by Diane Baumer
“There’s no pianist anymore, Miss Georgian lady. Now it’s just the two of us. Come on, get your stuff – in the meantime, I’ll make a hotel reservation on my phone until we find a place to live.”
“Alright. I’ll just pack my bags and get ready.”
“There’s no need for you to doll yourself up any more.”
The young woman was amazed.
“Is that a sexual insinuation when you say doll yourself up?”
François stopped yawning when he heard her.
“You’re the only one – I swear,” he said, trying to stifle a burst of laughter.
When they were ready to leave, Endzela got out of the car. She had forgotten the notebook in which she used to keep track of the new words she learned.
“I took it out of the bag for a second to write down spur and...”
“Oh, always your words... Was it that urgent? Come on, hurry up... Go, go!”
“Don’t you spur me!”
At last they left. For the first two hours, he was silent, doleful. If Lina dies, that won’t have been my fault, right? I’m sure she was driving like crazy. What a pain!
In the hotel room, François stepped into the bathtub. He had a terrible headache. No, I’m definitely not guilty – she’s seriously deranged.
He ducked under the water until he became fully immersed. Sixty-seven seconds later, the Belgian emerged abruptly searching for oxygen as he burst into tears.
21. Hospital
Álvaro Ledesma, an orthopedic reconstructive surgeon, stayed in the operating room for hours with Lola Soriano, a general surgeon, striving to save Lina’s life.
In addition to being a reputed specialist, the doctor was an avid fan of classical music. Among his collector’s items were all of Lina’s recordings.
Brother Pedro and Brother Lucas were in the waiting room, discussing on what had happened.
“How was Cinnamon able to sense the accident? At such a distance, it’s unlikely that he could have heard anything,” the Mexican wondered.
“Funnily enough, I used to think God had sent this unruled dog to us as a punishment… Now, he turned out to be a blessed life-saving creature,” the custodian said using affectionate irony.
“The amazing thing is that the lady happened to be no stranger to us.”
“What!?” Brother Pedro exclaimed in surprise.
“One day, I took Cinnamon for a walk in the mountain. Suddenly, he ran away and, after a while, the two of them showed up. She had a deep cut on her hand. To stop the bleeding, I made a poultice out of herbs. I remember her sadness made an impression on me. I hadn’t heard from her since.
“What a curious story!”
“You bet it is.”
“By the way, you are probably starving. Go grab something to eat from the cafeteria. If your blood pressure drops, doctors will also have to assist you. I’ll stay. There’s plenty of time left.
Brother Pedro needed to get serious so the young friar would obey him.
The crispy warm veggie omelet and melted-cheese sandwich made Brother Lucas hungry. On television, a bunch of chatterers were arguing heatedly over the possible reasons for an unforeseen separation. Same as in my country – they act as if there were no other problems to worry about, he said to himself nodding. In the middle of the debate, they switched to the newscast to give some breaking news. The friar paid attention.
Following some footage of terrible flooding in Vietnam, the anchorman reported there were still no news on the kidnapping of the Mexican young students. On the screen, their families cried inconsolably.
What a misfortune! Poor guys...
Then, Brother Lucas saw something that made his blood freeze. Among the pictures of missing university students was his beloved Diego, his friend, the one who had handed him the documents.
The Mexican was unable to finish his sandwich. He asked where the hospital chapel was.
A terrifying thought began to hover over his head. Would the kidnapping be related to the papers, or was that simply a coincidence? Considering the former assumption turned out to be right, had those youngsters been murdered due to his negligence, not even God’s forgiveness would be enough to comfort him. On his knees before the altar, he found himself “plunged into the darkness of the abyss,” as Psalm 88 goes.
LORD, my God, I call out by day;
At night I cry aloud in Your presence.
Let my prayer come before You;
Incline Your ear to my cry.
For my soul is filled with troubles;
My life draws near to Sheol.
I am reckoned with those who go down to the pit;
I am weak, without strength.
When he returned to the waiting room, the mountain woman was still undergoing surgery. The Mexican did not say anything about what he had just seen on the news. He still had to come to terms with it. The fact that the kidnappers had not contacted anyone to ask for ransom money might be causing the odds of a happy ending to decrease. Similar cases usually had a tragic outcome. Brother Pedro assumed the anguish on Brother Lucas’ was a result of his concern about the woman, so he tried to cheer him up.
“If she’s still inside, that means she’s still alive. Everything is going to be okay – you’ll see.”
Brother Lucas nodded sadly. The world is like a table wobbly on one of its legs – when you rest on one side, the other one gets lifted up.
Five hours later the door opened. The two surgeons entered the waiting room.
“Are you Lina Maldonado’s relatives?”
“No, yet we are here for her. How did the operation go?”
