I don't know how this happened, it just did. It's rather raw, but oh well ...
Enjoy
His name was Bernardo. Just Bernardo. He never spoke. He had forgotten how to. He had not always been mute, he remembered that, he just had forgotten how to speak somewhere along the way. That was a truth no one but he knew, a truth he had never shared, not even with Diego.
Bernardo had long since lost the need to talk. He was perfectly capable of letting people know what he wanted them to know. He wondered why some people bothered to talk at all, even though at times he realized the advantage of it.
No one had asked him how he had become mute, seeing as most also believed him to be deaf that wasn't strange. But not even Diego had asked him. Everyone simply thought that it had always been that way. Bernardo was a goodhearted, positive man who hardly ever lost patience with people and always wanted to see them smile. But whenever he thought about it, about how ignorantly these people could believe he had always been like this, he looked thoughtful and not half as happy as on his bad days. Fools, he could think, and that was the only time ever he could possibly think that about his master who only had been kind and just to him.
Bernardo was thinking about those days, so many years ago, as he stared into the ravine. He liked sitting there, he knew it was dangerous, but he didn't really care. Every time his thoughts went that way he came there, he did not even ask permission, he just left. Luckily that did not occur often and mostly he had been able to get away with it.
It looked like this time would be different. He knew he had been gone a bit too long, far too long actually, from sunrise to sunset, but he had not really expected anyone to come looking for him so soon.
But someone had. Diego came riding on one of the hacienda's horses. When he saw Bernardo he encouraged the horse to go faster. A few meters away he sat of and was about to call something to his manservant when he noticed the plainly depressed expression on Bernardo's face. He refrained from saying anything. Instead he simply sat down next to Bernardo who resolutely turned away.
"What's wrong?" Diego asked after a while when Bernardo continued to look away.
Bernardo shrugged and did not face his master.
"Bernardo?" Diego said, trying to sound reproachful but unable to, his voice betrayed his worry. "Say something."
Diego had simply not thought through his words. It happened more often that he made such slip ups, but Bernardo never seemed to react on them, until now. He stood up angrily, walked with long, angry steps towards the horse he had taken and rode of. Diego was left sitting at the ravine, rather dumbstruck. Something was definitely wrong with Bernardo.
He decided to go after and apologize. Perhaps he could find out what was wrong with him. He quickly jumped up and dashed for his horse, but when he told it to follow Bernardo it did not move. Diego tried again, but to no avail. "Why?" Diego called out in frustration.
"Because you can't help him", a female voice said and an old gypsy appeared on the road. She walked forward very slowly, as if walking was hard on her. She was carrying two baskets filled with eatable vegetables she had found in the wild.
Diego dismounted his horse and walked towards her. Unlike most people of the village he did not hold the extreme prejudice they held. The gypsies were as human as they were, they were not at all more prone to thievery than anyone else. The only thing that differed between the people from the pueblo and the gypsies were their level of awareness. He took the basket that looked heaviest. "I'll help you", he said.
"You are kind, señor Zorro, but I already knew that", the old woman said with a smile and walked of the road onto a small path that led through the vegetation.
Diego stopped dead in his tracks. How did she know?
"Not so alarmed señor", the old gypsy said, "I have no intention of turning you in. You have helped many of us, your existence is only to our benefit. To us you are a hero, thanks to you we can keep living here."
"But …"
"Señor, I came to you not to discus your identity as El Zorro, but to tell you about your friend", she said, still smiling warmly. "And of course so you could help me with my baskets", she added with a little giggle that almost seemed inappropriate for her age.
"Bernardo?" Diego asked, "do you know what is wrong with him?"
The old gypsy merely nodded as she pushed aside some bushes and probed for snakes with a stick.
"But how?" he asked.
The old gypsy laughed again. "How do I know that you are Zorro? How do I know that the horse you came on is pregnant? How do I know what is wrong with your friend? I simply know some things."
Diego couldn't help himself, he looked back to see if he too could tell if his horse was pregnant, but they had long since left her behind. She had shown no signs of pregnancy. How could this woman no all that?
"She has only been pregnant for two days, but she is going to have beautiful stallion. However she is going to get ill soon, so you better take care of her when you return or what I have foreseen may not happen."
Diego decided not to say anything and do as she had said, after all, gypsies tended to be right about things like that. Eventually they reached a small cabin, made out of only one room. A bed, a loaded table, a fire and some other household things were present, but not much more than absolutely required. There were books everywhere.
"Just put it where you find place", she said and made a sweeping gesture towards the room as she herself shuffled over to the fire. It was no surprise people from the village thought of them as witches. Diego put the basket on an empty chair and stood then rather lost in the cabin.
"Bernardo", the gypsy started, "is not mute."
"What?!" Diego called out.
"Sorry", she muttered, "he is now. I meant he hasn't always been mute."
"How did that happen?" Diego asked.
The old woman chuckled. "Why haven't you asked him that? He's hurt because you've never asked. He knows everything about you, but you know nothing about him."
