The Red Box

by Laura Sgarella

  “I feel as I have eaten cucumbers,” was the first thing he said after the mention of his wife. He didn’t want to be rude but he addressed the chat towards another direction. Mark was speechless in front of that calm and mastery. He didn’t like to tell a lot about himself. He just said he was working in a riding school and that he enjoyed his job very much. He wanted to know more about Joshua’s daughter but his common sense stopped him from doing so. Anyway, a sole consonant was meaningless in the disentangling of the acrostic. He continuously asked himself in his thoughts if he was really the only person to know about the acrostic written with blood on the pub door. Joshua was by far too quiet to give the impression of being one to conceal such a secret. But what? Mark was absolutely astonished. That depended on the fact that Joshua must be a very sang-froid man.

  Mark had stuck in his mind the memory of that day. It was about twelve am, when he entered the pub and read L. A. U. R. A. on the door. He took his handkerchief and cleaned the door quickly to prevent somebody else from reading it. But what the heck were people inside doing at that precise moment? Were they all so dumb not to have noticed such a thing early in the morning? Why had nobody realized that an acrostic was written with blood on the pub door? Was it a menace or the sign of something held that bloody boring day? Mark had too many question marks. And again, Joshua was too calm to be aware of that fact. Maybe he was an extremely good actor and he didn’t show his emotions easily. He seemed very fond of his daughter and he would get cantankerous if something bad would happen to her. But what were the origins of that blood? Was somebody killed or were they the cells of an animal? It would have been very weird not to have noticed the disappearance of a dead body. There was a parallel between this enigma and the mystery of the Van Gogh Museum, of which Mark knew nothing. It was likely that those bloody imprints had been left by the same person. Mark left the pub after an hour and wrote in his notebook all the particulars of the day that struck him most. He was not sure if it was a good idea cancelling the writing with blood from the pub door. He should have called the police but he had decided to act on his own instead. The writing must have been the work of a depraved mind. He even considered the idea of a hoax but he instinctively cancelled from his mind that hypothesis. He had an entire day to think it over. Now he wished to go back to the hospital to attend the weekly mass. He was gifted with a religious zeal and he couldn’t miss the bread of God like every Sunday.

  At his arrival at the hospital he was bombarded with questions of all kinds. They wanted to know why he had left the place so early without even writing a note. He apologized, blushing. Of course nobody was suspicious of his second life. The eldest nurse took some tea for him but he said he had already had his breakfast. Anyway, he must have an empty stomach in order to take the host. He gave a brief glance to the place before going to the chapel upstairs. Here, Father Kens was waiting for the place to fill up with people in order to start the celebration of the mass.

  Jill woke up quite late on Monday morning and Araon was already out. She had made a list of things to do the previous night and her priority was a terrific lunch for her husband. She was going to cook some fish with wine and vinegar. All of a sudden, her nose was bleeding. She went immediately to the toilet to look for some tampon to stop the blood. It took her a while to get rid of that annoyance. Her blood stopped getting out of the nose very slowly. She went to the cellar to get some vinegar. She was quite tired to go down the stairs and this made her thrilled: was it the baby? She found herself a foreigner in the cellar. Things were not in the same place she had left it the last time she had been there one month earlier. She went to ferret through the shelves and accidentally found some papers. There were the results of some blood analysis and some conundrums with the words: cc ss rr. She was immediately furious. Concerning the letters, she simply thought that Araon had written them for the enjoyment of disentangling conundrums. He had been cultivating that hobby since he was a young boy. Her annoyance was due to the blood analysis. There were underlined figures that she was not able to read. But that was not the point. Why Araon had some blood tests without telling her about it? Was he worried about being the victim of infertility and he hadn’t the courage to confess it to her? Anyway, there wasn’t the name of the person who did the test. Maybe there was a woman who was blackmailing him because of a baby from a past relationship? Thousands of thoughts crossed Jill’s disappointed mind. Or maybe it was something of little importance. Araon was always the same. He never went out without leaving a note and his mood hadn’t changed lately. He was only concerned with the idea of becoming a dad as soon as possible. Jill became quiet again. She put the paper in the exact place she had found it in order not to make Araon realize she had read it..

  The matter was sorted out once and for all. She decided not to bombard Araon with silly questions. She went back with her memory to the time that Araon and her split up for a while though being very much in love one another. Absolutely she didn’t want to repeat it. She was so in love. Too much to make some dangerous mistake. She went back to the kitchen to carry on cooking the fish. As soon as she dropped some vinegar in the pan a flame rose high out of it. She took the pan off the stove and the flame soon vanished. She was in a rush. She had to be ready to serve lunch at twelve am. Araon would be very tired on his arrival. In fact, he had woken up at seven o’ clock in the morning to go to the yard to check if the labourers were doing their job properly. At least, that was supposed because of what Jill knew. She had a big list of things to do afterwards. She was very distressed and her mind showed signs of confusion. To be angry with Araon was not what she wanted, so she did her best to alternate bad and hilarious moods wonderfully.

