This story is based upon the movie called No Secrets made in 1991.
I don't own the movie itself but I just decided to write a story to show the aftermath of the three childhood girlfriends; the beauty, the Brain and the Rebel and how their lives went on after they met the fugitive Manny. It also tells of the following days in what happened to him after he was captured by the police.
So this is my take on what happened a year after Manny was taken into custody and Claire's brother Michael took the three girls away from the secluded cottage to the train station when the call came that someone found Jennifer's cat.
It had been over a year since the day that Manny had come to the secluded ranch house where Claire and her two friends, Jennifer and Sam stayed. At first they thought that Michael was in the house before they came, but when Manny came to the house with a fabricated story about being attacked and then lied his way into their sheltered world, a lot of things changed for them.
July 1992
It was on a Saturday afternoon and Claire sat in a chair by the table, inside the basement of her house.
She was alone with her own thoughts to herself.
Ever since returning to her home from her family's ranch, Claire couldn't help but think of the fugitive Manny and how sorry she started to felt when she learnt from him about his drill sergeant being too brutal on him. The brutality that Manny had taken immediately, drove him to beating the sergeant to death with his nun chucks.
Seeing the much trouble he was in, he fled the scene and escaped to freedom for a short time.
She also thought about what he said being an outcast in the world.
It was then that she began to see him differently and then some part of her started to fall for him.
When the day of his court martial came, Claire and her friends were called up to the courthouse for the trial hearing as witnesses to the trials in order to testify for or against Manny.
Although her parents advised against her testimony, Claire decided to go to the trial to offer her testimony for the court to hear to support Manny in his trial. Sam and Jennifer went along with Claire.
She spoke in testimonial for him in which she told the courts her version of the story about what happened at the ranch.
Leaving out the minor details of the first day about his anger, Claire and her friends claimed that although he was guilty of killing the drill sergeant, Manny didn't inflict any such harm upon all three of them since he made his presence known to them at the Ranch. He tried to get help from some of his friends but they wouldn't help him. And all three agreed that what he did at the past time was just self defence against the brutal abuse the drill sergeant put on him alone.
The days of the jury went long over a week and more until eventually another witness came to the stands, a corporeal officer who was in the same platoon as Manny was. He spoke as a material witness to the day in the past when Manny murdered his drill sergeant, providing some detail of how the drill sergeant berated him constantly, and claiming that he was going to report to the commandant of the drill sergeant's hostility against Manny from day one.
With this evidence given to court, the military eventually reached a compromise about the case.
Soon they arranged an appropriate alternative bargain for Manny. the bargain was that he do a few years in military prison and if good behaviour is shown he will be eligible for recruitment into the Army's special unit.
In that unit, he will serve ten years of service under the command of a less brutal commanding officer, in exchange for the charges to be dropped and his life be given back to him at the end.
After that time, Claire saw Manny walk away with his military police escorts from the courtroom.
Half way there he turned his head and saw Claire smile for him, knowing that his case had been turned in his favour at a great cost. Although she probably would not see him again, Claire stood with her two friends Sam and Jennifer who watched him go to the next room, holding the dog tags that Manny had left at the cottage the day he was caught. After returning to the House and packing up for the trip home, Jennifer found the dog tags. Sam picked them up and gave them to Claire, who wore it around her neck in her clothes always to remember him by.
There the three made a toast, making a vow to No secrets between the three of them.
Her memories also dwelled on the day when she went along with Manny to an empty house where she danced with him, the two shared a loving kiss with him before he was apprehended and taken away by the police.
She felt sorry for Manny's capture even now, especially since she figured out that he was a criminal on the run.
Upon returning to her parents house after seeing her friends back to their homes, she received warm hugs from her worried parents who were relieved that she was safe and that the trial was over.
Since then she still thought about Manny and how he was doing after the whole ordeal at her family's ranch. Sometimes Claire thought of how different their life would be if they were together.
And then Claire's mom called her up. "Claire, you got a phone call."
Claire looked up before she asked. "Who is it?"
"Its Sam, I think she's wanted to call up and have a chat with you." said Claire's mom.
Thinking about it for a short moment, Claire answered her mom. "Ok, tell her I'll be up in a few seconds."
And with that Claire stood up from her seat and went to the stairs, coming up she took the phone from her mom, who turned and left whilst Claire placed the phone to her ear and spoke. "Hello?"
"Hey Claire." said Sam, who spoke on the other end of the phone.
"Oh Hi Sam, How are you? I didn't expect you to call me at this time." said Claire.
"Yeah, I wasn't really up to much recently since my parents found out about the whole ordeal at the ranch. I felt its been a while since I seen you at the trial, so I decided to give you a call and check how you were. I've spoken to Jennifer a month ago, she's been a little worried about you." said Sam.
