Back to Chapter 25
Chapter 26 � Maria Elena�s Path in Life
The
march continued into the countryside as the route left Dan�bikt M�skt
and circled around to the east. There were rest breaks to exchange used
torches for new ones, to use the latrine, and to drink fruit punch. The
punch stained the marchers� lips blood red, and many of the men dribbled
punch down their chests to give the appearance of having blood running
down their bodies.
Finally daylight came. As the sky lightened in the east, Maria Elena
could see the distant torches from the other group of marchers
approaching from the opposite direction. The collared servants gathered
at a large camp where they would spend the day resting and getting ready
for the second night�s journey back into the city.
Jason Schmidt called the students together to explain what would happen
throughout the rest of the day; that the group needed to eat and then
sleep on cots that had been brought in by the Danubian Army. Towards
sunset there would be a Church service and touching up of the body paint
before the marchers resumed their trek, which would return them to the
Temple of the Ancients by sunrise the next morning. He gave the students
a quick lesson and some trivia about the Danubian Church and the Day of
the Dead, ending by teaching the group a simple hymn. Everyone noted
that he talked naturally, with no arrogance whatsoever, but in a manner
that compelled his listeners to pay attention to what he had to say.
A few minutes later the others went into one of the tents to find cots,
while Cecilia and Maria Elena stayed outside. They walked to the edge of
the camp, appreciating the total silence of the countryside. Finally
they broke the quiet by talking about the march. Cecilia abruptly
changed the topic:
�I think this is the last time we�re gonna be doing this. The march, I
mean. It�s gonna be our last Day of the Dead in Danubia.�
Maria Elena glanced over at Cecilia�s painted face. Noting the surprise
in her companion�s eyes, Cecilia continued:
�Jason was kinda depressed this morning when we finished walking. I
asked him what�s wrong, and he told me that he knew where we were gonna
be next year. We�re gonna be back in Chicago. By the next Fall Equinox
we�re gonna be home.�
�And he�s upset about that?�
�Yeah, real upset, �cause he doesn�t wanna leave Danubia. He was kinda
hoping that we�d stay here, but� I guess he got this dream telling him
it wasn�t gonna be that way� that we�re gonna have to go back to the
US.�
�Did he tell you why?�
�Yeah. He said we�ve got a lot we have to accomplish in our lives, but
in Danubia we�ve done what we need to do, so there isn�t any point in us
staying past next summer. He told me that�s when we�re gonna have to go
back, next summer.�
�What about your collar?�
�It stays on until we leave. He told me that whenever the Priestess
tells me it�s time to take it off, he�ll buy airplane tickets. I asked
him, �but what about Mega-Town?�, and he said a year from now they won�t
give a shit about us no more. There�s only a couple of guys on the Board
of Directors who still want to get us, and they�re gonna be laid-off the
next time the company restructures. When those two go, they�ll toss our
records and forget about us. He saw all of that: it�s in the future, but
he already knows what�s gonna happen.�
�What�s your thought about all this?�
�I�ve never told this to Jason, but I wanna go back. He�s not happy
about it, but I am. There�s people in Chicago that I miss, who I wanna
see again. I mean, there�s things here that I�ll miss a lot, but this
isn�t where I wanna spend the rest of my life, and I don�t really think
Pedro ought to grow up here either.�
�But, Jason�s OK with it?�
�No, but he�s the one who told me that it�s our Path in Life to go back.
He�s not happy about it at all, but he says it�s the will of the
Creator�� Cecilia flashed a sarcastic smile under her face paint: �� and
I�m not gonna argue with the Creator.�
Maria Elena pondered the pending change in the lives of Cecilia, her
fianc�, and her nephew. She realized that the departure of Cecilia and
Pedro would leave her alone in the house with Victor.
