Chapter 19

Nueva Casa’s ecology was returning to normal, as much as it could when a devastating event sent ripples through the small town’s biosphere. The town had experienced its fair share of tragedy, but only once every decade or so would the quaint village expect such a disturbance in its way of life. The last notable catastrophe was in 1951, when a drunken farmhand killed his employers, man and wife, with a machete over a wage dispute. It was a horrible, grisly crime, mostly attributed to the fact that the murder had not occurred quickly. The scene was spread out through their entire household, and out into the road that led back to the center of Nueva Casa. This husband had fought the attacker tooth and nail. His body was found chopped and disfigured, with dozens of defensive wounds. The wife had tried, unsuccessfully, to escape, but she had been run down and raped on the side of the road. The attacker threw her body in the bushes and fled. A neighbor noticed her body the next day after the summer heat had begun to cause it to bloat and rot. The perpetrator didn’t get far. The search party formed after their grisly murder found him hiding along the coast less than a week after. His hands and feet were bound, his mouth was gagged, and he was buried up to his neck in the desert and left for dead.

As with the murder case over fifteen years earlier, the police and its volunteer constituents quickly agreed on who was responsible. Osito was in good standing with the community, and his recounting of his encounter with Rodrigo, and how Jesus was attacked in the marketplace, was sufficient evidence to place the blame squarely on Rodrigo. It was well known that Rodrigo was a troublemaker and a small time criminal, but he had never done anything of this sort before. The volunteer police force enacted a widespread search for the arsonist, but not a trace of him could be located. Many people suspected his family of hiding him, but no one was ready to force a search of their homes. Eventually, it had been quietly accepted that the price for his actions would be exile from Nueva Casa. He was not brought to justice.

Enrique continued staying with Oscar and working at the taqueria. He began working with Hector in the kitchen, who showed him how to cook the delicious family recipes that had made the restaurant so popular. He immediately got along with Hector, a boisterous young footballer, and the two became a powerful duo after the other junior chef was fired for showing up to work still half drunk and sleepless from the night before. Hector and Enrique became close friends as well as work associates, and Hector took Jesus’ place on the football league team. Enrique also began getting close to Jennifer, a waitress who worked for Oscar. The two shared a long acquaintanceship, but their newfound commonality in work led to them becoming more than friends. Enrique tried to see Christian and the others as much as possible, even though working with Oscar and Hector absorbed the majority of his time. At home, Oscar and his wife had unofficially adopted the young man, and treated him with the same care that they did their two small children.

Christian had been offered a similar living and working arrangement with Dr. Mencia, who was the doctor who had mended Jesus’ broken leg. Sophia had mentioned to the doctor that Christian had expressed some interest in medicine, and the doctor in turn had offered him a job, and to live with him and his wife. Dr. Mencia’s only child had long left the house, and gone off to college in Mexico City.

Mencia would often say that Christian reminded him of his own son, and that they shared several striking similarities. They were both tall, athletic, good-natured, and intelligent. Christian lived in Mencia’s son’s old room and began working with the doctor. At first, he worked mostly in an administrative facility, scheduling appointments and collecting payments from clients, but as needed, the doctor would have Christian help him with simple operations and procedures. He learned to read vital signs. He learned how to count heart rate and read blood pressure. He learned the names of most of the bones and organs in the body. In time, Christian would become an accomplished physician in his own regard.

The fire had only served to bring Christian and Miriam closer. Their relationship flourished under the stress and turbulence of changing circumstance. Now, they were openly dating, and deeply in love with one another. People would joke, half seriously, about the two of them getting married and having kids. It seemed to them that would be an ideal future.

Pastor Thomas took over the responsibilities of the orphanage in some regard. A back room of the church was connected to allow a few people to sleep there. Sophia stayed with Rico, caring for him under the good graces and charity of the church. Pastor Thomas and his congregation were exceedingly generous, providing food, clothing, and housing for the two. They began planning tentatively for a new orphanage, this time attached to the church. It could begin construction the year after next. The town responded positively to the awful disaster that had befallen Sophia and the orphanage. Tithes came rolling in, carefully earmarked for use in helping the now-homeless orphans.

Attendance numbers swelled. In a way, it was one of the best things that had happened to the church, which had struggled to maintain membership in recent years. The tragedy had brought the town closer together, and the ranks for the congregation were emboldened by their new-found purpose.

“Sometimes, to appreciate the light, you must see the darkness and feel its sting,” Thomas preached the Sunday after the terrible events that befell the early morning hours after Christmas day.

“The Lord works in mysterious ways. Lean not on your own understanding, but trust that God has a plan for all of us,” And trust they did. That year, Pastor Thomas would perform a dozen baptisms and collect more tithes than the previous two years combined. During the day, Sophia would teach her classes at the church. It was difficult to teach without books and desks, but the resilient woman made due. She had suffered hardship before, and she knew to be sure that she was due to suffer more before she was through.

