Chapter 47
Mother runs down the stairs, and I follow.
When I reach the first floor, she is nowhere to be seen.
I hesitate for a moment, unsure whether to look for her or to intercept Lobo.
Through the window I see Lobo’s carriage in the driveway, the doors opening.
I run out, throwing the front door open.
I’m surprised to see another man stepping out of the other side of the carriage.
This man is wearing a mask over his face, like a masquerade or carnaval mask.
A bag is slung over his shoulder. I don’t like it.
“Leandro,” Doctor Lobo says, “I received a message that she attacked you. Where is she?”
“What happened last night?”
“Look!” The masked man points toward the woods. “There she goes!”
“Go!” Lobo says. “I’ll catch up with you.”
The man takes off at a run.
“What are you doing?” I stare between the man and Lobo.
“Your mother has become violent. Did you tell her? About the past?”
“No!”
“Come, we must find her before she disappears in the woods.”
He takes off in the direction the masked man went, without waiting for me to respond.
I catch up to them in the south-facing clearing by the graveyard.
Mother is flat on the ground, face planted on the dirt.
The masked man restrains her, pulling her wrists behind her back.
He binds her ankles and wrists with rope, like she’s a criminal.
Beside him, the shoulder bag sits open. This sends a choppy ringing into my eardrums.
“Get off of her,” I say as I approach. The ground beneath my feet is rocky and uneven.
“We won’t hurt her,” Lobo says in a condescending tone.
“You’re already hurting her.”
“He is only restraining her so she doesn’t run off into the woods. We wouldn’t want her getting lost out there and hurting herself, would we?”
“They’re lying,” Mother cries. “They’re going to kill me!”
Kill her?
“Who is he?” I demand.
“A physician friend of mine. He’s just going to help me restrain her, then offer a second opinion. Of course, we won’t hurt her.”
“Why is he wearing a mask?”
“They abducted your lover,” Mother screams. “I saw her in his ritual chamber, unconscious. They used her as a human sacrifice for their black magic ritual!”
Joaquina…Human sacrifice. Black magic ritual.
Mother’s face when she saw the photograph, her strange questions about Joaquina.
The man strikes mother’s head. My hands curl into fists at my sides. He can’t do that. I hear the choppy ringing in my ears again, this time louder.
Mother continues: She saw the girl in the photographs unconscious at Doctor Lobo’s house, in a dark chamber, in a ritual sacrifice.
Doctor Lobo is saying something about Mother being a danger to herself and others. I can hardly hear him. He said that he would dismiss Joaquina. I never saw the girl after that night. He made me promise never to seek her out or speak of her again. Was it because he planned to kill her?
Doctor Lobo continues, “Do you remember my one instruction? I said that Madalena was to avoid distressing situations. Madalena, we just need you to calm down. That is all. We are only going to evaluate you.”
“Leandro, do something!” Mother screams. “They are going to kill us!”
Us? I look at Doctor Lobo.
“Do you see how deep her hysteria is?” Doctor Lobo says calmly. “She thinks we are going to kill her. This is, sadly, not uncommon in patients like this.”
Doctor Lobo flicks his syringe and says he must sedate her.
He’s taking charge of her. He did not ask me for my permission to do any of this to her. He did not even ask me for my opinion. He doesn’t care what I think.
Mother begs me to help. Her strained voice aches with despair. She’s so frightened. Tears stream down her cheeks.
My right hand twitches.
He jabs the needle into her arm. Her eyelids start drooping.
Her eyes close and she slumps forward. Her shoulders hunch and her hair falls over her face. Her head is limp. She’s unconscious. Again. He’s making her go to sleep again, after all the trouble we went through to wake her up.
The ringing in my ears starts up again.
They took Mother to the same guest room as before, the one closest to the stairs. At this point I think Lobo neither knows nor cares which room is her actual room.
Doctor Lobo instructs me to gather hot water, a warm compress, and gauze to clean up her scrapes and bruises. While I’m in the kitchen, I send Maria das Dores away. Doctor Lobo says that Mother will wake up in a couple hours.
I hear them moving upstairs, their voices low. The masked man, there’s something threatening about him. There’s two of them and one of me.
I go up to the room, carrying the warm compress, hot water, and gauze. I slow as I approach the door. I listen.
“Nothing to be concerned about,” Doctor Lobo says, unperturbed.
“The boy knows!”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“What do you mean?”
“He doesn’t care about the dead girl. He cares about…”
Silence. In the distance, the clock ticks on the wall downstairs.
Doctor Lobo’s voice comes again, louder than before: “Come in, Leandro.”
I hesitate for a moment, then I go inside.
I hand him the warm rag and the water and the gauze.
He thanks me and sets them on the nightstand beside the bed.
The curtains are drawn. Mother slumbers as before, face up toward the ceiling, eyes closed.
Arms resting carefully at her sides. The gray walls close in on me.
I am taken back to the weeks I spent alone in the house with Mother slumbering, before the police inspector came, before Joaquina came, before Doctor Lobo came.
The masked man stares at me like a hound, his posture slightly hunched.
“Have a seat.” Doctor Lobo motions to the rocking chair in the corner of the room.