�I�m wondering something. Do you think� maybe part of the reason I came
here was so you could leave? I mean� you were taking care of Victor, and
now I�m going to replace you. I�m the one who�ll be running the house��
�You�ll be taking care of Victor, and his household, and you�re also
gonna have some kids with him. Jason told me he saw that too; you with
Victor�s kids� and you runnin� Victor�s business. Someday that�ll be
yours also.�
�But� I don�t want to run his business��
�And if you�ve got kids, just how are you gonna feed �em? What�s gonna
happen to the business if you don�t take it over? His sons don�t want
it, �cause they�ve got other careers.�
Before Maria Elena could think of a response, Cecilia added:
�You know, after talkin� to Jason, I realized something. Kim�s making a
mistake by havin� a problem with what you�re doin� with Victor. I�m
gonna tell her that she needs to lay off, �cause now I really do think
your Path in Life is gonna be with him.�
The two women stood silent for a few more moments, listening to a cuckoo
calling from a nearby tree.
�That�s one thing about here I�ll miss, hearin� those cuckoo birds. We
don�t have �em in the States.�
Cecilia turned towards the tents to re-join the rest of the group:
�Let�s go. We gotta get some sleep. It�s gonna be a long night, and
we�ll be fucked if we�re not rested.�
�OK� I�ll be there in a second. I want to get a drink. Could you hold a
cot for me?�
�Sure.�
----------
A few moments later, Maria Elena saw Carmen taking a second helping of
fruit punch. As they sat under a tree and sipped their cups, the two
women chatted in Spanish. Carmen seemed worried.
�I had this dream� I was going to the airport� and I was just like I am
now, you know� with nothing on� and my family was getting off the plane�
and they were real nervous and embarrassed� because I was totally nude�
and I told them I couldn�t help it.�
Maria Elena thought about her own family, who still didn�t know what had
happened to her.
�I wish I could talk to my family� apologize to my mom� but I couldn�t
face her like I am now. There�d be no way. She�d die from humiliation if
she knew what�s gone on in my life.�
�My parents would die too� if they saw me� but the weird thing about my
dream was; it was several years from now. My little brother was� a lot
older� a teenager� and he�s just 11 now. And my mom was fatter and my
dad�s hair was sort of gray. I mean, in my dream I knew they had to come
to Danubia because it�d been such a long time since they�d seen me.�
Maria Elena thought about the significance of Carmen�s vision.
�I�m wondering if it means something�s going to keep you here. If� maybe
you won�t be going home next year.�
�I�m wondering the same thing. I suppose I shouldn�t have taken that
oath to stay collared as long as Cecilia stays collared. I suppose
that�ll be what keeps me here.�
�Was Cecilia in your dream at all?�
�No.�
�That won�t be the reason. It won�t be because of Cecilia. It�ll be
something else.�
Maria
Elena was surprised at her own answer, because she was totally confident
about what she had just said. There now was at least one detail of her
life that she knew with certainty. Carmen would not be returning to the
US next summer.
----------
Late in the afternoon Maria Elena was woken by the forlorn-sounding bell
of a nearby Church. The ringing was accompanied with a series of
whistles around the encampment, letting everyone know it was time to get
up. She actually felt well-rested after having slept the entire day on a
cot. Getting up was followed by a trip to the latrine, a meal, prayers,
and having her body paint re-applied. The marchers assembled on the side
of the camp facing the main road linking Dan�bikt M�skt to the eastern
provinces. They faced into the sunset, knowing that soon enough the road
would be pitch-black and the only light in the entire city would be the
fires coming from their own torches.
Still shaken from her experience the night before, Maria Elena
reluctantly took a torch. She took her place in line behind Carmen and
waited for everyone else to take their torches and get ready to move.
She felt apprehensive as she watched the first marchers at the front of
the two lines light their torches and move forward. The line became
longer and longer, until it stretched into the darkness and looked like
a fragile bridge of light stretching into the void. Finally the members
of Jason�s group moved forward. One by one they lit their torches and
started walking, plunging forward into the darkness.
----------
Several hours went by and Maria Elena could tell that her group had been
walking through Dan�bikt M�skt for a while. The buildings were totally
dark, but she could make out street signs and trolley stops reflecting
the dim light given off by the torches. She also could feel the presence
of thousands of black-clad civilians, even though the worshipers were
absolutely silent as they knelt and prayed in the darkness. She began to
wonder if she would be spared any further visions. As curious as she
might have been to know what the Creator would want to reveal, she knew
that anything she would see that night would be unpleasant, to say the
least.
Eventually she realized that she was looking at white powder, a dry sea
of cocaine that extended in every direction as far as she could see. It
fell like snow and blew in drifts like sand in the desert. She saw
nothing but endless powder in the pitch black night; nothing but black
above and white below, stretching out to the horizon.
