Chapter 30 – Another close call

"What the hell are you doing here?" Don Alejandro said when Ramón and Mendoza walked into the already crowded room.

"Easy, De la Vega," the alcalde warned, pointing his left index finger at him. "What's this? Another petite comité for your pathetic, pitiful revolt?"

"My uncle asked you a question. What are you doing here?" Esteban said, stepping in front of Don Alejandro to antagonize the alcalde one more time.

"You? Again? Haven't you got enough yet? Please don't try my patience one more time, young man, because I have run out of it already!"

"Please, tell us what you want and then you can go, because I don't feel very well for this," Diego said.

"It's really simple. The other day I didn't get to do what I was meant to do."

Oh, no. There we go again, Diego thought in dismay, understanding now the doctor probably knew the alcalde was on his way to check his abdomen. He had got away with a narrow escape the last time thanks to the sickness, but now he would need to think fast if he was going to achieve that feat again.

"Mendoza, tell them why I am here," Ramón said.

"The alcalde needs to see with his own eyes that you haven't got a gunshot wound in your abdomen, Don Diego," Mendoza said like a good pupil saying his lesson at school.

"Don't be so ridiculous again! We went through all this already! My son can't be Zorro," Don Alejandro said.

"I am waiting," the alcalde said, ignoring the old don, looking at Diego. Feeling all the eyes on him, Diego suddenly knew what he had to do.

"No," he said, shaking his head.

"Come on, take off your gown and let me see your abdomen, De la Vega. Don't be stupid."

"No. I'm not doing that," Diego said, stubborn.

"De la Vega, why are you making this so difficult on yourself? I won't leave until I see it. The more your refuse, the more I want to see it, so please, remove your gown," the alcalde insisted.

"No. I can't do that."

"Why?"

"One of the reasons is simple: I can't uncover like that it in front of a lady. And the second reason is… I can't do it."

"Don't worry about me, Don Diego. I can look another way, or if you prefer, I'll wait outside," Victoria said.

"No, please, stay. Don't go," Diego said, calling her to his side.

"De la Vega, do we have to go through the whole pointing a sword at your throat again? Because I can do that with my left hand, no problem," Ramón said, losing his patience.

Diego kept looking at the doctor, looking very upset, and then he refused again, shaking his head like a madman.

"I can't!"

Why is he stalling like this? Does he want me to do something? But what can I do? What can I do? the doctor thought, also looking agitated. Fortunately, the alcalde caught the look exchange between them.

"Why are you looking at the doctor?" Ramón said, getting a pistol from his belt instead of his sword, holding it in his left hand. He cocked the gun then and aimed at Diego's head with it. "Is it because he treated your gunshot wound? Is that why… Zorro?"

"Hold on! This is getting totally out of hand! Get that gun away from my son!" Don Alejandro cried, fearing the alcalde would press the trigger accidentally. "This is totally inacceptable, Alcalde, harassing my son like this. Please, Diego, show him your abdomen and I will kick his sorry arse out of this house! Please, do it!"

"I can't!" Diego cried, fretting like a cornered wild animal about to be killed, making everybody puzzled by his odd behaviour.

"Show me your abdomen NOW!"

With shaky hands, Diego gave in and pushed the bed covers away from him to lift the gown, even if that meant displaying his underwear, because he didn't want to display his muscular torso if he took the whole gown off, leaving his groin and his legs covered by the blankets. Victoria forgot she was supposed to look away for decorum, puzzled and anxious as she was by the whole situation and the chance she could finally find out Zorro's identity.

"Why do you have a dressing in there?" Don Alejandro said when Diego uncovered his abdomen. "You… You are not… You are not really…? Are you? Oh my God!"

"I'm not Zorro, Father, but I don't want to remove the dressing!" Diego said, still shaking his head, with his face only a few inches from the alcalde's gun. Everybody in the room was on edge, and they could not take their eyes from Diego's middle section.

"Mendoza! Take it off!" Ramón said, still aiming at Diego's face.

