Soul
Copyright © 2016, 2018-2020 by VeryWellAged
Author's note: This chapter is NOT a stand-alone...The story starts here.
Say the word.
Erlyn that hurts!
Friend, why you think he make you join? Yes, he force you, but you were doing evil! Aina not do that!
Oh! The soliciting! Yes, I see. It me doing evil, but I change because he make it happen. Aina never do evil. It different. Same with me and Mirafe. Mirafe fight joining. Master make it happen.
Tama1.
Amelae, you, Mirafe, and Erlyn were engaged in a scam. That is, in my eyes, evil. Aina was not engaged in anything evil. So yes, I did force you. I forced you to stop doing evil. To do that, I forced you to sell me your soul. Was it unfair? You be the judge. Have I helped you, and as far as you are concerned, have I helped your mother?
Yes, OK. I see.
Good. ... Aina, if you decide to not join me, the only thing I require is that you never mention my existence to anyone.
Ninong, how long do I have before I need to make the decision?
It ends when you are ready to join. If you are ready but unwilling, you must leave.
How do I repay you for what you do if I not stay?
You repay by never speaking of us to anyone, ever.
That it?
Yes, that is it.
What if the priest returns?
Tell him to get lost.
But he will tell me that I will go to Hell? What then?
Aina, is there a Hell?
Not if I am with you, Ninong.
Erlyn?
Master?
Erlyn, is there a Hell for anyone?
Master, Hell does not exist. If anyone say it, they are wrong.
Aina, priests are professional liars.
All?
Yes.
Bishops too?
Yes.
The Archbishop?
Yes.
The Holy Father, the Pope?
Very much, yes.
Why they lie?
They say there is a Heaven. They say there is a Hell. They say Jesus is the Son of God. They say that if you pray to Jesus and do good works, you will go to Heaven. They say there is a God. Aina, not one of those things is true.
None, Ninong?
None, Aina.
You really sure?
Yes. I know it.
How you know, Ninong?
Erlyn is about ready to slap the girl… and then she does just that! She slaps Aina, and says, Bobo ka, talaga!2 He is God!
Erlyn! Stop saying that!
Amelae is thinking, I can hear it. No, Erlyn, he is not God. There is no God, not like what they teach us. Right Master? I nod. Erlyn, Master is powerful, and not human, but he not God. Remember what he teach us. He say he not allowed to create life. He not allowed to take life because of the rules. I think if there were no rules, maybe he could do both. But for humans, he is not a God to us. I not know what Master is. I think he must be divine, but that all I think. I think he is telling us that there cannot be a god, because of the rules. That why the priests must be lying. Master, please tell Aina about the game and the flood. Maybe she will understand.
You tell her, Amelae. Erlyn, you listen again too. You need to stop thinking I am God.
Then how you save my life?
OK, listen closely. I am allowed to protect the lives of those who have already formally sold me their souls. You see, if they die, they are already mine. So it makes no difference if they die or I protect them, so they can live longer. But the power of mine to save a life can only be used for those who sell their souls and for whom the potential cause of death is not natural. It’s in the rules. For me it means that there are only three of you, who live with me, right now, for whom I can provide some accident insurance. But I have to be aware of it before it happens. If you die, I cannot bring you back. If I am thinking about how good the Marang tastes, while you fall off a cliff, well, you fall off the cliff, because I was thinking of something else.
So you were thinking of me?
Yes. I heard you.
You opened the lock!
No.
What?
I didn’t.
Then how?
You did that yourself.
I not touch it! I not do it.
Yes you did. I told Amelae, I didn’t tell you this. The divine is in all of us, not in Jesus. There is no path to God. You are the closest thing to God that there is. The power, the goodness, it exists in us. I simply helped you find the divine inside of you. It was your power as you looked at the lock that opened it. Not me. I cannot do that. I am not divine more than are you. All of you are divine. I am simply a collector of souls and I inhabit, and I live as, a human.
I get up from the table and leave them. I need to be alone. I miss Francine.
My study is a sanctuary, a place where I can sit and relax. But I am anything but relaxed. Wound up, tense, on edge, are far better descriptors. I want to reach out to Francine but do not want to alarm her. Skype is out of the question. I send her a simple SMS.
Miss you.
Just three minutes later I get a text back.
Miss you too. You OK?
Of course. I am OK.
No, Dad, I think there is something wrong.
The texts stop and a Skype request replaces the text messaging.
What is it, Dad? What’s wrong?
You know what it is. I miss your mother.
Dad. Sorry. I know. You think of me and then you always think of her. But Dad?
Yes?
I am glad you still love her.
Why are you glad? If I didn’t maybe she would be alive today.