She saw pellets, similar to the ones she had swallowed in Panama before
boarding the fight for Frankfurt. The pellets where not clean at all:
they were soaked in blood and feces. A knife was cutting away at skin
and intestines to expose more pellets, and a gloved hand was picking
them out of a horrific mess that had been a young woman just a few
minutes before. The most awful detail was that the woman was still
somewhat alive. Her handlers had not even bothered to kill her before
cutting her open. They counted the pellets to make sure they had them
all, before leaving their victim to die alone in a bathtub. Others would
come along in an hour or so to dispose of the body.
The dying woman was having convulsions as her soul separated from her
body. She turned her head towards Maria Elena. She was staring into her
own face. She realized she was looking at herself, seeing a different
alternate reality from the one she had seen the night before: the death
that would have awaited her had she completed her trip to Germany. She
wondered why they would have killed her instead of simply letting her
expel her pellets, but the fact remained that she now knew with
certainty that she would not have survived her trafficking effort. The
only reward awaiting her in Germany had been her own death.
Maria Elena came back to reality of the black night and the line of
torches, barely able to breathe from the fright of her vision.
----------
When Maria Elena�s senses returned her to the Realm of the Living,
already she could tell that morning was approaching. The sky was no
longer pitch black. As the marchers continued their journey, more and
more of Dan�bikt M�skt was becoming visible in the increasing light.
Church bells began ringing, breaking the dead silence that had shrouded
the entire country over the past 36 hours. Minutes later the marchers
were crossing the Plaza of the Ancients and retracing their steps
through the Temple and the forest park that led to the East Danube
River. Following a 3,000-year old tradition, the marchers tossed their
torches onto a huge bonfire before stepping into the river to wash off
their body paint. The bath was cold and totally unpleasant, but the
marchers were obligated to clean themselves as best they could, to wash
off Death and return to the Realm of the Living. Before they could
return to the Plaza, they had to have the paint completely removed from
their bodies and faces.
When all of the marchers had disposed of their torches and cleaned-off
their paint, they assembled in the Plaza for a final hymn before being
released. The Grand Duchess stood in front of a microphone at the top of
the steps to lead the singing and to close the ceremony. Her attractive
figure contrasted with the black-clad Clergy members surrounding her.
Unlike the naked crowd in front of her, the Grand Duchess was not
shivering, because she had been treated to a hot bath in the Temple
instead of a cold plunge in the river outside. It was a tiny privilege
the Clergy had allowed her, but one that put her in a much better mood.
The Grand Prophet handed Anyia an announcement to read: that all
criminals currently serving sentences had to report to the Central
Police Station and talk to their Spokespersons to pick up their winter
capes and boots. People serving Public Penance would have to remain at
the Temple and write down their names and shoe sizes to be issued winter
boots from the Temple. Once she finished the announcement, Anyia quietly
stepped away from the microphone to join her husband and her parents,
all of whom were wearing black prayer robes.
With that the naked crowd began to disperse as the collared criminals
drifted towards the Central Police Station to pick up their winter
clothing. Jason�s friends from his Church group departed, along with
Cynthia Lee and her husband. Jason rounded up the students and led them
into the Temple, because that morning Penance would end for 12 of them,
and also for Victor Dukov.
The students gathered in the area were most people began wearing their
Temple collars. The fire-pit where people had to toss their clothing was
lit and the students were grateful for the heat it put out on that
chilly morning. Jason organized the others into two rows and moved to
the front with Maria Elena and Victor. Once everyone was properly
kneeling, Jason left to summon the Priestess under whom he was training,
the one member of the Temple staff who spoke fluent English and who was
the most comfortable working with foreigners.
The Clergywoman showed up with two Temple attendants carrying prayer
robes and a set of keys to unlock the collars. Jason knelt as she took
his hands and smiled warmly. A twinge of jealousy rose up in Cecilia,
because she knew that the Priestess had been an important part of her
fianc�s life over the past four years. In a way she considered the
Priestess a rival, because she had assumed a central role in her
fianc�s life as his mentor, a role that years before Cecilia had
expected to fill.