Doctor Soriano informed them that they had needed to remove one of the blood clots in her brain. There was another minor one, but it was located in a delicate area. They expected it to eventually get reabsorbed. Also, the patient had suffered from severe abdominal injuries.
“She is in a coma now – we must wait. Her health state is critical. I’m sorry I cannot give you any better news.”
“We will pray for her.”
“Heaven help that woman,” Brother Lucas added.
Doctor Ledesma had performed an emergency initial procedure to avoid the amputation of her arms. If she survived, he would have to operate on her again. At that point, the surgeon could not assure that she would play again one day the way she used to.
Brother Lucas and Brother Pedro looked at him, not fully understanding.
“Play? Play with the kids?”
“No – play the piano,” the doctor replied, assuming they knew who she was.
“Is she a pianist?” Brother Lucas asked in astonishment.
“Yes – she’s actually one of the best soloists ever. Didn’t you know that?”
That night, Brother Lucas tossed and turned in his bed before he finally managed to sleep. The recent events mixed up in his head confusingly. Diego had been kidnapped, while the sad woman from the mountain was a great concert pianist. Did his friend happen to be with the other young person at the moment of the kidnapping, or vice versa? How did the dog manage to know at such distance that she was in need of help? Why had he heard the news on the disappearance nowhere but in the hospital where she was being operated on?
I understand nothing. Sometimes, it becomes really challenging to interpret God’s will…
He turned on the light and looked at the clock. Three in the morning. A walk might help, yet, if I go out, Cinnamon will start barking. I don’t want to wake up the other friars.
He began to wander around the cell, the way an animal deprived of freedom would.
Brother Simón only knows Diego indirectly and is unaware he was the one handing me the documents. It’s better this way. If he manages to connect the dots and link the disappearance to the matter, he’ll get anguished about myself – though there may not be a connection b
etween the two events. As they say, poor man that who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time! The other possibility is terrible. Were they planning on taking revenge on Diego for being my informer, and also making his unfortunate companions suffer the consequences? Is the bishop involved somehow in such a shady business? What’s going on? God, what do You expect from me?
«For what man knows God’s counsel,
Or who can conceive what our LORD intends?
For the deliberations of mortals are timid,
And unsure are our plans.
For the corruptible body burdens
The soul and the earthen shelter weighs down
The mind that has many concerns.
And scarce do we guess the things on earth,
And what is within our grasp we find with difficulty;
But when things are in heaven,
Who can search them out?»19
22. Awakening
Two weeks after the accident, the pianist was still in her coma. One morning, Doctor Ledesma heard some babbling coming from her throat. Those barely perceptible words meant the end of Lina’s lethargy.
“My hands, my hands...”
“Lina, can you hear me?” he said firmly.
She was stunned and wondered whose voice was the distant, harsh one calling her name, as she tried to clear with her arms the snowy fog preventing her from seeing. The bandages made her moves impossible. A terrible anguish completely overflowed her. What happened to me? I’m paralyzed. Help, help...
“My hands, my hands...”
What is that moving stain? It has bulging eyes. Is that an…
“Alien…”
Álvaro Ledesma gestured in astonishment and resignation. People have called me many names – yet... «alien»?
“Lina, I’m your doctor – your doctor on Earth. Can you see me?”
The talking spot began to take an evocative, unrecognizable form. «Portrait of a doctor,» by Francis Picabia.
“Francis – François, François...”
“My name is Álvaro. Look at me – I’m standing right before your eyes.”
The fog was slowly lifting. Behind it, an unknown face appeared to welcome her to the world of the living.
Lina tried to remember what happened while she was carried to the unit. The doctor told me I was involved in an accident. What happened? I just remember returning home from Rome, safe and sound.
When entering the room, Lina was pleasantly surprised. Her friend had returned from Boston.
“Are you crazy? Did you come all the way from the States?” she whispered weakly due to the painkillers.
“It has been pouring down for a week. I was starting to shrink.”
She addressed the stretcher bearer, seeking his complicity.
“Isn’t it true that the doctor strictly forbade her from whining?”
“That’s right. If she does, those were his words, the patient will be operated on again – except no anesthetic this time.”
Belén wanted to caress her dear Lina so badly. However, not finding a single unscathed area in her badly wounded body, she just blew her a kiss. The pianist, in turn, made an effort to give her a smile.
“I just screwed up my life...”
“At least you still have your life. What’s more – you are going to keep putting up with me. By the way, are you alone? Where is François?”
It had been impossible for Belén to reach him from Boston. His number no longer existed, and nobody would pick up the landline. And the most unprecedented thing was – as she reached the hospital number, the nurse’s response had been that she did not know the names of the friars, yet they would come from time to time and talk to the doctor about the patient.
“Friars? That must be a mistake. I’m asking about Lina Maldonado Sanz,” the physician had stressed in astonishment.
