[#15] Cure

She was a nurse. She had a cure.

The story was unfolding at three different places. Cathedral, where Valentina and Mr O’Dannell sobbed while Mrs Castillo and Morgan lay unconscious. Maria’s home, where she was supposedly still there but no one knew for sure. Morgan’s farmhouse, where Susan was kept. No one yet knew about the fact however. Pig and Cockroach, the two goons who were hired by Mrs Castillo were on a hunt and were in turn hunted by Peter, Scott and Mr Castillo.

Scott was driving the car while Peter sat beside him and Mr Castillo was shooting suggestions from the back seat, right behind the driver’s. Scott kept his eyes focused on the road while Peter’s and his father’s head were stuck outside the window asking every pedestrian about a car going just before them. Everyone shook their heads.

Scott wondered how it could be possible that no one saw another car going just before them. Were they going in the wrong direction, Scott thought. He took every turn that came his way. He would hardly drive for a mile straight before taking either a left turn or a right. He wanted to quickly find a direction in which he could just rush the car. But everyone whom they ran into, disappointed them. Merrifort didn’t have a lot of people owning cars; only a few owned. Not because everyone couldn’t but because most didn’t want to. It was a small and self-sufficient town. Only businessmen and wanderers traveled outside the town.

Even Peter and Mr Castillo were tired of keeping their head snuck out of the car — their faces had turned dry. Both of them pulled themselves inside. A conversation happened, mostly to kill the time.

Scott said, “I don’t understand if I should be helping Susan for she is your love or despise her because her sister got me beaten up and thrown in the jail.”

Mr Castillo replied to his dilemma like a father would — telling truth and yet being careful not to hurt, “That wasn’t her fault, son. You had slapper her. Think how her father would have felt getting his daughter abused right in front of his eyes.”

Scott remembered his own father. No matter how fatherly someone behaved, it’s never exactly like your own father. Scott would have not replied back if it were his own father telling him this, but it was Peter’s father who was speaking, therefore, he owed a reply, “If she would have told what she had revealed later, she wouldn’t have gotten slapped, uncle.”

Peter was silently hearing what two had to speak. He was still struggling to catch up with everything that was happening around them. Mr Castillo answered the young lad, smilingly, “Scott, would you have told a daunting truth to someone you barely know? She didn’t know you well enough to trust you. But wouldn’t you appreciate that she herself came down to our home right thereafter to tell our family the truth? Don’t take it personally, son. You were just a familiar stranger to her.”

Scott nodded his head. His questions were answered. But Peter had something burning in his stomach then. Just a couple of hours earlier, he was at Maria’s place with Scott where they got to know the real truth. He thought of letting his father know it too. “Dad, Valentina said Morgan threatened to abduct Susan if she didn’t agree to marry him. But Emma, Susan’s best friend, had a different story. She said Susan is in hiding with the help of Maria and Morgan. These are not two different stories. But two parts of the same story.”

“What do you mean, Peter?” Mr Castillo asked leaning forward.

Scott said, “Let me narrate it, Peter. Why don’t you relax a little. You’ve been going through a lot.”

Peter nodded. Scott reiterated, “Maria. When we interrogated her, she had her version of the story too. I am not saying that we trust her but she had mentioned that she had been trying to ‘cure’ Susan for many years. She was very good friends with her mother and used to visit them every week. She told us that it was her mother who observed Susan’s unusual attraction towards female characters in the bedtime stories. Since then, Maria was made responsible by Mrs O’Dannell to cure her. She kept trying even after Mrs O’Dannell passed away. She tried her best but when, about nine months ago, she got to know her indulgence with Emma, she felt defeated. She did tell us about the threats she passed to Susan’s family but the threats were never of Valentina getting married to Morgan. There were desperate attempts to convince them to let Morgan, the most masculine man that she had known, make love to Susan once as part of the cure. She believed one night with the man would cure her. Valentina and Uncle O’Dannell never agreed to it. But when Susan confided in her the plan to elope on the wedding day, she found a way to attempt her cure. She made Morgan a part of the elope, with a plan, of which even Susan was unaware of, that he would make love to her forcefully and ultimately cure her.”

“What in seven hells!” Mr Castillo gasped.

Peter continued from where Scott left, “Not only that, Dad, Morgan turned back on her later. As he got Susan’s possession, he felt disgusted at the thought of making love to a cripple, but he got aware of Valentina, Susan’s sister. He later decided to use Susan to extort Valentina for himself. She moved Susan from his own place to somewhere else and is now threatening Valentina to marry him.”

“Oh God, Peter. This is worse than we thought.”

Scott got so involved with the narration of Maria’s version of the story that he didn’t realize a young man was crossing the road. And before he did the car had already rammed into him. Funny thing was that the police wasn’t too far away from this accident. Inspector and the constable were right behind them the whole time in their jeep.

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