| |
By Ken Matsumi
Aurora, even to the contrary, questioning me what I'm hiding, helps me to get out of the convent, I withdraw two million from the safe, and go back to the convent, once again the damned harpy, Mother Filipa, looks for me, she barks the door and before I sit down, she digs the dagger in my chest, obviously asking me for more money.
"The works of God need a little more of your help, Ken.”
“More money? You have already reformed the chapel, the kitchen, even the garden, you only have to reform the nuns' apartments, a request from them for a long time.”
"Do not interfere in the way I lead my convent, who are you to tell me what I need to do, you should kneel and thank the heavens, because I am generous and I pity you, allowing you keep here. And the risk we're having in keeping you here does not count? We need another donation, I think a million is good to complete all the works we need.”
"A million?You want me to believe you need a million to complete the reform of the convent, do not lie to me, Mother Filipa, I know very well people like you who hide under the facade of a holy image to commit one mistake after another. You are greedy, you want more money to accumulate fortune, do not try to make a fool of me, because in the world where I live, I know many people like you.”
Mother Filipa bangs her fists on the table with her angry eyes and squeezes her eyes threatening me:
"Then, since we can leave the formalities aside, I'll be very clear with you, man. Mr. Fiorentino's men came to me again threatening to kill us all, if I were lying and hiding you here, I think it is fair that you indemnify us very generously, or do you prefer that I call him and say that you hid here without my cooperation, threatening to kill us? Just think about what you're going to do, Mr. Matsumi.
“You are too ambitious, but I will not risk the lives of these people who are here and it is not their fault, now you must think well what you are doing, because nothing guarantees me that you no longer said my location for them, I told you once and I say again, Fiorentino is ruthless, do not think that you will be profiting more if you buckle to his side and betray me, I will deliver you the money today as you asked me so kindly, I'm leaving tomorrow, I do not want to risk even more the nuns' safety. But I warn you, Aurora is going with me.
"What did you say, guy?" – Mother Filipa asks me with a look of hate.
"I said Aurora is leaving with me, excuse me, I'll be back in five minutes with your money."
“Money for the works of the convent, the works of God.” – She shouts with her squeezed lips.
"Your money, Mother Filipa, we are alone here, you do not have to pretend to be a saint.”
"You're an ungrateful man, get out of here and just come back with the money, Mr. Matsumi.”
I went back to my room, got the damn money and took it to Mother Filipa's room, Aurora said she was not feeling very well and preferred having her meal in her room, I think she's got her nerves in tatters because I realize that even loving me, she feels guilty, because of her vows, I know that Aurora lives an inner battle for having yielded to the feeling she has for me and it is impure before God for meeting me in secret.
I've dined early, I'm also distressed, I worry about how far Mother Filipa's lust might lead her, hasn’t her turned me over to Fiorentino's henchmen and they're just waiting for an opportunity to kill me? Greeting Mr. Adauto and some nuns who are chatting in the courtyard and I go to my room, tomorrow a new life is to come.
It takes me a long time to fall asleep and in the middle of the night I throw the blankets on the floor, awakening with a fearful heat, I open my eyes and a very hot steam enters through the doorway. I hear hysterical screams that the block we're in is on fire. I try to open the door by breaking it, but I cannot, the damn door is locked from the outside. How the door was locked from the outside? I do not have time to think, just to act, I get on the chair and try to reach the window, at great cost I open it, so I grab the window bar and I sneak, falling on the other side, in the yard, in the middle of the lawn. I get up with difficulty and my shoulder throbbing unbearably, I must have dislocated it. Later, some nuns hug themselves and shout for help, saying that five sisters are in prison and could not leave as soon as the fire spread consuming everything. Mr. Adauto wanders from one side to the other, bewildered and no one knows where Mother Filipa is. I search for Aurora and my heart freezes when Sister Paola claims she is one of the five sisters who could not escape. I cover my face with a piece of cloth that a nun has given me trying to withstand the smoke, which swells every minute, I run towards the block where my room is and also the rooms of some nuns, there is a huge grating that separates the two corridors and the damn grating is locked. I close my eyes and my heart beat back as soon as I see Aurora and another nun huddled by the grating, trying to protect herself from the dense smoke that sweeps the room.
"Aurora, can you hear me?"
“Ken.”
"Calm down, I'll get you out of there.”
I retrace the path and turn left tothe corridor, where the pantry is, there I find a toolbox and I take it with my hands shaking uncontrollably and I find a large pliers. I go back to the railing and at great cost I can break the lock and as soon as I approach Aurora, she says in a fragile voice:
"Take Philomena first, I'll wait for you here."