“Yes – there is no one here but her with that name. There are always two friars here for her – one is a very young Mexican, while the other is probably in his sixties.”
So, do these friars actually walk, or maybe they prefer to float along corridors?
Now, there she was, willing to get to the bottom of the two strange phenomena – the vanishing of the handsome scrounger and the mystery of the friars.
First things first – the scoundrel. It’s so weird that he’s missing right now. It can’t be a coincidence…
Lina could not tell her. Belén was not surprised that he had abandoned her friend in the midst of adversity.
“Maybe his face just dropped in shame.”
“Where could he possibly be?”
“He’s not where he should be. That’s for sure.”
The following morning, the pianist woke up with the memory of a terrible scene. In it, she would curse her own hands for drawing such a swindler to her life.
“I shouted that because I caught him in my house, performing a threesome with two girls at the piano. Those words were my sentence.”
Belén feared that Lina would add another fault to her endless list.
“There’s no such thing as a curse. Otherwise, that Belgian rat would have suffered a lot for all my cursing. Forget about what you just said. Things happen through chaotic evolution in time, and they’re just completely random. Just deal with it – I feel I know you quite well.”
“Yes, but I did say it...”
“Sure. So, according to you, if a nervous breakdown makes me approach the window now and start to shout out I wish I fell down..., would my imprecation be the reason for my losing balance and smashing against the ground? Come on... You have the annoying habit of making things difficult.”
“Don’t be mad at me.”
“Don’t be silly... – It’s just loving effusiveness. By the way, what about the monks who visit you?”
“Monks? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“That’s what I thought...”
At noon, Belén returned from lunch dragging a bagful of letters with the help of a nurse. They came from everywhere around the world. The hospital had decided to leave the flowers in the chapel, following the avalanche of those they had received while the pianist was still in her coma.
“You can’t even imagine the piles of those there are. I took a picture to show you. See how many people love you?”
“Love is actually not the right word. They don’t even know me,” the pianist grumbled.
“Then, see how many bored people decided to write? Do you want me to read some for you?”
Lina agreed. The content in all the letters was similar. Some were written in languages which Belén did not manage to decipher.
Somebody knocked on the door.
“May we come in?” Brother Pedro asked.
“Well, here comes the second mystery,” Belén thought as she caught sight of the two Franciscans.
“They told us the patient had come out of her coma.”
Lina’s reaction made it clear that she knew the men.
“You’re the friar I saw with the dog! Come in, please!”
The custodian spoke first.
“We’ll just be here for a minute. We don’t want to bother you. Thank God you are out of the coma. We prayed for you every day.”
Lina explained to her astonished friend how she had met Brother Lucas and, also, what a wonderful voice he had.
“It’s simply outstanding. You can’t even get your head around it. I hadn’t heard anything as exceptional for years. That moment was incredible. I felt like time had suddenly gone backward. I thought it came from beyond. I still get excited when I recall it.
The pianist’s impassioned praise made the Mexican blush.
“Oh, my voice isn’t that great, at all…”
Belén, who knew her friend well, deduced that the friar’s voice ha
d reminded Lina of his father’s. That’s just what we needed now! She will become obsessed, thinking that the friar is a signal sent to her by some sort of soul...
Brother Pedro was about to add that the young man also knew how to play the piano, yet the Mexican, who smelled his fellow friar’s intentions, pulled his habit discreetly to prevent him from saying too much. The friars gave the pianist a painkilling medicinal mixture they made in the monastery. The cut-glass bottle was a marvel. Doctor Ledesma had given his permission for her to take it.
“Thank you so much. Why are you...? Did you find me here in the hospital by chance?”
“Ah, I see you don’t know...”
“What?”
In astonishment, the two women listened to the story of how Brother Lucas had found Lina thanks to the guidance of Cinnamon. Since her accident, the pianist had been suffering from psychogenic amnesia. However, based on the description of the place, she assumed it was the same in which she had crashed last time. What was I doing over there that morning?
“This is amazing... So you saved my life. You are my guardian angel.”
“Actually, it’s the dog the one that deserves all praise…” he said humbly.
“What an extraordinary animal! Not one, but twice was he there to find me and help me.”
“We found him when he was just a puppy – he had been abandoned very close to the area you crashed in,” explained the custodian.
That amazing disclosure, which not even the Mexican happened to know, plunged those present into bewilderment. Was all that a sheer coincidence, animal sixth sense, a miracle, anything to do with the cingulate cortex…?
As he entered, Doctor Ledesma asked if he was interrupting anything.
“Quite the opposite – we are leaving. We already kept the patient for too long,” Brother Pedro said.
They said goodbye and wished Lina a speedy recovery.
“Goodbye, Doctor. Too much work, right?” Brother Lucas said with gentle shyness as he passed Doctor Ledesma.