The Priest (11 page)

“Okay, but you can’t slack; otherwise, I'll
have to ask Arias to get you reassigned somewhere else.”

“I won’t give you any reason to consult
Arias on my behalf.” Mauricio tried his best formal speech, and it
worked. Grey didn’t threaten him a second time and let him work
with his crew for the whole shift.

When, at the end of the day, the van came
back to pick him up, Mauricio could barely think, intent on nursing
little wounds and a nasty scratch. Leander had reserved a seat for
him, and Mauricio was touched by the gesture.

“You’re red after the whole day under the
sun without protection,” Leander commented as soon as Mauricio sat
down beside him.

“Is that why my skin’s so itchy?” Mauricio
wanted to scratch himself, but Leander stopped his hands with a
laugh.

“I told you so! Maybe there’s something here
for irritated skin.” He rummaged inside the multitude of pockets on
his jacket. “You never know when even the silliest things will come
in handy,” he said, pulling out a small container. While showing
Mauricio the tiny jar, he said, “It’s an ointment; put it on your
face later. Otherwise, you won’t be sleeping tonight.”

“Thanks, again.” Mauricio took the jar and
absentmindedly played with the lid.

It seemed to Mauricio that the trip back
took even less time than it had in the morning. He enjoyed the
short walk on the brick trail and breathed in the aromatic scent
created by twisting several blades of grass between his fingers. He
reached the cafeteria and got in line with Leander and the rest of
the passengers of the van. They were the last ones to arrive, but
Mauricio was relieved to see that there was some food left. Leander
waved at Arias, who was sitting at a table with some other men.
Mauricio waved too.

“There’s some commotion tonight,” Leander
said, once seated at an empty table with his tray full of food.

Mauricio gave a distracted look around, but
he didn’t know what passed for normal around here. He was more
interested in eating what he had put on his plate while it was
still warm. At the Temple, though he had regular meals, his food
was already cold when it reached his cell. He had never eaten with
other people until his breakfast here, and he had all the
intentions of enjoying his dinner now. He didn’t care to hear about
commotions or problems in general.

“Yes, there’s definitely something going
on.” Leander wasn’t eating. He had his fork dangling from his right
hand and was looking, no, staring, at Arias.

Mauricio finished his food and regretted
immediately not having taken more. The kitchen had closed soon
after they had arrived, and now he was craving another helping of
potatoes. He had never thought that potatoes, while still hot from
the oven, could be so soft and tasty. Mauricio thought of only one
thing he wanted more than a good meal, but it was impossible and he
pushed the feeling away. Still, the thought of Rosie kept coming
back since he had been forced to leave the Temple. Even while
digging the trench, he thought of her and of her voice.

“I’m going to ask. You stay here; it won’t
take long,” Leander said the last word already halfway between
their table and Arias’.

Mauricio, having nothing to do now that he
had licked his plate clean, finally took a better look at the rest
of the cafeteria. There was some kind of excitement running through
the room like a subtle buzz. Leander was talking to Arias
animatedly. Mauricio kept his eyes on Leander until he came back
with an expression he couldn’t decipher.

“So?”

“The Presidential family is coming here.
Tomorrow, they’ll walk through the fields for the annual
inspection.” Leander sat down heavily and started toying with his
food.

Mauricio, on the other hand, felt his
stomach tightening and his heart racing.
But, she’s still there
at the Temple, isn’t she?
he thought. “The whole family?” he
couldn’t help but ask.

“I don’t know. Why would you care,
anyway?”

“I don’t.”

“The presence of the President is bad news
for the slaves. The women go crazy trying to demonstrate that this
farm works better than the others, and we are forced to work shift
after shift to clean the place. Last year was a nightmare. The
President had the brilliant idea of saying that she liked a
particular type of lavender Tarin didn’t produce. We worked for
three months to remove thousands of plants and replace them with
the one the President liked. The day of the annual inspection, the
chief guard showed her the fields with the new bushes, and do you
know what the bitch said?” Leander asked rhetorically.

