Chapter 95 - I Never Thought to Bury You
Simón
Since I buried my wife and son so long ago, I hadn't felt pain as immense as this moment, seeing my friend, my buddy, my brother lying lifeless on a stretcher.
I wanted to scream, I needed to. "Old man," he had said to me, his last words, "Take care of Verónica for me. If you do, you'll be taking care of me. We'll see each other soon. Thank you." I started banging my head against the wall.
Mojón was crumbling in one corner of the room, Cebolla fell to his knees, and Mrs. Verónica... Damn! She slowly started to collapse, and even though I ran to prevent her from hitting the ground, I couldn't stop it. Cebolla was lost in his thoughts.
"Doctor!"
They took the Patron's body away, and her relatives arrived in the room where we were. I swear I'll go to the ends of the earth, I'll kill every bastard involved in Roland's death.
"Daughter!"
Her father clung to his son's body, and Cebolla was the one who answered after coming to his senses.
"She's just fainted, they didn't touch her."
The paramedics carried Mrs. Verónica, began to examine her, and she reacted, releasing the pain I imagine she had been holding back. She started screaming like a madwoman, kicking on the stretcher. Her father cried seeing her, her brother's face fell apart, she was someone else. It seemed like a lie, this was a lie. The doctor tried to give her a sedative. It was for the best, her cries tore us apart.
"How...?" Mr. Fausto came to my side. "When did this happen?"
"He took the bullets, he prevented them from hitting Mrs. Verónica. And don't ask me why, I don't know a damn thing. I have to... I don't know."
I started to cry, as they sedated Mrs. Verónica, her cries pierced me, I had neglected him, I was supposed to keep him alive.
"Simón!" she screamed, she has always known how to express her feelings. "No! Roland! Don't leave me! Love, please, please, come for me, don't leave me."
Little by little she was losing strength, her family cried. Inés arrived hand in hand with Rasca Culo and several other people, a couple of women I had never seen before, I suppose they were there for another patient. Inés knelt beside Cebolla who hadn't moved from where he had taken refuge to cry, Mojón was the same, I saw Churrusco and Cereza come in.
"Love take meeeee!"
That scream surpassed all the previous ones, I wanted so badly to get out of here, but I had to record the events in my brain, every movement, face, attitude. Everything, damn my need to recognize every human gesture. I just didn't want to stay here. Inject me with something too.
"Simón."
I looked at Inés, and seeing her, I collapsed, fell to my knees, the cries of that woman who had given us more than care and without a doubt was our mother.
"I don't understand..."
"It's my fault," I whispered.
"Don't say stupid things, Rat!" Cebolla shouted. "It's my fault too!"
The room filled with more people, confirming the saying, bad news travels fast. Mrs. Verónica sobbed in a daze, her family approached her, Luz Marina couldn't stop crying, and the comments from people didn't stop.
Good comments, bad comments. Store everything, Simón, store everything. Now I have no fucking idea what to do. They took Mrs. Verónica away.
"Rat," the doctor called me. "You need to fill out the death certificates and decide when you want the funeral to be."
I didn't want to hear that, I know I acted like a madman, I don't know how to control the pain, how do I control this fucking situation.
"I don't understand."
"Yes, you do, I'm sorry." I couldn't accept it.
"He wanted to be cremated, he hated small spaces. Arrange the cremation for tomorrow."
Many people had arrived, no one expected it, in a moment of carelessness they killed my boss. That bastard Cifuentes was the one who killed Roland. I don't know why him, he wasn't a great rival. Why did he kill him? It doesn't add up, he wasn't family to the Cárdenas and their cartel.
I put on a black suit, it still seemed unreal that Roland was dead, he had changed, I ask you and I tell you God, this was the reason humanity judges you, he changed! Why didn't you let him enjoy his marriage?
Since yesterday, Mrs. Veronica has remained asleep, it was impossible to keep her conscious, she was speaking nonsense, calling out for him, it was painful to see her suffering last night and Mr. Fausto suggested sedating her again.
In the morning it was worse. When asked if she wanted to attend the funeral, she went crazy and they sedated her again, it saddened me to see her like that. My friend's wife stayed asleep in the clinic with her father.
Her brother and Raul will attend the funeral. Ines picked me up from the room, my poor old mother hadn't stopped crying, she couldn't open her eyes. We were her children, she saw us that way, she also cared a lot for Rino, Lobo, and Zombi.
We haven't talked, many people have called from different parts of the world, they already know the boss of bosses died, and each one that called seemed sincere, but one of them must be the traitor. Onion drove to the clinic chapel, Father Gabriel, who had been lost in his thoughts, when he saw me arrive, his look told me that for him this game of life was unfair.
My friend lay in the coffin and I didn't want to look at him. In the first pew were us, Ines, Onion, Cherry, Churrusco, Ass Scratch, and Turd who hadn't spoken since the boss's death, in the pew behind were the rest of the guys. When things are going to happen, they happen. A week ago Rino was in a specialization and he was the team's doctor.
I looked at Arnold again. He was the youngest of all... but he understood, Roland couldn't be dead. The ceremony went on when the priest made a personal comment.
"I am in a dialogue with God and I don't understand how just yesterday I was celebrating his wedding and now I am conducting his funeral. Forgive me, I know I am a spiritual leader, just remember that I am also human. I hold on to and cling to what I have said hundreds of times in this type of circumstance, I need to hold on to that."
Ines moaned, the lady's brother cried silently from the back pew, he hasn't spoken much, clinging to his girlfriend, Raul was also crying.
"For a reason, things happen." The priest's voice broke. "Excuse me, I knew this young man for three months and I cherish him as if he were a nephew."
The priest continued, with his sermon amid silent tears, people's cries, and faces submerged in pain. While I couldn't take my eyes off Roland's lifeless body. He has to breathe, I know he will. I need him to. Why did you leave, bastard?
"Open your eyes, you son of a bitch!" People around me looked at me. "Don't leave me here, you have to take care of your wife! Bastard, open your eyes!"
The priest stopped talking, an absolute silence was heard, the hundred people listened to my fight with the boss, I wanted to yell so many things at him, my head was a damn whirlwind of pain I didn't want to go back into.
"You helped me overcome the pain of loss, bastard! And now who will do it?"
"Simon." Ines took my hand. "In this pain, we are together, the woman he loved now needs us."