  The list she had prepared included salad, the dessert and Araon’s favourite wine. Everything was on the table right now. It was half past eleven. She had time to pick a beautiful dress and to make up in order to appear glamorous and stunning to the eyes of Araon. All those proceedings reminded her of the very first appointment she had with Araon when they got engaged. It was the same day when Araon asked her if she wanted to marry him. From then on, the flame of passion never extinguished between the two. They were in a very healthy and satisfying relationship. She now took some perfume, a touch of class and she was ready to bewitch Araon. She had also time to make her face clean and tidy to make sure any form of embarrassment wouldn’t arise. She stuck out of the window and saw Araon arriving. He was not alone. In fact, a policeman was with him. They were speaking quite aloud but the officer left Araon soon. What was irritating, was his own way of gesticulating. Araon finally rung the bell. Jill went to open the door trying to hide her annoyance.

  “Hi, darling. I’m finally back,” Araon said pouring oil on troubled water. A kiss was the answer of his wife. Hopefully this huge manifestation of love was enough to make Jill forget what happened earlier in the morning. She expected her husband tell her about the policeman. “You know, Jill, I had a hard day at work today. Some officers came to the yard to do their job of checking if everything was regular. They made me waste half day over silly questions. One of them came with me now. Hopefully they found everything was OK. But now, let me guess, I can smell a certain friendly thing. I mean, you have prepared for me my favourite meal.”

  “You have guessed. I think you deserve it. Now let’s go to the table. You must be very tired and hungry.”

  Araon observed the beauty of the pieces of cutlery placed carefully on the table. He savoured immediately the tasty meal piece by piece while admiring the fact that every detail was accurate and precise. He sipped some wine and dropped a slice of bread on the floor. He was going to smear some butter on it. And, above all, he stared in disbelief in front of his wife beauty. “You look gorgeous today. In my heart you are always the most beautiful woman in the world,” he said.

  “You are very kind. You are the perfect husband, that’s why I spent almost all day in the kitchen to prepare this surprise for you. I think I’m ageing precariously. Sure enough, it to
ok me a long time to prepare everything in the smallest details. Anyway, who cares? Now we are here together. Apart from the officers how was at work?” she asked with curiosity.

  “The guys are working hard. They haven’t forgotten that tomorrow they have to receive their monthly wage.” Araon said.

  “We are blessed, I understand. But now let’s toast something special: We are going to become parents very soon.”

  Araon didn’t understand if that was the announcement of a pregnancy or the usual game of dexterity to encourage destiny to help them in their plan. They watched one another steadily in their eyes and finished lunch without specific plans for the rest of the day.

  Van der Baast was not definitely a brainless. But he savoured a cold taste of defeat when a certain quantity of decomposing corpses arrived at the hospital. The purpose of all that was not unusual: they were supposed to be opened and deprived of their healthy organs to donate to people in need. Van der Baast was very disconcerted. Those bodies had been registered in the morgue ten days earlier, which explained their tremendous state of decomposition. They were to be used to donate livers, hearts, limbs and whatever. And why not: to donate stem cells for curative purposes.

  The man with diabetes could see his freedom very soon. He was in bed complaining of the lack of assistance from the personnel. His relatives, even the closer ones, were not there standing by him. As ashamed as they were, they didn’t get the point. It was something that would make them rejoice: a couple of days and their beloved would be at home. The man with diabetes wasn’t aware yet of his improvement.. On the other side he wasn’t informed of all the process of his illness. Sure, he would be happy soon. Now the doctor had to organize it all. The corpses were supposed to be placed in a refrigerator until the time they would be cut in several pieces and be used for transplanting. They were picked one by one. There were ten in all. They had no name and that had an impact on the doctor. He was puzzled and saddened. Not that that secrecy was something that didn’t make him abide by the law. He was acting in alone as he was used to do. The hospital had the site to put all the corpses arriving He simply made sure that the corpses were in the refrigerator with the temperature at full blast. He dealt with this with the usual passion and afterwards he went to visit all the patients of the ward. During this turn of visiting he made sure he refrained from taking further pauses. He did it thinking and thinking of the corpses. He just wanted to be sure that they would serve a purpose. Accidentally he visited the man with diabetes later than due. He used words of comfort with him. The patient looked very forlorn and he felt pain everywhere. Van der Baast didn’t believe him. It was a couple of minutes and everything would be finished. The complaining of the sick man would be meaningful hereafter. Van der Baast was eloquent: “Well, you are ready to go back home now. Good luck. Your relatives are waiting for you outside.” And the patient drew a smile in his well-shaped lips.

  But worries for Van der Baast didn’t finish yet. He had in mind the secret he was sharing with Araon. Actually, he was soon to meet him for an update of the situation. The arrival of the decomposing corpses at the hospital suggested to him something fishy about the implication of that bleak story. He was wondering if the missing body at the Van Gogh museum was left somewhere in a decomposing state before it had disappeared for good. Anyway, he was relaxed now. He had to deal with somebody who seemed to have taken something purgative. It was an easy task that left the patient happy and at ease with the condition of the hospital. Actually, the doctor was very busy that day. The bell from the bedroom of some patients rung several times and Van der Baast made the nurses hurry up to see who was calling expecting them to use appropriate nice manners.