"I'm sorry, Don Diego, but I have to do this," the sergeant said, pulling from the bandage. When he uncovered the wound, everybody gasped.

"Diego, for goodness sake, what the hell is that? How did you get that?" Don Alejandro said. Diego looked down, and he was glad to see the wound looked even worse than the night before, if that was at all possible.

"I'm sorry, Doctor. I didn't want them to see this! I really didn't, because you are an excellent physician and I know this should not have happened. Alcalde, I didn't want to blame him, and that's why I didn't want to remove my gown, but now, you all know. I hope this doesn't affect your reputation, Doctor," Diego said, apologetic, while feeling more and more dizzy one more time. Please, follow my cue, invent an excuse for this! Diego wished closing his eyes for a moment to control the nausea he felt all of a sudden.

"What happened there? That doesn't look like a gunshot wound. That's a right mess!" the alcalde said.

The doctor stood there with his mouth open, totally at a lost. Surely Diego didn't mean he should mention the clove oil in a gunshot wound, did he? No, sure not. Then, suddenly he got it: he had to take the blame for negligence.

"I'm so sorry, Don Alejandro. Diego is right, that should not have happened. I'll never forget myself for this!" he said, talking too fast, like anxious for forgiveness.

"What did you do?" Don Alejandro asked, with his legendary bad temper rising quickly. "What did you do to my son?!"

"It was an accident, I swear! I had a bottle of… ah… hydrochloric acid… that I had the intention to use it to prepare a poultice to apply over his stomach to help with the cramps, but only in a small quantity, of course. I only needed one tiny drop for the mix, but unfortunately, I made a mistake. While preparing his skin, I took that bottle instead of the Witch Hazel oil and poured the contents directly onto Diego's abdomen. I am so embarrassed about this, but your son didn't want to tell you what happened to protect my reputation. He has been suffering in silence with that nasty burn since yesterday. Maybe I am getting too old to be a physician and I should retire before I kill someone!"

Diego was really impressed with the doctor's improvisation, but after all, he was a very clever man.

"No, that's not true. You are an excellent doctor, and we need you in our pueblo!" Victoria said, also very impressed with the idea wimpy Diego had not complained about that wound at all to keep it secret. "That was clearly an accident that could happen to anybody. Nothing to be ashamed of!"

The alcalde lowered his gun and inspected the wound closely then. He couldn't see an entry point in it, nothing like a gunshot wound. Suddenly, before he could think about the probable exit wound at the back, Diego vomited on him again.

"De la Vega! You did this on purpose!" Ramón cried, stepping back away from him, with his clothes stained again with Diego's sickness, and some smelly, green liquid dripping off his head.

Victoria moved fast then, grabbing the clean bowl that was by the bed on the other side, handing it to Diego.

"Here. Use this."

"How can I do this on purpose, Alcalde?" Diego complained, indignant. "Can you be sick whenever you want?" Diego retched again and threw up one more time in the bowl Victoria had offered him.

"Gosh, you are really sick, Diego!" she said, holding his forehead while he continued to retch non-stop, leaning over the bowl he was holding tightly, close to his chest. She also rubbed his back tenderly while he struggled, like a loving mother would do with her child. Diego took one hand to his side then, glad that at least this time he had the excuse to hold on to his damaged abdominal muscles for relief while it felt as if they could tear apart.

"Doctor, can you do something to stop his sickness, please? Can't you see he is suffering even more now than before thanks to that nasty burn?" Don Alejandro said.

"Yes. But I already gave him some of that herbal remedy that worked so well on Don Esteban, and he has just brought it all back up. I should get some more."

As the doctor left the room, the alcalde kept complaining, cleaning the sickness all over his clothes, head, and gun with the curtains.

"I'll make you pay for this one day, De la Vega!"

"What are you going to do?" Victoria said sharply. "Flog him as well because he vomited on you? Don't be so pathetic!"

"Señorita, hold your tongue because you have been that close to lose your life, the same as him," he said holding his extended thumb and index finger with a narrow space in between, also nodding to Esteban, "and I can still change my mind!"