If you didn’t, would I be the same daughter to you that I am today? Would we be as close? Would you mean as much to me? Dad, let go. She loved you. And she gave you, me.
Francine, how many times have we repeated this rosary of yours?
You are the very best Dad a daughter ever had! I mean, there really isn’t another you in all the universe! And knowing that even the best Dad that there is, isn’t perfect, is maybe the best gift any father can give his daughter!
Ha! Good one. OK. That actually helped.
Good! So now I get to piss you off by asking the question you really don’t want to hear.
And that is?
Dad, it’s been years. You need to find another girl!
And that is supposed to piss me off?
Always has until now? What’s up, big guy?
Well, I may have found three, or four.
What? EXPLAIN!
Hummm, now, I am not sure I really want to explain all this to my daughter.
Why not, greatest Dad in the world? You hiding something?
No, not from you. Not really.
So?
OK… well, remember the well-dressed beggar at Mickey-D’s?
Yup, sure do. And Dad, it’s McDo here. Remember?
Huh, yeh. OK well remember him? To be honest…
Oh! I know! It pissed you off. You don’t like scamming for a church which is scamming to begin with. But maybe a double scam was just too much. Right?
Right. Exactly on the money.
Oh, such a bad joke! I didn’t think your divine presence did double, double entendres.
Well, I do, so there! Anyway it bothered me.
And?
About ten days ago, a girl came up to me as I was eating at Yellow Cab.
You ate out, by yourself? What has come over you?
You are in good form today, missy! Anyway, she tried to pull that with me.
Let me guess. You had already researched the church, because I told you the name of it… and you knew all the personnel attached to it because you wanted to rain on their parade. And Dad… you weren’t really at Yellow Cab by accident. You were phishing! So what did you do to ‘miss, I wish I had chosen another table?’
I bought her soul.
Dad?
Yes?
You are serious?
Yes.
OK, I think I need a second to get this news digested, because I think you are going to tell me you have bought ‘three or four’ souls. Right?
Yes.
Dad, do they know who you are?
No, not completely.
Well, if they don’t know, do they think you are the Devil, or God?
It has crossed their minds. I have told them often and emphatically that I am not.
Do they believe you?
No, I don’t think they do.
I don’t have to ask if they are safe. Do they understand how lucky they are?
Three of them do, and I think they will be with me for decades to come.
Good. I am happy to hear that. What about the fourth.
Time will tell. She’s a good kid. I got her out of a mess, but she had done no wrong and didn’t need to protect anyone. So it is unclear if she will stay.
So I am going to get three or four siblings! Finally I will not be an only child!
Very funny.
I want to meet them. Do they even know I exist?
One or two do, in a way, but not fully.
OK, names, ages and all the dirt. I want to know how you met them and how you got them to agree.
For the next hour I give Francine the story. With Erlyn I take Francine through Erlyn returning to the house after being shot.
Dad when did the thing with the lock occur?
Why?
Because I felt it. I am sure of it. I felt a pulse from you. It’s what I felt as a child only once before.
When was the last time?
I had the sense you were thinking about when Mom died. Dad, it was the same feeling. I could feel you pushing. I thought you were dreaming of Mom. … Dad, I don’t want to meet them via Skype. I want to meet them in person when we do meet. I don’t have any time off right now. But I will come home as soon as I can. Will you please tell them about me? … And Dad, you need to tell them about Mom. You haven’t done that, right? You owe it to them and you owe it to Mom. Dad, did you tell them that their kids will be normal humans?
In what world are you normal? … Yes I told them.
Good. Very good. Now I will not worry that you are lonely! Four! Dad that is amazing.
Maybe three.
No, it will be four. You will see. OK, gotta go now. Love you!
Bye sweetheart.
Say it!
I’ll miss you.
Dad! Say it!
You are my special daughter. I will never let anything bad happen to you. I promise.
You still can’t say it. Dad, you need to get over it.
OK, bye now.
Bye.
And the connection breaks. The longing feeling is eased, but a new sensation replaces it. I go to my work area, but there is nothing worth noticing in the traffic. Still, something is up. Then I note call logs between one of mine and a girl with a connection at the church. It is time to find out what is brewing.
It doesn’t take long to find out. Amelae has been told that a church official has contacted the police, claiming that three of his congregants may have been kidnapped. This is not a huge problem, but we need to jump on it right away. I give the girls instructions about what to say and who to talk with. I have Erlyn take one extra dose of the pain meds to lessen the obvious gimp in her gait. We drive close, but not to the police station. From there the girls will take a tricycle. Erlyn is wearing a big floppy hat to disguise who she is from being accidently ID’ed by some folks I want to avoid. The corrupt cops I am concerned about, regarding her family, are not posted to this station. But I can’t be sure that they will not see her.