  His delirium ended with the arrival of a cell call. It was an old man from Cambridge. “Van der Baast?” he started with a familiar voice.

  “Speaking!” the doctor said.

  “I am Phil. Phil Tim. Do you remember me?”

  “Of course I remember you. What a surprise! We were friends since the time we had been working at Eton. It’s nice to hear from you. what can I do for you?”

  “Actually, I am calling for something very personal. I would like to speak with you in person. Guess how I found your telephone number?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “Well, a patient of yours who left the hospital recently came to Cambridge for a holiday. He met me in a pub and he started to tell me the story of his life. I came to know that you are working in Amsterdam and that he was a patient of yours. I was wondering if you had forgotten me. But it’s nice to realize that you remember me. very well. By the way how are things going?”

  “Well, I’m very busy at the moment. I cannot say it’s nice to see all these sick people but I deal with them one by one carefully. There is just one of them who annoys me so much. The rest of them are OK. But now, tell me: are you coming to Amsterdam?”

  “Yes, indeed. I need to see you though I am always very busy at work. I’m working as a production designer for a publishing company and I deal with people from every corner of the world. I am going to have my holidays in August. Shall I have an appointment with you by then? I repeat: it’s a private matter.”

  “Of course we can meet each other. I don’t know why but your voice seems very faint to me right now. Anyway, everything is clear. I’m looking forward to meeting you. You can come and stay in my house if you want. There are a couple of sophisticated places I would like to show to you in Amsterdam. Now, I’m sorry, I have to go. My duty is calling me. See you soon.”

  “See you soon. I always respect my pledges.”

  Van der Baast couldn’t deny to himself he was so dazed at the end of the call. Why did his old friend wanted to meet him soon? What was the secret he was concealing so jealously? He preferred to forget that fuss and to go ahead with a big question mark. He went to his office and begun again to examine all the scribbles in the paper notes over there. There was such a large amount of work to do. He went out for a while to have a cup of coffee and then he went back to work again. He was a man of great patience. There was nothing trifling in his job, even the tiniest things that could be imagined.

  Albert and Sylvanus were playing briscola in Sylvanus’ flat at Amstel when a sudden leak of gas aroused their panic. They were terrified. They both rushed to put everything in the proper place. They closed the gas tap carefully and all their fears disappeared. A woman in the flat behind theirs realized what had happened. It was impossible to keep her quiet until she was shown that the gas was in its proper place now. There were other people present in the building but they seemed not to be bothered by the situation. Everything was back to normality and Albert and Sylvanus started talking about their plans for the immediate future. They were momentarily out of work and they had to devise something to overcome that small crisis. Sylvanus was an expert art teacher while Albert could boast a past career in the scientific field. They were too young to miss the opportunity that kismet would make them face. They had a funny idea: they wanted to work as butchers. Their first concern was to find a place suitable to be used as a shop and then they could rely on their tiny amount of money they had saved to invest in that activity. They wished so much to have Araon and Jill near them now. They were so good in giving the best pieces of advice. But they committed themselves in working properly without their friends’ intervention. They had seen a garage on the corner of the street of their flat. It read: to let, price to be established. The two friends took the telephone number of the shop and called immediately.

  The man was rough and course at first approach. “Who’s speaking?” he said with a distorted tone.

  “We are two friends who are interested in your garage. We would like to see it and discuss about the price you ask to let it.”

  “That’s fine. We can meet each other later on and I’ll show you the place.”

  “We are coming straight away if you don’t mind.”

  “That’s fine. I live not far from there. Wait for me for about ten minutes
and I will be with you.” He hung up the phone in a very rude way.

  Albert and Sylvanus were very excited and even nosey to see the man face to face. They simply didn’t need to explore the ghost of the job. To be clear: they didn’t want to have a deep working relationship with that guy. “We are also with you soon,” Sylvanus answered hanging up the phone.

  But right on the place they had a breath of fulfilling inspiration. They could see that the shop was the right place for them. They had absolutely to come to terms with the guy. They examined every nook and cranny and they were satisfied with it. An outburst of joy collimated with their previous first impression of the man. They immediately asked to the owner the proposal for the rent and they came to know it would cost them eight hundred euros per month.

  “You do not have to give down payment and you can start using it by tomorrow morning,” said the man with an air of desolation.

  “We are more than happy with your proposal. Shall we pay you now or can we wait until tomorrow morning?” said Albert stumbling on a difficult word.

  “You can give me four hundred euros now and four hundred euros at the end of the month. I make the contract for you right now,” he said trembling with fear. It wasn’t the first time that he had found people showing inscrutable emotions. Anyway, he was in a rush. He gave the paper to be signed to Albert and Sylvanus and then he apologized by saying he was in a hurry. He established they would meet each other the next day and he took away the ad from the window of the shop.