only activate and will answer at phone’s owner, which was Matt. Rodolfo came closer to Matt and asked if Matt could talk, but Matt shook his head slowly while his teeth were chattering. Once more, Rodolfo took his friend’s hand to unlock the phone using Matt’s fingerprints. He swiped right and left, looking for the app that he just thought off could help. After skipping on the app several times, he found what he was looking for – the Maps app. On the search bar of the app, Rodolfo typed “directions to my home”.

            Succeeding to hit the enter button, the phone showed a map with directions. Rodolfo felt relief now that he has an access to Matt’s place but never understand why would Matt choose to go home instead of going to the hospital. He waited ‘till Fabio comes back with his belongings. He looked at their main door and Fabio came running quickly, then placed his things on the back seat. Rodolfo told Fabio to watch over their house while Rodolfo wasn’t at their home. Fabio agreed and told Rodolfo to go immediately. The good thing was, Fabio was a trustworthy and kind person. And he knows much.

            On the road, while hitting the speed fast, Rodolfo put on the hood of the jacket to Matt’s head to reduce the cold temperature on his nape. With Rodolfo’s right hand, he helped Matt to rub Matt’s body in an attempt to add heat to his friend while his left hand was on the steering wheel. Rodolfo drove silently and nervously. Matt, who’s chattering his teeth out of cold, was seated beside Rodolfo, closing his eyes and continued to rub himself. Rodolfo can’t look at his friend, who was suffering. It also hurts him.

            Rodolfo followed the directions that the phone had given him. And after almost twenty minutes, Rodolfo was outside of Matt’s mansion. For a moment, his worriedness and nervousness slipped away. By just looking at the design of the gate, the tall, white wall that has gate lights, the round-shaped evergreen shrubs on the front of the wall, and the two modern outdoor wall fountains on both sides of the gate       s stunned Rodolfo. After admiring the view of the front gate, Rodolfo shouted the moment after he slipped outside his head through the window. He thought there was a guard behind the gate.

            “Open the gate, please! You don’t know me, but CEO Williams is sick!”

            No one answered Rodolfo. He tried to yell again, this time a bit louder. Then Matt stretched his left arm, holding Rodolfo’s right wrist, which shocked Rodolfo, for it was unexpected. Rodolfo returned himself to the car and looked at Matt. Matt released Rodolfo’s wrist and put his same hand inside the leather car organizer. He took out the remote that controls the gate and gave it to Rodolfo. Rodolfo, who at first doesn’t know what it meant, clicked the remote in random directions after placing his hand outside the window car. Several clicks after, the gate made a sound that it will open at the exact moment.

            When the gates were finally open, Rodolfo drove inside and passed the gate then, stopped. Again, he clicked the remote to close the gates. Surprised by the long driveway, he had no choice but to follow it. While Rodolfo’s eyes were on the driveway, he took a couple of looks at the mansion, trying to figure out which was the main door so that he no longer have to look for it when he stops the car. He spotted the front door and drove faster. The window car, where Rodolfo threw out his hands to open the gate, remained to unclose. He could hear those dead leaves on the driveway as the car accelerates. The leaves flew away while others were crunching as the wheels ran over it.

            A little later, Rodolfo stepped on the brake pedal, making the car stop. He ran outside of the car and went to open the car door on Matt’s side. After removing the seatbelt, Rodolfo fixed the hood on Matt’s head, then again carried Matt like his bride to the front porch. At the steps, he carefully lifted his feet while he made his way up. Rodolfo tried to reach at the long H-type door handle to push the huge wooden black pivot door open. But the door was locked. He had no choice but to put Matt down, and he did so. Feeling freezing, he cautiously placed Matt down, letting his friend lean on the wall under the porch light. He went back to the front door to examine. There was nothing to see more on the door other than the long handle, a flat circular thing on the centre-right of the door with a small red light at the centre and a smaller circle with a keyhole on the bottom part, and the two narrow, vertical glass positioned on both sides of the pivot door. He peeked through the glass to see inside, then he came back to Matt.