In the wake of the disaster, Sophia outwardly became more devout and righteous, but inwardly, the fire had only served to undermine her already weakened belief in God. Her father had been suffering for years since she left the covenant, excommunicated after falling in love with one of her sisters. It was not a sisterly love; it was a deep, romantic lust. When they were discovered lying together naked, smoking a joint in the living quarters when no one was expected to be there for weeks, her lover had shunned her and blamed her actions on the influence of Lucifer. Sophia knew that her feelings weren’t the result of devilish meddlings, they were real and genuine. Sophia left ashamed, heartbroken, and excommunicated, and traveled aimlessly southbound before she met Osito by chance in the bus station.

Osito could feel her broken spirit, and set out to repair what was a strong and magnificent spirit. Soon after, the duo founded the orphanage that would soon come to absorb their entire livelihoods. Repaired as Sophia’s spirit was, she guarded her heart jealously, never again to let someone into her inner sanctum like she had done before.

Osito and his wife Rosa took in Miriam and Carmen. Their meager home was cramped with six people, but they found a way to make the limited space suffice. However, with the destruction of the bakery, Osito no longer had a source of income, which was a considerable problem now that he provided for six bodies. He took up his old line of work, traveling on the road for weeks, sometimes months to buy and resell goods and invest in small business ventures. Osito held savings from his career before the orphanage, but he knew that those funds would not last forever now that there was nothing to replenish them. Every time he left and came back, Rosa quietly noted that he had lost weight, his massive shoulders and great midsection shrinking down to the size it had been in his military days. The transformation made Osito no less intimidating, but simply made him look different, more alert and dangerous. After several of his ventures, she finally expressed her concern for his changing appearance.

“I’m worried about you,” She said, “It’s like I don’t even recognize you anymore.”

“Don’t worry, my love,” He would say, “Someone has to provide for the family.”

In response to this Rosa, Miriam, and Carmen began doing odd jobs around the town: babysitting, cleaning, and the like. Miriam began working at a local restaurant to help pay for her stay.

Despite the difficulties, they were having, they never went hungry or for want of more. Life in Nueva Casa had finally returned to normal when Rodrigo showed his face once more.

It was a hot, June afternoon. The field was dry and cracked where it was trampled and torn playing football. Enrique, Christian, Hector, Miriam, Carmen, and two local kids were at the field playing a practice game. Hector and Enrique were deftly passing the ball between one another, advancing down the field as Christian tried to stop their steady offensive. They quickly passed him and scored a goal, shooting a wide curve shot just past the goalkeeper’s reach. They congratulated one another and moved to the defensive as Christian and his team began their run down the field.

Everyone stopped when they saw Rodrigo and his two hulking brothers trudging slowly to the field from the direction of their house. Rodrigo looked even more gaunt and pale than he had done previously, like a ghost. Christian swallowed hard, remembering how he had pulled a knife during their last confrontation more than six months ago.

“Miriam,” He whispered, “Take Carmen and the kids and get the hell out of here. If he tries to follow you, go to the church. This isn’t good.”

They hurried off, leaving Enrique, Hector, and Christian standing against the approaching trio.

“Pretty brave of you to show your face after what you did, Rodrigo,” Christian taunted. The two groups squared off against one another.

“You didn’t get anything you didn’t deserve,” A crazed Rodrigo said, “You did this to me.”

“No,” Said Enrique, chiming up, “Whatever you did, you did it to yourself.”

“You stupid arrogant fuck!” Yelled Rodrigo, “You took her from me!”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Said Christian, “She left you because you’re a psychotic piece of shit. I don’t think you two were ever officially together, anyway. Turns out, she was right.”

“No! That isn’t right. You took her from me. You, and that kid Jesus. I knew what he was up to the moment that he came up to me in the marketplace. I should have taken care of him when I had the chance. Now, they’ve run off together,” Rodrigo said, hatred and jealousy positively dripping from his voice.

“Jesus and Andrea went to a university in Baja Leai, they didn’t run away together,” corrected Hector.

“Hector, shut the fuck up,” Enrique said.

“Sorry,” Hector said, “I was just trying to help.”

“Well, don’t,” Christian said, “Leave the talking to us,” Christian looked over and ensured that Miriam and the others were far out of sight.

“Look, you can’t do anything. We’re going to the police,” Christian said, starting towards town.

“Like hell you can,” Rodrigo said. The knife was in his hand, held at a dangerous, crooked angle.

Click! Enrique and Christian turned to find Hector had a knife of his own. He stared at Rodrigo with cold, steely eyes.

“Try it, bitch. See what happens,” Hector threatened.

Rodrigo hesitated, and in that moment, Christian knew he was beat.

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Said one brother quietly.

“Yeah, this was stupid,” Said the other. They began to leave. Rodrigo, seeing that his two brothers were abandoning him, began to walk backwards, holding the knife in front of him like a cornered animal.

“I’ll kill you. I’ll kill all of you!”

“I suggest you get the fuck out of town right now. They’ll come looking for you, and this time you won’t be able to hide.”

Rodrigo turned and exited quickly with his brothers.

Christian turned to Enrique. “We have to tell Sophia and the police. There’s no way this is over.”