The Patient

11. LOOSE

Almero's wounds were unexplainable by the circumstances that he kept saying was the reason for the state he was presently in. He refused to name the drinking companions he said caused his troubles. His demeanor and odor was positive for liquor  , but still he refused to name who were the people he drank with and left him unconscious at their house's door. He was oblivious even to the careful and steady  ministrations of  the nurse whom his father, Prospero  requested to give Almero emergency treatment at home .
    Upon waking up, he appeared too weak to get up and go out of his room.  On  the morning after that fateful night , he stayed in bed moaning feverishly , and kept himself under cover.
   "He is already 21 years old,"  his mother  told his father , " and he  insists he can take care of himself! "
   So, besides dabbing a cooling wet cloth on his brows , she was at a loss on how to address this state her beloved son was under going. She had watched and assisted  the nurse clean and swab with  iodine tincture  his multiple wounds , bites , contusions  and scratches , other wise she knows how her son was lately  averse to her ministrations. Even her food offerings while he was momentarily wakeful were left untouched.

     Hearing the groggily mumbled words of his beloved son  had
enlightened Prospero as to what transpired in  Almero's life on that fateful evening. His interpretation  of what he heard made his hairs stand on their ends.
" Zeny, Zeny,  my love ! I can't  let this be our last tryst! No, come with me now... let's leave this place , Zen! Please  please , my dearest, love , please Zeny..."
Almero kept mumbling the name  even through his troubled sleep and fevered on and off consciousness.
His father, horrified as he was  upon the discovery of the identity of the person responsible for his sons troubles, was even more heart broken and terrified at the implications of how and why his son acquired these injuries he was now bearing. There was only one girl , no woman now, in his son's young love life answering to that backward spoken name.
Ynez Alba. Ynez Morgarojo  now. Uldarico Morgarojo's  wife! A married woman! A familied  woman! How could his son be entangled with those people's  lives! How could he do this ?! To break a family no, families and to endanger their lives ?! For Almero has also a family of his own! What if the woman's  family retaliate ? How will he face Rhea and Ramero?
And those injuries! How did he aquire those?
  Even if he smelled of alcohol when he came home with those injuries last night, he could not have been drinking with his buddies as he had said.
In fact , his shirt was not rumpled, nor was it blood stained, as if he was not wearing it when he got those injuries. As if he was  not even in a fight with a man  , but with a woman ?!
Apparently  , she was half attempting to get away from him... but some of those marks were... nail gashes , hickies , love bites ?
  Overwhelmed by his thoughts, Almero's father clutched his head tightly and swore at his sleeping son. His wife , hearing him , took his hands , and appearing to have earlier  came to the same conclusion as he had just now, blurted out... " Please, don't  judge your son too harshly, Prospero ! Even you must have done such scandalous things in the name of love in your youth!"
" Yes, I know, and I've  confessed all those romantic indiscretions to you as my wife! Yes, I can understand my youthful son! But that woman?! She must be a decade older and wiser than Almero ! Didn't she already have a son almost as old as him?
And her daughter and younger son were in the class you're teaching in school, too!  If she got too bored with her life of luxury she could have just gone island hopping or shopping abroad!" Prospero exclaimed.
" Maybe things weren't as ideal as they seem to us outsiders in their home, with her husband engrossed in his businesses , she did not get the kind of marriage life she wished she had..."
" What do you think happened, that now she wanted to sever relations with our son? Did her husband discover their illicit romance? Or maybe she just felt guilty... Wasn't  there any news of an altercation in the mansion? What could have  happened?"
Prospero's mind reeled at the implications of his son's  actions and the involved family's  probable interventions against them. What if?
  He knew how rich and influential the Morgarojos were , and how serious his son's  offense could be held. He also knew from business colleagues that Ico  had a temper and he could be vindictive, he could , with all his connections be able to exact revenge against Almero as well as his family. But no something tells him that Ico is an upright man, and he will consider first his own children's  welfare and future before his personal grudge. Reaching this conclusion  , Prospero knew he must plan and  implement a drastic action involving his own whole family as soon as possible.
Thus he called his brother in law , who owns a large fishing boat. After swearing him to secrecy, Prospero requested him for passage for his son, Almero , his wife Aldana , his daughter in law, Rhea , his grand son Ramero, and himself on that night to the island where he and his wife were born.
Prospero Buendiaz acted on his decision to secure his whole family's future
quickly , peacefully ,      and quietly , before all hell  break
LOOSE !
(*£*)