He just insulted the President.
Out loud!
Mauricio jumped on his seat and nervously looked
around waiting for the guards to beat Leander unconscious, but
nothing happened. Then he realized there weren’t any women guarding
the cafeteria.
How could I miss that?

“How could you miss what? And why are you
acting so weird?” Leander asked, following suit and turning right
and left to see what had worried Mauricio.

“Did I say that out loud?” Mauricio looked
at the other man who nodded up at him. “There are no guards here.
How come there are no guards?”

“This is the men’s cafeteria,” Leander said
with a matter-of-fact shrug; then when he saw Mauricio’ s puzzled
expression, he went on explaining, “They can barely stand our
presence, let alone our smell, and this place is too crowded with
men. They stay outside for the most part. After all, where we can
go?”

“Ah, of course—”

“Anyway, what was I saying before you
interrupted me?”

“Something about the President and the
lavender fields?”

“Oh, yes… So, the President said her healer
had recently suggested that she avoid lavender for a while, and do
you know why?”

Mauricio didn’t think Leander was asking him
a real question and waited for the rest of the vent to come to its
conclusion.

“Because the color purple didn’t match her
aura,” Leander finished with a punch on the table.

Mauricio was taken aback by the man’s
strong, passionate reaction.
What should I say back?
His
life at the Temple had been so far removed from human contact that
he was unsure of what was expected of him. “That… sucks,” he
finally half-whispered.

“That’s right. It sucked—”

Mauricio almost sighed in relief.
I got
that right.
Although, his mind wasn’t completely sold on the
idea that the presidential visit was necessarily a bad thing.
Maybe Rosie is coming as well.

“—and big time it did. Who knows what other
whim of hers is going to destroy our peace?” Leander’s question was
answered immediately. A small army of guards ominously hovered just
outside the cafeteria. The room went silent and the tallest of the
guards stepped out.

“Arias,” she called. The man stood up and
let himself be known to her.

“You’re taking care of two different
projects: cleaning and beautification. For cleaning, you know the
drill. For beautification, you’ll work with the garden architect to
create a design the President likes. Outside, there are two
thousand roses to plant, and it must be done before dawn. Collect a
group of forty slaves and meet me back at the entry.” The guard
turned around and the other women left with her.

As soon as the guards were gone from the
room, the men started talking. Arias let them comment on the new
orders for few minutes, probably while he was taking his time to
decide who was going to work with him on the nocturnal project, and
then raised one hand. Mauricio was surprised to see that Arias
didn’t have to raise his voice at all. Every mouth in the room
stopped talking at the same time.

“As soon as I call your name, step forward.”
Arias followed with a list of names that didn’t mean anything to
Mauricio, until he called Leander and then Mauricio.

“Go take your bathroom break and come back
here. We leave in ten minutes,” Arias said and walked toward the
restrooms without waiting to see if anyone was following.

Mauricio did like everybody else and was
back in the cafeteria a few minutes later. He wasn’t surprised that
Arias had chosen him among the hundreds of slaves in that room. He
was the newest addition to the group, and he was also young, like
everybody else among the conscripted. Arias was the only one
clearly not in his twenties. Leander wasn’t happy about the whole
situation and couldn’t keep his annoyance to himself.

Mauricio, on the other hand, wasn’t really
mad.
Rosie could be here tomorrow
, he kept thinking.
And,
I’m going to see what a rose looks like and how it smells.
His
mind went back and forth between the desire to be in Rosie’s
presence again and his curiosity about the flowers.

“You’ll see; this is the lavender disaster
all over again. We’ll skip a good night's sleep and we’ll freeze to
death for nothing,” Leander said, his voice growing dangerously
loud.

I ate too much and my skin feels too
warm; some fresh air isn’t going to hurt.
“There’s nothing you
can do anyway.” He gave Leander a shrug and waited quietly while
the entry guards recalibrated their collars to let them out of the
building.