"Worried, what do you mean?" asked Claire.
"Well you've been acting so quiet sometimes when she sees you at home or out at the mall, she said it happened ever since the day at court, when Manny was sentenced to time in prison. She also said that you were sad to see him go and-." Sam explained Jennifer's worries, which made Claire aware of her state of sadness for Manny.
Sam was quiet on the other end for a short moment as if thinking of something to say when she spoke.
"Say by any chance do you think of Manny."
"Umm, No." Claire said, nervously speaking of the subject, which made Sam more suspicious.
"You know what I think? I think you got a thing for him whilst you left with him am I right? Hey Claire, you remember the no secrets pact we made when you got back to the cottage. so please tell me the truth."
"The truth is that when I was at the house, we talked about his options and what he was going to do. when I heard his side of the story, I just started to understand him. And in a way I felt sorry for him, as I spent the time at the house we were in, I guess you could say that my heart just went over to him, He was told all these things about the army when he enlisted. After he joined in and came to the base, he was torn down like a bunch of building blocks by his drill sergeant who was assigned into the platoon." Claire explained.
"So you fell for him." said Sam. Claire was silent for a short moment as she looked around her, seeing her mother was busy in the kitchen she turned away and then said one word.
"Yeah I guess I did, he was more of an outsider as I am and we shared something in common. I still dream of the time when we shacked up at that house where we danced and then we shared my first kiss."
"Hold on, did you say that you kissed him?" asked Sam.
"Yes, he was a good kisser and it felt like my first time which was most memorable."
"Really? Well then that explains a lot. Of course you do realised that he kissed me as well when I was standing by the pier with him. Do you think that he still has thoughts about you?"
"Sometimes."
"Well then why don't you go out to the state prison and pay Manny a little visit? I'm sure he'd be happy to see you again and you can have a little chat with him to catch up on things since that boring day at court."
"Well I don't know, I mean my dad won't approve of me going out to visit Manny, especially from what they heard about my kidnapping and my mom will be worried that he might escape and kidnap me again."
"So just lie to her tomorrow, tell her that you're going out to meet me at the mall and I'll vouch for you, ok? At least think about it and let me know of the details when you do see Manny. Deal?"
"Alright deal, I'll check my schedule and then I'll let you know on a payphone when I go out ok?"
"Ok, I'll talk to you later. bye."
"Bye." Claire then hung up on the phone, and thought about her options for a moment when her mom came in. "Hey honey, was it Sam on the phone."
"Uh, yeah we were just catching up on things and we were just talking about getting together tomorrow at the mall, is that ok?"
Claire's mom turned to look at her daughter before she spoke. "Ok, but just don't get into any trouble with her Alright?"
"Ok mom, I promise not to get into trouble." Claire said, her mom nodded her consent before she went off to the next room, leaving Claire standing alone before she went to her room to pick up something to wear for tomorrow.
The Next Day, Sunday Afternoon. minimum State Prison.
Inside his prison cell, Manny was sitting in his bed reading a book for over an hour. he was deep into when a couple of guards appeared from the side and stopped at the cell door, one of them knocked on the bars before he spoke.
"Hey Mr Cibrian, you have a visitor coming to see you."
"A visitor?" Manny said, turning to look at the guard.
He put his book down before he sat up to stand up and walk to the bars. "Yes, a young lady says she's a friend of yours, now stand there." the guard said, before he opened the doors. The guards entered the cell to secure Manny with the cuffs and chains before they escorted him from his cell to the visitor's room inside the minimum security ward of the prison.
They walked him through the hallway before they went into the next hallway.
Manny entered the visitor's room through the doorway. When he looked up he saw a beautiful young woman in a casual dress with her hair in a ponytail, she was standing in front of the table with one of the guards standing at the door behind her, he didn't recognise her at first before she spoke. "Hello Manny."
He realised the sound of her voice and then said out a name. "Claire?"
Claire nodded to him. Manny was most surprised to see Claire in person, who looked so beautiful since the last time he saw her, then he spoke. "Wow Claire, you're looking pretty good since the last time I saw you."
"Likewise, you seem to be doing alright the last time I seen you at court." said Claire, taking a seat on the chair opposite the table as Manny took a seat as well, settling in before he spoke.
"Still I think You look so nice its a shame that I can't hug you or kiss you or anything due to security. I wasn't sure if anyone was going to come here on visiting hours to see me, let along to make a visit to me but you just made my day."
"I'm afraid the days haven't allowed me to make a visit or two, also my mother and father didn't want me to go out visiting a convict who allegedly took me away from the house to go on the run as a hostage. I did say to them that I went along with him willingly which did help with your case and reduce your list of crimes." said Claire.