            Matt’s eyes were closed, arms still around himself while shivering. Rodolfo hesitated to ask Matt regarding opening the front door. He looked for his phone in his pockets, and when he found it, he called Fabio. Rodolfo was pacing back and forth while he waited for Fabio to take the call. While his right arm was on his ear, the left one was moving abnormally around his waist. Less than a minute, Fabio answered. Rodolfo stopped pacing and paid attention to the call. It was Fabio who worriedly talk first.

            “Hey, buddy. Did you arrive already? How’s your friend?”

            “We did arrive, but I am running a little problem. I don’t know how to open the door,” Rodolfo answered, still nervous.

            “Use a key! You should see a keyhole on the – “

            “No keys for the meantime. I don’t have much time to look for them in the car! I’m not even sure if it is in the car,” Rodolfo cut Fabio off.

            “Are you suspecting that there’s another way of opening the door?” asked Fabio.

            “I suppose there is. I’m not sure, but there’s this something, I don’t know what it called, along with the keyhole!” snapped Rodolfo. He couldn’t control himself.

            “Calm down, will you?” Fabio advised him. “We can figure out something else to open the door. Just tell me what’s on the door.”

            Rodolfo breathed in and out, calming himself down. Next, he went to face the front door and answered Fabio, “Well, there’s a long door handle, a flat round thing with a red light dot on its centre, and a keyhole down below the red light, which is also located on the round thing.”

            “That’s all?” Fabio asked in disbelief.

            “What else do you expect to be on this door?” questioned Rodolfo, looking inside through the glass beside the door.

            “There ain’t no glass on the door to break?”

            “What?! I’m nervous, not insane! Plus, this is a mansion! I reckon this has more high-security protection than we have on our entire subdivision!” exclaimed Rodolfo. Then, he added, "And it seems like everything here is digital.”

            For a moment, Fabio did not respond to Rodolfo on the call. But Rodolfo heard Fabio whispered, “mansion and everything are digital”. Then, Fabio said with a solved-something manner, “I’ll hang up the phone for a while and then, I’ll call you back. Be sure to send me an image of that round thingy with red light. I’ll be back shortly.”

            “Wait, hold on – “ Rodolfo tried to stop him, but Fabio already ended the call.

            Without any more actions, Rodolfo took a picture of the circular thing using his phone camera and sent it to Fabio. Afterwards, he went to Matt, hugging him. While he rubs Matt’s back, he was waiting for Fabio’s call. The cold night wind howled, and Rodolfo, who was freezing in nervous, felt it run on his skin. He was cold, but he wasn’t shivering. Not unlike Matt, whose body kept on shaking slightly and uncontrollably. He kept on checking his phone, hoping that Fabio would call in any second. Until his phone rang. Answering it immediately, while standing up, he asked;

            “What you got?”

            “Ask the virtual assistant to open the door just like how you asked it for directions!” Fabio’s voice came excitedly.

            “It doesn’t work,” Rodolfo told Fabio.

            “Have you tried it already? I bet you didn’t because it should open on one command. It’s a smart lock that can be opened through virtual assistants, its phone app, or manually by the use of keys,” explained Fabio.

            “Okay, okay. I get it. But that’s not what I meant. The assistant won’t answer anything I said or commanded. Obviously, because I’m not the owner of this phone. And with that being said, this will only answer at  Matt’s voice,” responded Rodolfo, looking at Matt’s phone from back to back.

            “Yet how did you have access on your friend’s way home?” questioned Fabio, seeming bright.

            “Through the phone’s Map app,” Rodolfo answered shortly.

            “And I told you, it can be open using its phone application.”

            “What’s the name of the application?

            “Try looking for a Smart Home app. You should see different accessories like a living room thermostat, kitchen lights, garage door, front door. Once you saw something like ‘front door closed’, tap on it and the same round thing on the door with red light should appear on the phone screen. Click on it, and when the light turned green, viola! It means the door is open,” instructed Fabio.