After a short walk, more roses than he could
have imagined were waiting to be planted. One of the guards who had
escorted them outside opened the back door of a big van, and the
smell reached Mauricio’s nose with a punch.
Wow, it’s intense.
Rosie was right.

“Be careful when you touch the stems. I
don’t want any of you slacking off tomorrow on account of a few
cuts,” the garden architect said. She turned out to be a woman with
a mousy face and squeaky voice who ordered them around the whole
night.

Soon enough, Mauricio’s thoughts took a
different direction. His fingers distractedly brushed a thorny rose
stem.
Ouch, that stings!
This isn’t fun anymore and it’s
cold and my skin is itching even where the sun doesn’t
shine.

In the middle of the night, Arias went
around with pen and paper. “Whoever needs a restroom break better
put his name on the list. It’s the last break.”

Mauricio raised his hand and noticed it was
shaking.

“You go ahead,” Arias said after taking a
good look at him.

“Thanks.” He got up on wobbling legs. Some
of the men complained they needed to go urgently, too. He hurried
through the process and was back in no time. He went down on his
knees and cried, “OW! That hurts like a—” He stopped before it was
too late; the garden architect raised her head from the
blueprints.

“Take off your jacket, fold it in two, and
place it under your knees,” Leander whispered and pointed at his
makeshift cushion.

Mauricio followed Leander’s suggestion; it
helped with the pain, but brought him near the point of freezing,
although his skin was now on fire. Leander’s ointment was the only
reason he wasn’t howling at the moon.

“What are you doing?” The garden architect
loomed over him, whip at the ready. “I didn’t call a break, or did
I?” She kicked the ointment jar out of his hand and said, “Consider
yourself lucky I can’t waste my time punishing you.”

Mauricio lowered his head, picked up the
garden shovel and resumed working amid the most unnatural silence.
He felt the other men’s eyes on him; it wasn’t a bad feeling and he
drew some strength from it.

The garden architect let them drink every
hour, not out of any consideration for them, but simply because she
didn’t want anyone to faint and leave for the infirmary.

“The President is going to love it when she
sees the double-crown design from the airplane.” Mauricio heard the
garden architect murmur absentmindedly to herself, and when she
left the blueprint on the ground by his side, he couldn’t resist
looking.

“What are you doing?” Arias hissed, his eyes
glancing at the guard coming back.

“Nothing.” Mauricio immediately resumed his
position. The clear image of Rosie playing with her ring came back
to his mind.
I wish you could see the roses I’m planting for
you.
You’d like them.

“Why are you smiling?” Arias asked.

“I recognized the design,” Mauricio answered
before thinking better of it and regretted it.

“Everybody does; it’s the Layan crest,”
Leander stated, and Mauricio was thankful that he didn’t have to
explain his words.

Meanwhile, the garden architect had realized
the blueprints were lying on the ground and getting dirty. “Don’t
you dare put your hands on my project; keep your heads low and
hurry. It’s almost dawn already,” she said to the men at large, but
gave Mauricio a menacing look.

Leander scowled for everybody to see.
Several men couldn’t help sneering. Arias shot them a warning
glance and Leander lowered his head when the garden architect
turned to see what was happening. The first light of the day was
shining in the sky when the last plant was carefully put to rest in
its designated spot on the ground.

“Try to sleep now; your turn starts again in
three hours,” Arias announced when the garden architect dismissed
them.

“I can’t function on three hours of sleep,”
one of the men complained as soon as the woman was out of earshot.
Several other voices joined the chorus of laments.

“Be glad that, in consideration of your hard
work, I’m going to enroll someone else for cleaning duties,” Arias
said, effectively defusing the tension. Soon after, the guards
escorted the slaves back inside and changed the calibration of
their collars.

Mauricio found his drafty little room
comfortable compared to outside. He closed his eyes and had the
horrible feeling of being forcefully awakened seconds later.

“Time to go to work, sleepyhead,” Guen
chimed happily. She repeated the suggestion several times before
Mauricio realized that she was talking to him, and that it wasn’t,
unfortunately, a nightmare.