We had not spoken for years. As happened with most of my childhood friends, we had grown apart as we pursued different ways into our adult life. Whenever I thought of him during those long years I always pictured him either married with children or even divorced.
Mixing English and Spanish in a failed attempt to include Helmut in our conversation, he told us over diner (In his honour -and much to Helmuts joy- I had cooked my famous Maccaroni-a-la-Jose) about his adventures and misadventures since he had broken ties with his family two years ago.
Mixing English and Spanish in a failed attempt to include Helmut in our conversation, he told us over diner (In his honour -and much to Helmuts joy- I had cooked my famous Maccaroni-a-la-Jose) about his adventures and misadventures since he had broken ties with his family two years ago.
It all had started a couple of years earlier as Hector´s mother, still recovering from surgery after an unspecified life threatening condition that had kept her comatose in a hospital bed for weeks, eventually found out about the blood transfusion that had been necessary to save her life without her consent.
That was a hard pill to swallow for her. It was a massive disappointment. She was disappointed with her very own personal God, to whom she had been thanking tirelessly for what she believed to be a reward to a pious life full of sacrificies. But most of all she was disappointed with Hector, her only son and recipient of so many expectations.
The whole family - aware of the deception- remained silent everytime she praised the Lord and cheerfully reminded them of her unbreakable Faith. Her eyes glowed with that kind of spark typical of the fanatic. In her view, God had spared her life for a good reason and this conviction was enough to make her visit even more often the local Kingdom, the temple where ase Jehovah Witnesses they had attended services for more than 30 years. Her dedication resulted soon in a more intense observation of the laws and bizarre prohibitions as detailed in the Old Testament, especially the ones in Leviticus.
Her fanatic zeal made it really hard for anyone to stay around her for a long period of time not to say sharing the house, as was Hector´s case. Not long after her complete recovery he started making up excuses in order to avoid spending time with her at home, his visits to her sister´s became almost daily and more often than not he would even stay overnight.
Or at least that was what he had made her believe.
Had it not been for a clerical mistake at the hospital´s administration she would have never found out about the blood transfusion. The family thought they had everything covered. They had asked the doctors and the staff that treated her during her stay in hospital never to mention the forbidden transfusion. Hector even counted with the collaboration of Sr. Marcelo, the aging and friendly postman who had been delivering their post every morning for more than 10 years and who they had asked to always deliver the mail personally either to Hector or to his sisters. One could never be too sure.
In a bizarre chain of coincidences, on the same week that Marisela, the new admin trainee at La Salud posted by mistake her hospital bills with an attached summary of all the procedures that she had undergone during her long stay in hospital, was the first week in more than a quarter of a century that Sr. Marcelo had been unable to work. His replacement, unaware of the special arrangement with the Ojedas, duly delivered the post to the only person that happened to be at home on that morning. Mrs. Ojeda sat at the kitchen table and while she was sipping her coffee proceeded to open her mail. As she read the itemised bill her eyes stopped with a halt on the line where it detailed her blood transfusion. She just could not believe her eyes and had to read it several times to make sure there was no misunderstanding.
The whole family - aware of the deception- remained silent everytime she praised the Lord and cheerfully reminded them of her unbreakable Faith. Her eyes glowed with that kind of spark typical of the fanatic. In her view, God had spared her life for a good reason and this conviction was enough to make her visit even more often the local Kingdom, the temple where ase Jehovah Witnesses they had attended services for more than 30 years. Her dedication resulted soon in a more intense observation of the laws and bizarre prohibitions as detailed in the Old Testament, especially the ones in Leviticus.
Her fanatic zeal made it really hard for anyone to stay around her for a long period of time not to say sharing the house, as was Hector´s case. Not long after her complete recovery he started making up excuses in order to avoid spending time with her at home, his visits to her sister´s became almost daily and more often than not he would even stay overnight.
Or at least that was what he had made her believe.
Had it not been for a clerical mistake at the hospital´s administration she would have never found out about the blood transfusion. The family thought they had everything covered. They had asked the doctors and the staff that treated her during her stay in hospital never to mention the forbidden transfusion. Hector even counted with the collaboration of Sr. Marcelo, the aging and friendly postman who had been delivering their post every morning for more than 10 years and who they had asked to always deliver the mail personally either to Hector or to his sisters. One could never be too sure.
In a bizarre chain of coincidences, on the same week that Marisela, the new admin trainee at La Salud posted by mistake her hospital bills with an attached summary of all the procedures that she had undergone during her long stay in hospital, was the first week in more than a quarter of a century that Sr. Marcelo had been unable to work. His replacement, unaware of the special arrangement with the Ojedas, duly delivered the post to the only person that happened to be at home on that morning. Mrs. Ojeda sat at the kitchen table and while she was sipping her coffee proceeded to open her mail. As she read the itemised bill her eyes stopped with a halt on the line where it detailed her blood transfusion. She just could not believe her eyes and had to read it several times to make sure there was no misunderstanding.