            “Great! Thanks!” then Rodolfo hanged up.

            Using Matt’s fingerprint, Rodolfo opened his friend’s phone. He looked for the app that Fabio had said. And when he finally found it, he scrolled down. There were so many accessories. He looked thoroughly.  Then it was there. He immediately tapped on it, and the round thing appeared. Before he taps for the last time to open the doors, something came to his mind. Because of being new to this kind of thing, it came to him that it might not work and tapping that circle requires the owner’s fingerprint. He cannot believe that a single tap will open a big door. So instead of using his fingertip, he used Matt’s.

            The red light turned green. Rodolfo pocketed his and Matt’s phone. He went to the pivot door first and pushed it open and ran quickly on the porch ‘cause the door was slowly closing automatically. With careful hands and the right amount of force, Rodolfo carried Matt. To his surprise, Matt wasn’t shivering anymore and the chattering teeth were gone. It confused him, but he continued. A cold of 7-degree Fahrenheit temperature welcomed them as he cautiously walked inside. Rodolfo, who took off his jacket and gave it to his friend, leaving him shirtless, wanted to shout out of the cold. He spotted the living room and went there. With awareness, he put down Matt on the couch. After placing down his friend, he opened Matt’s phone, and, using again Matt’s finger, tapped the smart home lock. The light turned back to red.

            “C’mon, Matt, you shouldn’t be here. It’s freezing here. Tell me where your room is. You don’t need to talk. Just point out the way,” Rodolfo began to talk to Matt slowly and clearly.

            Matt pointed to the ceiling. It meant that his room was upstairs, which Rodolfo got what it was supposed to means. For the last time, he carried Matt and started to look for the stairs. Perplexed by how big the mansion was, he stopped for a moment and went left. The way he had chosen lead him to the kitchen. He passed the kitchen, then faced right and left. There was a walk-in pantry and a laundry room. He went out of there and back to the living room. Rodolfo was lost. Matt pointed out again his finger at the right, guiding Rodolfo. After Rodolfo took fifteen steps to the right, Matt pointed out his finger on Rodolfo’s front. There was the doorless way that leads to another room. Rodolfo walked through it. The room was larger than the one after passing the foyer. From there, Rodolfo already saw the stairs. It was on his right side. He directly went up on the second level.

            On the second floor, there was a living room-like because of the sofa and couches arranged that appeared just after taking the stairs. And for the last time, Matt pointed out a black wooden door. Rodolfo approached the door and, to his great relief, it wasn’t locked. He went inside the room right after opening the door. Stunned to see the huge aquarium that divides the room, he stared at it. A little moment later, Rodolfo walked past it, securing Matt in his arms. And, at long last, there was it – the bed – a couple of steps away from the aquarium.

            Rodolfo placed down Matt on the bed and let him lie down. He took the blanket off the bed and covered it on Matt. He sat down beside his friend. The temperature of Matt’s bedroom was less cold than the temperature down the stairs. Rodolfo doesn’t know what to do next to help his friend. His worriedness left him to think harder. Until Matt’s uncle came to his mind. He had the idea that giving a phone call to Matt’s uncle would be a big help. He grabbed his friend’s phone and opened it using Matt’s fingerprint. He instantly went on Matt’s phone contacts, scrolling down to the list of alphabetically arranged name contacts that starts with U,  to look for the word ‘uncle’. But when he was on the list of names under D, he recognized a familiar name but paid attention to the name underneath of that familiar name. He saw Dhan’s name, who was Matt’s personal driver. Then below Dhan’s name was the name that caught his attention – Dr Smith (My Private Doctor).

            Rodolfo stared at the said contact. Without scepticism, he tapped Dr Smith’s name and pressed on the telephone icon. He heard the ringback tone, waiting for Dr Smith to pick the call up. It did not last long. Dr Smith answered Rodolfo’s call, saying;

            “Hello, sir. Good evening.”