Jason explained that 12 of the students, along with Victor Dukov, were
satisfied that they had pleased the Creator and felt ready to resume
their normal lives. The Priestess asked Criminal # 101025 to stand in
front of her friends and thank them for the personal sacrifice they had
made on her behalf. She was genuinely grateful and made sure the others
knew it.
After a hymn and a brief prayer, the Priestess asked the students to
step forward one by one. She unlocked each collar and handed it to one
of the attendants. Once the students were de-collared, the other
attendant laid 12 prayer robes at their feet. The students dressed
together, with Cecilia and Carmen casting sad, envious glances at those
who were resuming their normal lives. Within a couple of hours the
others would go home, get properly cleaned up, and go back out dressed
in their regular clothing.
The Priestess de-collared Merchant Victor Dukov separately. She grabbed
his hands and commented:
�You see that the Creator answered your prayers and safely returned this
young woman to your household. I expect you to spend the rest of your
time in the Realm of the Living appreciating what the Creator did for
you. I also expect you always to treat Criminal # 101025 with respect
and love. Your task is now to teach her what you have learned about life
and to assist in her redemption. Take this robe and return to your
house.�
With that Victor put the robe over his head and knelt. The Priestess
ended the brief service and abruptly left to attend to other worshipers
in the Temple.
----------
As
soon as the ceremony had ended, the norteamericanos asked their
Colombian classmate to accompany them in the Plaza to have some tea, and
from there the group would walk to the Central Police Station to watch
Maria Elena pick up her Ministry of Justice boots and cape. The students
wanted to go with her partly out of curiosity, because the capes were
considered an abomination of fashion and were the source of numerous
jokes. The students were curious to see an infamous winter cape up
close.
Criminal # 101025 took her place in line, waiting for Spokeswoman Lee-Dolkivna
to hand her a garment bag. Her reaction was the same as nearly everyone
else who had ever picked up winter clothing from the Ministry of
Justice. The first thing she pulled out of the bag was a pair of boots,
which were the same shade of orange used for road construction warnings.
Bright orange boots. That definitely was not a good sign. Sure enough,
when Maria Elena opened her garment bag she pulled out the most hideous
piece of clothing she had ever laid eyes on. It was a bright orange top
that looked something half-way between an army poncho and a cape. It had
a hood and a sewn-in wool shirt underneath. There was a yellow stripe
running up the middle of the cape and blue reflective strips sewn around
the edges. There were several drawstrings to tighten the hood and waist.
On the back was a large patch of Velcro.
Kim handed Maria Elena a white Velcro patch with # 101025 embroidered in
thick black thread. She commented:
"You�ll need to wear your criminal number attached at all times� that
is, IF you want to wear the top. The Ministry will let you wear the
boots without the cape during the winter� which is what I always did
when I was serving my sentence. If you keep your feet warm and stay
moving when you're outdoors it's not so bad. Not bad enough to wear
this."
The norteamericanos passed the cape around, impressed by what a
ghastly-looking item it truly was. Maria Elena, like every other
criminal, would avoid wearing it as much as possible, but at least she
did have something to put on during cold snaps.
----------
That night, Cecilia invited Maria Elena, Victor, and Carmen to accompany
her and Jason to the Socrates Club. The night promised to be special,
because Kim and her group would present several new songs. As always,
the club would be the first to hear the newest music from Socrates�
Mistresses; the raw and unrefined versions of songs that later would be
recorded and sold throughout Europe.
Jason cuddled Cecilia as they were sitting at the table. Cecilia had a
nervous look on her face, because her fianc� was gently stroking her
breasts and thighs. Every so often he traced one of her nipples with a
fingertip or reached between her legs. Everyone at the table pretended
not to notice. It was strange to see Jason and Cecilia switch roles. For
the past four years she had teased him, whispering to him what a naughty
boy he was and how much he deserved to be spanked. Now it was his turn
to do the exact same thing. He continued to tease her, warning her not
to become aroused until he gave her permission. If she dared to disobey
him, she would pay for her disobedience with a long spanking. She
resisted as best she could, but both of them knew that Cecilia had
little control over her own body and her impending punishment was
inevitable.