I take Sister Filomena in my lap, I pass out and carry her to the courtyard, where the other sisters give her the first aid. When I come back to rescue Aurora, I find her fallen and unconscious in the corridor, she managed to drag herself out of the ward and fainted. I take my love in my lap, feeling my heart squeezed like a pea seed, Aurora does not breathe, I lie down on the patio floor and check her vital signs. She does not breathe and is pulseless, an adrenaline rush takes me and I start to breathe mouth to mouth in Aurora, while I massage her heart area, for her to come back...
She needs to come back, there is so much for us to live, I need Aurora's light so much in my dark, wandering life. An ambulance near the entrance of the Convent and the paramedics come to rescue Aurora and Filomena. I return to the block where the other three sisters are trapped, but debris falls from the ceiling and prevents me from following, I feel hands grabbing me to withdraw from the place and they’rethe firemen who arrived and prepare themselves to try to rescue the other nuns who couldn’t escape. One of the firemen takes me out of the building and leads me to the ambulance where Aurora is being rescued. I cover my face, so my love will not see that I'm crying, I could not save the three sisters, they were so young, I blame myself for not having rescued them and even atheist, I pray for the first time, so that the firemen have managed to save them. Aurora's breathing has normalized but she is still unconscious, her angel face is dirty by the scorched fire, I pick up a handkerchief and clean her face, rejoicing at the exact moment that her eyes open again to me. Aurora babbles still sleepily:
"It’s so scented, can you give it to me?"
"It's yours, baby, from now on we'll never be far from each other, I know I still have a lot to explain to you, but I just ask you to believe in my love, what's mine is now yours, Aurora.”
Aurora has been hospitalized for two days and I did not stay away from her for a minute, I cannot believe that Fiorentino’s men were able to burn a convent to reach me, what would they do with Aurora if they know how important she is to me? The doctor said that tomorrow she'll go back home and I have one day, just one day to convince her that despite all my mistakes, I really love her. A sullen nurse greets me as soon as I get to the bedroom and Aurora leaves the bathroom after taking a shower. The Nazi-torturing nurse leaves the room leaving us alone and I take this perfect moment to take courage and finally say what I need. Aurora gives me a sweet kiss and I take a deep breath and smell the delicious scent of her hair. She sits on the bed and I sit on a chair near the headboard, taking a deep breath and pouring out what I want to say:
"Aurora, the doctor will release youtomorrow, and I need to leave, I mean, we need to leave.”
"I thought we'd go back to the convent and explain everything to Mother Filipa, why don’t you tell me what's going on, why the rush, why do they want to kill you? I'm sick of so many unanswered questions, Ken.”
"It's risky to go back, people who are searching for me can try something, I'm afraid for me, for you, we need to leave, Aurora, I know I may not be a perfect man, but I really love you.”
"Did you kill anyone?"
“No, of course not.” – I say nervous and she pushes the hair from her face, also tense:
"Aren’t you going to tell me what you did wrong?"
“Not now, not while we're here in Italy and you're at risk, the less you know, the better, my love. All I ask of you is just one more time for me to fix everything. We will travel to Europe, we will go to Lisbon, Brussels, where I need to solve a problem, then London and our final destination will be Madrid, where I have a residence.”
"Why do we need to go to so many places? It seems like you're fooling someone."
"Just be careful, Aurora, please, I don’t want to go without you, I need you, I want to continue my journey with you by my side. Tomorrow I'll be here, what do you say to me?”
After a long silence, she responds:
“I'll go with you.”
My ears never rejoiced to hear something, she agreed to leave with me, I'm going to drop this life of illegality and start again with my Aurora.
It’s seven in the morning and I'm already sitting in the chair next to Aurora's bed. She wakes up more willingly and she is surprised to look at the two suitcases that are next to me. Dr. Montese passes in her room about half an hour later and gives her discharge. I hug my princess and thank the doctor, hurrying her to leave the hospital.
We go straight to the airport, before we check in, I deliver Aurora’s documents and she, once again, is intrigued to see that our passports are fake.
“Francesca Karan? I'd rather not ask how you got it, otherwise, I turn my back and leave right now.”
"Aurora, if I had not done so, we would not be able to leave Italy safely."
The airline attendant picks up our documents and asks me:
“Mr. Gabriel Karan? What is the destination?”
“Lisbon”.