Memories of a Life That Never Happened

Chapter 87 - The Good Samaritan

Agnes crossed the threshold out of the kitchen and into the side porch. She was wrapped in a shawl, not because it was particularly chilly but because the night was much cooler than the previous ones. In her hands, she had two mugs of green tea.  

As her feet touched the first step down the stairs, Ishikura, who was sitting there, glanced up at her. Agnes offered him a cup, which he seemed quite happy to take.  

"Thank you," said Ishikura. 

Agnes ran a hand from her buttocks to the back of her thighs to keep her skirt in place as she squat to sit next to him. 

"You're very welcome," she replied with a long, acknowledging blink. "Because of you, I'm growing fond of green tea." 

"Are you now?"  

"Hmm." Agnes nodded, swallowing the comforting beverage. "Chamomile tea's still my favorite, but this is fine too." She lifted her mug just a little before cupping it between her hands.  

They sipped their respective mugs in silence for a while, brooding. 

"Technically, there is no such thing as chamomile tea," Ishikura said. 

Agnes tilted her torso away from Ishikura. She stared at him as if trying to determine if this was his weird way of being funny.  

"What are you saying? If it's not chamomile tea I've been drinking all this time, what is it?" 

"A chamomile infusion, of course," he said and blew at his drink. "Tea is what you get when you boil tea plant. If you put other herbs in the mix, what you have is an infusion." 

Agnes gave him a friendly shoulder bump. "You have an answer for everything, don't you?" 

Ishikura exhaled deeply and his breathing dissipated the vapors arising from his mug. "I wish that were true." 

They remained quiet for a while, listening to the crickets chirping and sipping tea.  

"What was Escobar doing here?" Agnes asked at some point. Her inquisitive eyes studied Ishikura over the brim of her mug. 

"He had some business with Nicholas."  

"Is that right?" she said and added an unconvinced snort. "Are they opening a circus together by any chance?" 

Ishikura, who was pouting and ready to take another sip, lowered his mug to face her. "A circus? Where did you get this idea?" 

"Well, I can only imagine Escobar was performing some sort of clownery. I could hear Nicholas' laughter from the kitchen." 

"It's late." Ishikura put down the mug on the step beside him. "I have an early start tomorrow." 

As he rested his hands on his knees and prepared himself to stand up, Agnes gripped his forearm. 

"How long have you been working for Nicholas?"  

He looked at her hand and she let go of him, but Ishikura did not budge. 

"Twenty-five years."  

"I've been with the Ma'am's family since I was fifteen," Agnes said. "I guess we both know our share of family secrets." 

"Just as we know where our loyalty stands," he added as an implicit warning. 

"We would be foolish not to," she conceded. "Which brings me to something my mother used to say." Agnes closed her eyes to remember the exact words. Holding up her index finger, she recited, "Being wrong is being human. Insisting in being wrong is being stubborn. And insisting in being stubborn is being stupid."  

"What are you trying to say, Agnes? It's been a long day and I'm too tired for riddles." 

Agnes opened her eyes and gave him a piercing gaze, as if she was reaching the thoughts inside his head.  

"All I'm saying is we've worked for them long enough to know how to please them. With time, we learned to read their minds. We can tell when they are up for a chat and when they want us to disappear." She took another sip to wet her throat. "I cook for them. I keep this house. You're Nicholas' go-to man. I suspect that, just as me, all too often you've done things for them of which you're not proud of." 

Ishikura meant to interrupt her and dispute that last sentence, but Agnes did not give him the chance. 

"Oh please," she said matter-of-factly. "We run errands for them that far outstrip the usual job description. But where do we stand exactly? We're not family. We're not their friends. When do we stop acting for them and start acting for our conscience?" 

Agnes tilted back her head and drained her mug with a single gulp.  

"I might be wrong, but I'd say you're a Good Samaritan." 

The wrinkles in Ishikura's forehead deepened. 

"It's something from the Bible," she explained. "An excerpt about helping those in need." 

"Are you trying to convert me to Christianity?" Ishikura raised an eyebrow in mockery. 

Agnes chuckled before she went on.  

"In the United States, there was this man. He was an African-American pastor and a leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He believed in nonviolent civil disobedience. My mother had a foot in Africa, as you might tell from my skin tone and my nappy hair," said Agnes, using her palm to give her stiff mane two playful nudges up. "Once she read me a speech he'd given. There was this phrase that for some reason stuck with me. I don't remember the exact words but it went something like this." Agnes cleared her throat and closed her eyes once more. "The ordinary man would ask 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' The Good Samaritan would ask instead 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?'" 

"And you think I'm this Good Samaritan because...?"  

The old woman cocked her head, as if he was not taking her seriously.  

"If you knew what happened this afternoon-." Ishikura crossed his arms and shook his head. "If you knew what I caused..."  

"Then tell me," she pleaded. When he hesitated, she laid a hand on his knee. "You can trust me. I have a fair idea of what brought Escobar here. And I can guess what might happen to him and his family. I'd be glad to know someone was brave enough to give him a hand. And I'd be ready to lend mine to a good cause for a change." 

Ishikura omitted many sordid details, but told Agnes enough to alleviate the guilt he felt for convincing Escobar to go through with the plan. A plan he had judged unerring. The plan he had witnessed collapse firsthand. 

"So Nicholas refused to help Escobar, even after he had shown him the photos?" she wanted to confirm.  

"More than that. After Escobar left, Nicholas and Ubiratan excused me. I'm afraid they'll take action to guarantee none of the photos get leaked." 

"The ones that show Nicholas buying votes or the ones that show Nick doing drugs?" 

"All of them." 

"Jesus." Agnes' rubbed her arms. "Do you think-? Could they-?"  

The thought was too horrible to put into words.  

"Hurt them?" Ishikura completed. "I'm afraid that's a real possibility."  

"We must do something! You must alert Escobar." 

"I already did. There is not much more I can do now. Because of me, his family's situation is worse than it was to begin with."  

"Well," Agnes said. "Maybe you cannot help now. Perhaps that's for me to do. Let me sleep on it. We'll talk again tomorrow." 

She rose difficultly, with a hand on her lower back, and started to bend down for her mug. Ishikura got to it first and handed it to her.  

"Thank you for the tea," he said.  

"Anytime," Agnes replied before limping back inside the house. 

Ishikura remained on the porch, listening to the crickets, wondering who the true Good Samaritan was.