            The voice was some kind of forty-year-old man. It sounded like a person in deep hurt and weak, but Rodolfo did not pay attention to Dr Smith’s tone of voice. In fact, he did not pay attention to anything at all, except for that little moment that he had admiring the aquarium when he entered Matt’s bedroom and the little time that he had after being stunned by the modern design at the front gate of the mansion. Just at the moment that Dr Smith answered his call, he replied;

            “This is not Matt, but I am his friend. And I need your help. Please, come to his place right now. He’s sick!”

            “Who exactly is this, if may I ask? You don’t sound familiar. I knew each and every of Matt’s friends, and they can be counted on just the fingers of my one hand. You happen to be not one of them,” the doctor said.

            “What? At this certain point, why would ask that! It is a nonsense thing to ask! If you already knew that Matt Williams, who is a CEO of a big parent company called ‘te amo, an ex-president of the NY’s State Univesity, owned a luxury hotel in Italy, named Grande Palazzo, had just begun his college life for his company’s background information, then, undeniably, he’d make just at least one friend that you can now add on your fingers as it happens to be Matt is an introvert-type of person! I know he’s a crazy-billionaire teen, making billions of dollars, but I’m not onto that! Meeting him was the best thing that has happened to me so far. Knowing this all information and telling them to you won’t drive you to harm nor death! So I want you to get your ass up on your couch, sorry for my words, and get here as soon as you can. About five minutes will be pretty, highly appreciated! MATT NEEDS MEDICAL HELP!” Rodolfo angrily shouted. He breathed heavily after he spoke and realize that he disrespected a doctor via phone call. By ordering the doctor unnaturally while shouting made Rodolfo regret calling the private doctor.

            Dr Smith seemed aghast because he did not say anything for two minutes. Rodolfo waited, ‘till the doctor said, “Okay, kiddo. Sorry for not believing you a little while ago. And I understand your current behaviour. You’re worried and nervous. But it is with an utmost apology to tell you that I have been recently admitted to a hospital due to a car accident.”

            “But, but, can’t you come here and have a check on Matt? I’m sure you’re okay by now,” Rodolfo responded, feeling more worried and nervous.

            The doctor’s voice dropped low, speaking over the phone, “My dear boy, I am in no shape to walk or perform practices. The car crash accident was, to put it all, severe, leaving my injured and unresponsive knees in no condition to walk. And in addition, about twelve hours ago, I just had my last surgery to correct a rotator cuff tear on my shoulder. I’m aware that it’s a private doctor’s responsibility to be on your friend’s side by now, but it’s just can’t at this moment. And I am mortified not to be able to help your friend.

“Does it mean I have to take my friend to a hospital? Just say it,” replied Rodolfo while he glimpsed at his friend, who was covered in a blanket.

“NO!” Dr Smith’s voice came into a manner of anger. “NEVER BRING HIM TO ANY HOSPITAL EVEN THOUGH I WANTED TO!  YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT AND HOW ANGRY HE WILL BE IF YOU BRING HIM TO THE HOSPITAL. HE HATED IT, AND THAT IS WHY HE HAS ME. A PRIVATE DOCTOR!”

            “IF MATT HAS YOU, THEN WHERE ARE YOU? WHY IS MY FRIEND SUFFERING HERE IF MATT HAS YOU?! WHY DON’T YOU COME HERE IF MATT HAS YOU?! WHY DON’T YOU HELP HIM IF MATT HAS YOU?! WHY?!” Rodolfo was agitated.

            Dr Smith lowered his voice again. Either because of his current condition, which he shouldn’t stress himself, or he doesn’t want to argue with Rodolfo. “Because, boy, there are particular different circumstances that happen to us, which, at this point, in my situation, you wouldn’t understand. You should not bring him to a hospital because he has trauma at hospitals. I assumed that you already knew about his childhood days. But I’m telling you, I’d be in the same trauma if I experienced what your friend had gone through before.”