Memories of a Life That Never Happened

Chapter 79 - Camaraderie

As Doctor Susana and Escobar left to take care of the paperwork, Mica and her visitors were left alone to discuss the previous day's events. 

While Joana continued acting as an interpreter, there was a noticeable change in her attitude. Mica sensed her much more amicable. Unlike before, Joana seemed to be actually enjoying the task.  

"He says you're the bravest girl he has ever met," Joana told her warmly. "Lucky for him you had the brains and the guts to look after his sister when he did not."  

As Jean-Pierre became redundant in expressing his gratitude, Joana articulated her own.  

"I daresay you spared my life too," she confessed. "I rather not speculate what sort of punishment would await me back home if anything had happened to either one of these two." Joana glanced from Virginie to Jean-Pierre. Then, in an atypical surge of complicity, she added, "I'm sure the appropriate reprimand still expects me in Switzerland, though I'm positive it could be infinitely worse. The siblings are my responsibility after all." 

"Are their parents coming?" Mica asked. 

"No," Joana replied drily. 

Mica wondered what kind of parents would not catch the first plane upon learning their youngest child had almost been killed. But then again, she knew by now that rich people were wont to do illogical things. Mica reminded herself that these were the same people whom had their children sent off to a distant country during Christmas.  

As if she could read Mica's mind, Joana said, "Some people are merrier around animal carcasses than with their own kids."  

Mica felt that perhaps she was the richest kid in the room. Regardless of the bitterness in Joana's words, a tinge of pity and a newfound affection for the trio blossomed in Mica's heart. Worlds apart and all, their praises rang very sincere. Moreover, Virginie was probably the only person Mica knew that could relate to what she had endured.  

In that moment, Jean-Pierre purred something again. The cadence of his speech was elegant and captivating.  

"He thinks meeting you is the best thing that could happen this year." 

Next to her brother, Virginie nodded vehemently. 

Inconvenient but unmentioned, Mica noticed that the thought of Nick, Leo and, at least in her case, Theo, hovered over them like flies.  

"What do you remember?" Mica asked at last and Virginie's face fell. 

Apprehension chilled the blood in her veins. Mica's heart began racing as it had the day before. Virginie was the only other person who could corroborate her story. Naturally, Mica longed to hear her version of the facts. 

When she did, however, it appeared as though they had lived through different experiences altogether. Not only Virginie had left out the part when Nick gave her the pill, she blamed her prostration entirely on her disease. She also used it to justify the boys taking her inside the cabana.  

"So that she could lie down," Joana translated Virginie's last words. Then, adding her own thought, "Her dizziness must've been a result of both inhaled smoke and a drop in her blood pressure." 

There was no mention to the tree trunk either. One of the men on the search team had found her reeling through the woods. The mention to Mica's heroic act was because she remembered when Mica pulled her out of the burning hut.  

Virginie's reasons to lie were beyond Mica's grasp. Nevertheless, Mica did not want to press her for details in front of her brother. No doubt, Virginie wanted to keep her story to herself. And while that was something that Mica failed to comprehend, she had to respect it.