"Well I'm quite glad about. so anyways How tell me have you been keeping? Are your friends Sam and Jennifer doing alright? Are you still dissecting any more animals for experimentation?"
"Yeah, a few but not often as I could. I've just spent some days in my basement, thinking about you and how you're getting on. Sam and Jennifer are doing fine, Sam's still being her own rebel and Jennifer is just doing a lot of shopping but she's got her cat."
"Oh the beauty has a cat, that's adorable."
Yes, she lost it on the train before we got to the house where you stayed. Anyways I've been working on getting into college to find some new subjects to look into. such as medical courses or Veterinarian subjects."
"Wow that's ambitious, well prison life isn't going too harsh for me and pretty soon I'll either be serving more time or be admitted back into the army for service to pay my debt to society. Maybe if I play my cards right, they'll go easy on my criminal records. I'm not really looking forward to that but its the price I had to go with so I won't be looked on differently."
"I understand that." said Claire.
"But I've also thought about you." Manny confessed, which surprised Claire a little before she spoke. "You have?"
"Well I haven't gotten over the time we had at that empty house. Of the three girls I've spent the weekend with, you were the only girl who started to intrigue me. And I guess I started to grow feelings for you, I've never felt anything for anyone." said Manny.
"Wow, that's so surprising. I didn't know you had such feelings for me. But I have to admit that I thought about you too, I still keep the dog tags you left behind at the Ranch and I still wear them ever since when no one is looking." said Claire.
"Really?" said Manny.
Claire nodded, her face drawing a grin in doing so.
Manny sighed and looked over his right shoulder to see if the guard is still watching before he turned back.
"I never thought you might care about me, I mean wearing my dog tags is something?"
"Well hearing the story about you murdering the drill sergeant for being too hard on him, I felt really touched by the facts that whoever that drill sergeant was, he must have been a really strict person, At least you did confess to the reason you did what you did. All the crap he put upon you I thought the courts were going to dismiss all that and sentence you to execution." said Claire.
"I guess i'll thank my lucky stars that they didn't even consider it. I was only in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"Hmm, by the way I got you something." Claire said, turning to her bag to take out something from it.
She dug deep until she found a picture of herself and took it out of the bag. She then handed it over to Manny who took it in his hand. "I thought this might help you get through the days in prison so you can think of me always."
Manny looked on Claire's photograph for a couple of minutes before he looked up and said to her.
"Thanks Claire, I'll be sure to treasure it always."
"You're welcome." said Claire, smiling as she looked into Manny's eyes.
After the short moment's pause Claire moved on.
"Ok, well I better get going. my mom will be wondering where I might be at this time, So I'll write to you in secret."
"Yeah, although I'll be writing back to you, under a different name so your parent's won't suspect me. A secret connection, that way you can keep some things about me and you'll always have something to remember me by. Ok?
"Ok, how about you write under the name Howard Blues?" asked Claire.
"Unless you'd like me to look black I think its best that you choose another name." Manny responded in sarcasm, Claire smiled at that remark as she stood up from her seat and turned to walk out but turned back.
"I'll give you a different name in my first letter to you, so you can think about it whilst you're in your cell, deal?"
"Deal, Oh and Claire?"
"Yes." Claire responded.
"You know you have such beautiful eyes. I thought I should mention that to you before you leave." said Manny, leaving Claire flushed with red cheeks before she nodded and said thanks.
She then walked out of the visiting room with a smile on her face whilst Manny was escorted by the guard, he too had a small on his face as he had a photo of the girl he liked so much, stuffed in his pocket. Manny then walked a little taller since that day and he did his time with good behaviour for the rest of his prison years.
Afterwards Claire got home and called her friends, telling them about her visit to see Manny and how he was so sweet to her, which implied to both Sam and Jennifer that Manny had grown a crush since he first saw her.
Aftermath
After almost three years Manny Cibrian was brought into government employment in exchange for a second chance in life, although he worked with the government on special assignments abroad he still wrote to the girl he loved.
And after each letter Claire wrote back to him, telling him about her achievements and how she managed to get a scholarship for her skills in biology.
He wrote to her about his days in a different town in a foreign country, although he never spoke about his missions and his assignments he still told her about the best vacation places in the likes of Spain, France and Germany, Libya and Lebanon. Wherever he goes he tells her that he wishes that she could be here with her.
But as long as he's doing his duty for the government, he knew that it might not happen but still he loved her from that time on.
Well that's the end of the Epilogue which i've made about No secrets, there's not much to write about so be sure to leave a comment about the epilogue and tell me what you think of it. thanks and peace out.