The girls are to walk in and say, ‘we are not victims of a kidnap. We three just don’t want to have anything to do with that creepy church.’ That’s it. Say it and leave.
Nothing is that easy in reality. The cop makes them wait until the big pastor strides in and does his thing, trying to intimidate my girls into returning to his flock. That doesn’t go too well for the guy. As he is trying to say the girls have been brainwashed, they ask if they can press charges against the guy for forcing them to lie by soliciting under false pretenses, for him, and the church. That gets the cops attention. He is about to start taking statements, but leaves for a moment to get assists from others in the station. In those few moments, the pastor and the girls come to an agreement. He will bug off and leave them the fuck alone and they won’t press charges.
When the officer returns, he is informed of the agreement and it appears that it works fine for him. The other way was going to force him to do a great deal of work. Now, he has time to buy a nice fish on his way home for the family tonight.
It works for me. I want to shut the guy down, but not that way. The girls rejoin me, via another tricycle, and we head home.
I am pleased until I check the SMS traffic. Erlyn was spotted but they have no idea where she went. They tracked down the tricycle driver but he dropped them off at a resto-bar. The trail ends there as no one in the resto-bar ever saw them.
However, they are now looking for her. I am about to break my promise to Amelae. This will take some time, and I do not have to attend to it at the moment. I rejoin the girls.
Erlyn, you are not to go outside until I tell you it is safe.
Why?
You were spotted and some bad folks are looking for you.
Will they find me?
No.
Amelae looks at me and without any noticeable emotion asks, Will they die?
I hope so. I don’t think there is any other way to keep Erlyn safe. You going to complain?
No. Do it. Keep us safe.
Good.
Ninong?
Yes?
What have these people done that they deserve to die?
They are part of a Shabu drug syndicate and they want to kill Erlyn. It is them or her. We choose her.
Oh. Why you not call the police?
They are the police.
Oh! Oh no! I not understand. Police selling Shabu? Truly?
Yes, truly.
Ninong, if you not take Erlyn’s soul, she is dead already?
Yes.
And if you not do this, she is dead?
Yes.
Is it not a sin to take a life?
Aina, there are two answers to that. First, sin doesn’t exist. For Sin to exist, there has to be a Heaven and a Hell. As there isn’t, Sin can’t exist either. Is protecting a life from evil-doers wrong? No. … Now if you are asking if it is illegal from me to kill someone, my answer is, I will not kill anyone. Neither will I ask anyone to kill another.
Then how they to die?
Their deaths will be by those who live in the same evil sewer that they swim in. Bad guys will kill bad guys. It happens all the time.
Where will their souls go?
Probably to me. After all, they are bad guys.
Mirafe is a little frustrated. Aina, it is like we told you. He gets the creeps, but that doesn’t mean he likes creeps. He protects us. If you stay, he will protect you. He won’t ask, ‘is Aina worth protecting today,’ he will protect you. Period. Others he doesn’t protect. In all the world there are only three he protects now. The question is, will there be a fourth?
And that is a beautiful segue that I would be a fool to ignore.
Actually there are four now. The question is, will there be a fifth?
That produces silence and stares.
My daughter. I have a daughter. I protect her.
Erlyn asks, Where is she?
At school in Manila. Adamson University.
How old she? She our age?
She is your age Erlyn. She is sixteen. This is her freshman year.
She know about us?
Yes.
What she know?
Everything.
All?
All.
What her name?
Francine.
Nice name. What you call her?
Oh, I call her many things. Sweetheart, knucklehead, beautiful, daughter, and Francine.
Her mother, your wife?
No.
You buy her soul, like us?
Yes.
Where she, the mother, now?
Dead.
How?
I was distracted. I allowed myself to not see what I should have seen.
You screwed up! You were supposed to protect her and you failed!
Yes.
How that happen?
She said, 'Please, if you love me, no more die.'
And you allowed someone to live?
Yes.
Because you loved her so much that you didn’t do what you must to protect her?
Yes!
Like me and Dany?
Yes. Like you and Dany.
So it not only because you are smarter. It because you know that love blinds.
Yes.
Mirafe has been patiently waiting to ask, Do you love Francine, Master?
I miss her greatly when she is gone. There is a hole in my world when she is not here.
Do you love her?
I care for her deeply.
Does she ask you, if you love her?
Yes.
What you say then?
I tell her she is the most important person in my world and I will never let anything happen to her.
Ha! I bet she say, ‘Still can’t say the word, Dad?’
Yes, that is what she says.