Lost: Casa Perdida [Completed]

"SHIT!"

The Narrator

Pablo was driving through the jungle. A woman was in her labor pains, and the ambulance was unable to get into the jungle trail because no ambulances with all-terrain tires were available at that moment. So the responsibility of extracting the woman fell on his shoulders.

Pablo has been worried and concerned about Bernardo for so long. Every time he saw Bernardo during the last few days, his companion was at that computer working on something intently. Whenever he tried to ask Bernardo what he was doing, he would shut the screen and say, "Nothing."

Probably pornography, Pablo Cuarto guessed. He's unmarried for long, so that must have been one way he's dealing with his frustrations. I don't know.

A motorcycle skidded, and all the apples he was carrying collapsed onto the mud path. Pablo wished he could have helped him, but he had to ignore the motorcyclist. Looking behind his shoulder through the rear mirror, Pablo saw the downcast eyes of the man staring at him. But there's little Pablo can do then. He had a mission to attend to, which was far crucial than aiding a farmer whose goods collapsed on the ground.

Pablo felt bad for Captain Felipe. He's taking too much stress, he thought. Pablo was right: Felipe's colleagues have been questioning if Felipe's tendency to micromanage things would be beneficial for resolving the cases the Captain had to deal with. Maybe he's not meant to be a Capitan, Pablo thought, He was just a Teniente who got promoted to the post of Capitan. Perhaps that's why Felipe hasn't changed the way he handles his cases. If he's a Teniente, some micromanagement is a good thing, but being a Capitan, micromanaging is terrible.

The weather was muggy. It became warm again, and it was hot uncomfortably. Rivulets, or rather bucketloads, of perspiration, poured down Pablo's hairline. He looked at his watch. This should be it, I'm kind of close according to dispatch's calculations.

"Shit!"

Pablo slammed the breaks and skidded to the left, heading to the middle of the road. While he had been staring at his watch, the vehicle had veered to the right. Fortunately, Pablo recognized that in time. If he hadn't, the car would have bumped into what seems like a dead cadaver of some deer lying by the road.

Pablo had no time to inspect the animal lying dead by the side of the road, so he just passed by. That's when the realization hit him. It was a human body!

There was no time for him to abandon his journey to the pregnant woman's hut. Yet, the corpse indicated what could have been murder. As he pressed the pedal flat, he pulled out his radio and said, "Pablo to Dispatch. I want to inform you that I noticed a body lying by the road, about fifteen minutes down the Las Mencialas pathway. I can't look at it coz I'm busy with a mission myself. Please send medics."

Once he said that Pablo put down his radio and continued towards the hut.

***

A couple of police cars and photographers were gathered around the site of the corpse. Pablo had just arrived from the hospital. Fortunately, the pregnant woman was found in time and taken to the hospital. The baby had been delivered, and the nurse told Pablo that the woman was going to name the baby Pablo in gratitude. Pablo was grateful for that.

He was glad he was able to help the woman, but just as he pondered on the lady's act of gratitude, his thoughts went to recollections of his ex-wife treated him. She used to beat him up and physically humiliate him, starting from the third day of their marriage. Unable to tell it out, he bore the abuse alone.

Two months into the wedding, when he approached her to have a child, she just slapped him across the cheek and told him that she'd never bear the child of a "pathetic loser" like him. Every day Pablo used to hear from his neighbors that his wife used to bring strange men to their home. Yet, Pablo bore with it. He didn't want to grieve his ailing mother with news of a divorce. Finally, one of the men his wife entertained killed her one day after realizing that she was pregnant with his child.