Sure enough, she became aroused. He put his finger between her legs and
showed her the wetness. He placed the wet finger against her lips,
forcing her to lick her own juices. With that he took her upstairs. He
carried her to one of the intimacy rooms and laid her on the bed. As
always, before spanking her, Jason would make love to her, because there
was no point in wasting a good orgasm.
For the next year Cecilia would be obedient to Jason, up until the
moment her collar came off. Then their relationship would go back to
normal and she would return to spanking him every time they made love.
After all, nothing aroused Jason Schmidt more than having his bottom
warned by Cecilia, especially after he had been a naughty boy.
----------
While Jason and Cecilia were gone, Maria Elena noticed one of her fellow
ex-Royal servants coming into the Club alone. He was one of Kim�s
clients, the young missionary from the US who had been sentenced to 10
years for proselytizing a foreign religion. He looked a bit disoriented
because it was obvious that he was visiting the Socrates Club for the
first time.
Maria Elena felt nervous seeing one of her fellow ex-Royal servants in
the Club, but she realized that she needed to get past the trauma she
had suffered under Anyia. After all, she had only been in Anyia�s place
for one week, and there were servants who had suffered under her for two
years. Maria Elena stood up and greeted the American, and in broken
English invited him to sit at her table.
The missionary�s name was Anthony. He introduced himself and talked a
little about his background and his sentence, speaking a mixture of
English and Danubian. It turned out that his home was only a few miles
from where Carmen�s grandparents lived, and that Carmen knew exactly
where his former church was located. From that point forward Anthony and
Carmen chatted with each other about their lives and places they both
had visited.
Carmen talked at length about her experience as an exchange student and
the reason she had decided to wear a Church collar. Anthony talked about
his own experience, first as a convicted criminal and then as a Royal
Servant. Prior to his internment in the Royal Residence, his religious
convictions had encouraged him to stay aloof from his fellow criminals
and therefore he had never visited the Socrates Club. His traumatic
experience under the Grand Duchess, the dramatic way it ended, and
finally his participation in the Day of the Dead march, convinced him
that he needed to accept what he now was; a Danubian collared criminal.
He said sadly:
�I�m not a missionary anymore. That�s something I don�t think I�ll ever
be able to do again� because my faith� it just isn�t there� it�s totally
gone. And, anyhow, everyone points at my collar and calls me by a
number� and I�ve realized� that whatever I was before I got arrested,
right now I�m now I�m just criminal in this country, no better than a
drug user or a burglar.�
Carmen invited Anthony to dance. They continued to exchange details
about their lives as they became more intimate. Then they danced more
closely and touched each other�s bare bodies. They were attracted to
each other; that was something Maria Elena could see clearly as she
watched them on the floor. Interesting� Carmen and Anthony had met only
because Maria Elena had invited him to sit at their table, and she had
invited him simply out of being polite to someone she vaguely knew. And
yet, from that simple invitation the lives of Carmen and Anthony would
be changed forever.
She knew that Carmen would eventually become more serious with Anthony,
and he would be the reason she�d end up staying behind in Dan�bikt M�skt
after her classmates left. Her decision to remain collared would simply
be the result of falling in love with someone serving a long sentence,
someone who could not leave Danubia, and who she would not be able to
leave behind.
----------
Socrates� Mistresses completed the presentation of their new songs. Kim
asked if there were any requests before the group left the stage. A
couple of hands around the room went up, requesting �The wall that
divides my soul.� It was an old song, but the clientele of the Socrates
Club never tired of hearing it.
As she listened to her Spokeswoman and her partner Eloisa perform the
final song of the evening, Maria Elena cuddled in Victor�s arms, knowing
that she was indeed where she belonged. Her old life was gone, ruined
through her own stupidity, but there was no point in worrying about
that. Over time she would learn Danubian and forget Spanish, she would
raise Victor�s kids and run his business. Every day she would give
thanks to the Creator for having given her a second chance, one that she
really did not deserve.
Maria Elena touched her collar. Yes, the collar marked her as property
of the Danubian Ministry of Justice. She knew that she would never again
experience freedom in the way that most people understood being free.
And yet, at that moment she was happier than she had been at any other
time in her troubled existence, because for the first time the world
seemed to make sense to her. Her destiny would be to serve her husband,
her children, her friends, and her new country.
Criminal # 101025 had found her Path in Life, her proper place in the
Realm of the Living.