Diego did not know what to say. He had never looked at it like that, but he felt like an idiot now that he considered it. He had never asked Bernardo why he was mute, neither did he know anything about Bernardo's family or anything about Bernardo from before they met in Spain. How was that possible?
"Cookie?" she offered and pointed at a tray of cookies that was standing on the table. Diego reached out a hand to take one when she added, "just make sure you don't think one of the exploding ones." Diego quickly withdrew his hand.
"Bernardo …" she said with a thoughtful frown, "Bernardo." She shook her head. "No matter how hard I try I cannot find his last name. Don't you find it odd he does not have one?"
"Ehm …" Diego said, who was feeling more and more ashamed.
"Me too", the old gypsy said, pretending she did not notice his shame. "I don't think he recalls it himself. Truth be told, I don't think he recalls anything from before that particular day, that's probably how he forgot to talk."
"Just tell me", Diego begged.
The gypsy nodded. "I will, señor, give it time. Bernardo was actually from a very wealthy family … allied to the English."
Diego gawked. A wealthy family in Spain allied to the English … that promised little good.
"I don't know how it happened", the woman said, staring into nothing, as if she was trying to see what she was telling, "but they were betrayed. Somehow some bounty hunters found out that they were allying with the English. Bernardo was only a small child at the time, five years old perhaps. He, his parents and a few of the servants were captured. Most of the servants were shot on the spot, but Bernardo and his parents were taken by the bounty hunters."
"Why?" Diego asked, pretty sure he knew the answer to that question. He had not studied in Spain without learning a bit about what had been going on the last years.
"Because they believed they could get information out of them of course", the old woman said and started peeling a potato while still staring into nothingness. Diego was certain she'd cut her finger, but she didn't.
"Of course", Diego echoed.
"They wanted to know who else was allied to the enemy. The bounty hunters of Spain are a nasty bunch, señor, trust me on that. His parents couldn't talk, they did not know anything, even under torture they kept saying they did not know, it was merely the truth."
"The bounty hunters did not believe them", Diego guessed.
The gypsy nodded. "Indeed. When they realized torturing his parents was pointless they applied an ancient method, one more effective than any other. They decided to torture someone they cared for, hoping it would give results."
"Bernardo", Diego whispered horror struck.
The old woman looked at Diego with unseeing eyes, her expression grave. "It did not help. Bernardo's parents didn't know anything but no matter how much they begged them to stop and told them they didn't know anyone the bounty hunters did not cease their torture of young Bernardo. In the end everyone was sure he had died, so they tossed him out to the vultures, or the dogs, I believe they don't have vultures in Spain."
Diego was beyond words.
"Bernardo was lucky. He was found by a watchmaker who felt sorry for him and took care of him. Bernardo did not recall anything, but he couldn't speak anymore. He has no memories from before waking up in the home of the watchmaker. He knows something horrible has happened to him, he knows he has had parents and he knows he has been able to speak and he knows they're all connected. He knows, but he doesn't remember."
The gypsy threw her peeled potato in the stew and started on her next one.
"He's a good person, Bernardo, just like you. He worked for the watchmaker to make it up to him and because he had no where else to go and soon after the watchmaker died from disease he found you. He grabbed his chance and started a new life, trying to make the best of it, going through it with a smile and a positive attitude." Another potato was tossed in the stew. "Stories like that of Bernardo aren't uncommon. A lot of children of so called traitors have met horrible fates, most of them did not have Bernardo's kind heart and positive attitude and were unable to build a new life, if they weren't killed by the bounty hunters to begin with."
"What happened to his parents?" Diego asked.
"Hanged as traitors", the woman said, almost casually.
Diego sat in utter silence. This couldn't be true! Could it? He knew that it wasn't unlikely at all, it happened, Spain was a dangerous nation, just like all European nations. But for Bernardo to become Mute … his suffering must have been far greater than Diego could imagine.
"Are you certain he doesn't remember?" Diego asked, recalling Bernardo's expression.
The gypsy once again nodded. "I am absolutely positive. It bothers him that his mind won't recall it, but he's better of not knowing. At times he just needs to be alone. That he doesn't remember does not mean it doesn't affect him."
"So I shouldn't tell him?" Diego asked, feeling a conflict arise inside of him.
The old woman looked at him with a frown. "You know him best. Do you think he'd want to know? Do you think it would make him happy?"
Diego took time to reply. "I don't know. He already seems happy the vast majority of the time. Evey once in a while he leaves a few hous … but, I'd actually say he's quite satisfied."
The gypsy smiled broadly and had a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Yes. I too would say that Bernardo is rather satisfied with the life he has. You and the watchmaker have given him the opportunity to live a normal life."
"Then I don't think I will tell him", Diego muttered, but smiled. Looking at it that way it made him feel rather good. The horrible feeling in his stomach had not vanished, but at least it had become better.
"Go now, señor. Your horse really needs to get home. I suggest you don't ride her back but rather walk her home. If it turns out to be any trouble anyway you come pay me a visit." The gypsy said it casual enough but Diego knew it was a rare offer.
"Thank you", he said, his gratitude absolutely sincere.
The old woman chuckled. "Not an issue, young man, there should be more people like you."
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