Open Heart {Under Revision}

Chapter 36- Chasing Paradise

(Caution: Drug expose) 

When you had made an articulate plan of having extreme success—only to get wasted due to arrival of a certain intern, the resulting transfiguration would be an inaccurate depiction of a certain diagnostician's irritation.

The three of us ventured back to crowded streets and remained attached to its humid shelter, trying to pose as suggested just in case Carlos or another high-spirited gang leader of a brotherhood got curious to understand the degree of my abstract thoughts. Dr. Ramsey and Arnold kept their conversations limited but for me, they offered nothing.

Sun had descended from its peak position in sky, environing its glare over the entourage. Markets became more active as time passed and tourists flocked, strutting with localities to display their temerarious nature. A phantom ache pulsed in my legs which was ignorable if it didn't remind me that I'd overrun my daily distance. I've been on foot for nearly four hours now, non-stop and added to that the morning overhaul at convocation. Together, they castigated that titanium wasn't bone, no matter how many years they have mingled for stability.

I was sure Dr. Ramsey could run for days and stop only for water-breaks before galloping again. Something akin could be said for Arnold because both of them spared no hint of tiredness and went on. When I was young, I could swim for hours—even months if our basic bodily necessities didn't exist but then came life and took away not only my confidence but also strength, leaving shell-shocked grief and emptiness that perhaps would never be filled. I tried my best to not lag and focused on my diligent surrounding to forget what I'd lost.

The 'famous' greenhouse was located on periphery of longhouse range in this favela, and they weren't hard to miss. A couple of clever questioning got us right on path and soon, we stood a hundred meters from a large, green doming structure which was alluring but hardly softened the black business pinned within its herbage.

Arnold exhaled, squinting at the sky. "I'll get on roofs again, have our escape vehicle manned and sighted." then he grinned at me. "You both carry on your paradise bird act."

"Arnold..." Dr. Ramsey warned not before expressing disapprobation at me for being labeled in such emasculated manner. You are to be blamed, those eyes cited.

"What?" Arnold's grin widened. "Correct me if I'm wrong but you both fit the role perfectly! Even I had hard time separating fact from act."

"Get out." Dr. Ramsey snapped. "Now."

The agent raised his hands as he retreated into shadows of cabin corners. "Don't stop by to sniff flowers and chase paradise, both of you."

If only paradise was not an unattainable fantasy along a man who was just...untouchable. Another hollowness of my heart, perhaps never to be filled.

Once Arnold was gone, Dr. Ramsey went straight to business. We'd maintain our act of 'nutty as bolts couple' and stumble into that greenhouse, searching to escape in a glander of cuckoo. The plan was very simple if it wasn't equally stupid and I projected my thoughts to Dr. Ramsey who in turn became more perturbed.

"It'd been better and even more coherent if you hadn't come." he pushed me to move forward. "Now, come along, dearest wife. Your wild abstract inspiration waits."

I scowled but did as I told, totally unplanned and unmanned.

One would wonder why there was a greenhouse in a favela such but locals had great explanations for its presence, no matter how much it varied from person to person: We have more than five hundred kinds of plants, tell us a place where you can find them together—tourists love to visit. We grow herbs and medicines to cure our ailments through nature. We help botanists from city and its good business. We please our deities by taking care of their creations. We preserve endemic flora from burning rainforests.