"You are not going to do that. Zorro will see that you behave," Victoria said, looking at the alcalde defiantly, with her head held high, proud of her man. "And you will behave, Alcalde, because you are only half the man he is, and you hit innocent people with your whip only because you cannot hit him instead!"

Between bouts of retching Diego looked at her, wishing she would shut her mouth before the alcalde would turn on her like a viper. It was nice to see her so spirited, but that was a lousy time for it.

"Vámonos, mi alcalde," Mendoza intervened. "You checked Don Diego's abdomen, and now we know why he didn't want to comply, and it has nothing to do with a gunshot wound, so we can go, shall we?"

"Right. I'll find your boyfriend someday and I'll make sure you hang at his side, Señorita."

"Proudly!" she snapped back.

"I'll be watching you," the alcalde said, pointing at his eyes and then at Victoria's. "Come on, Mendoza! Let's go!"

ZZZ

"We made it!" Diego said with a half–smile, exhausted, while the doctor and Felipe cleaned all the mess. "What a team! You were superb with your explanation, Doctor."

"Thank you. For a moment I didn't have a clue what you were doing, not at all. Then I saw it, that I had to take the blame for this. And you know, I don't even have a bottle of hydrochloric acid and I don't have a clue what that would do to your skin, but they bought it!" he said, sniggering like a naughty kid.

"I do. And I think you're right: that would leave a nasty burn, but I didn't know the clove oil could do the same. What I also don't know is: what would you need a drop of that in a poultice for?"

"I don't know, and neither does the alcalde!" Doctor Hernández said, laughing heartedly then. "I made that up too."

"I thought this burn was a very bad thing to happen, because it's so sore and it's going to take a long time to heal. Yesterday I was asking God when I could have a break. Now I can see this nasty burn is a blessing because I won't need to hide the pain on my side any more, and they will feel sympathetic with me for trying to protect you." Especially Victoria, I hope.

"God works in mysterious ways, Diego. And the night is always at its darkest before dawn."

"Well, I am definitely looking forward for brighter times ahead," he said, closing his eyes. He had taken the anti-sickness remedy already, the real one this time, and he was feeling the soothing effects in his stomach. "By the way, could you prepare more of that coca leaves mix? The clove oil was a complete disaster, but the energetic concoction worked really well. That will help me to recover faster, I think."

"Yes, of course. I'll prepare some more for you later if that's going to help you."

ZZZ

"What are they laughing about now?" Don Alejandro said.

"I have no idea," Victoria said. They were waiting outside the room while the doctor treated Diego, anxious to go back in again. "I am very impressed with your son, Don Alejandro. He really wanted to spare the doctor the shame, even if that put a gun to his head. He was very brave."

"Yes, and that is unusual for him. For a moment, I had the fleeting thought that he could actually be Zorro. How embarrassing!"

"I had to confess that for a brief moment, so did I."

"But you are right: he was very brave and unselfish by trying to help the doctor. And that burn looks really sore, and he is still so sick, although he looked better yesterday afternoon. What a dramatic relapse! I hope he gets better soon."

Esteban was looking at Victoria, who was ignoring him completely, hoping at some point they would cross gazes. When they did, he tried to talk to her.

"Victoria."

"Cerdo," she saluted, averting her eyes quickly.

The term she had used to refer to Esteban and her tone made Don Alejandro look at her for a moment, puzzled. Despite the fact he had got in the way to stop the alcalde and she should be grateful because thanks to him she didn't get more lashes, she looked really angry with him all of a sudden. Then he remembered she was there when Esteban refused to marry Lucía even if he was facing the possible final moments of his life. Any gentleman would have agreed to get married under the circumstances, but Esteban didn't.

"Victoria, can I talk to you for a moment?" Esteban said.

"What for?"

"To apologize for my behaviour and to explain to you how mistaken you are."

"I am not mistaken. You are a cerdo, and there is nothing we should talk about. Stay away from me. Don't you ever talk to me again."

"It will only take five minutes of your precious time," he insisted.

"I wouldn't give you five seconds!"

"You heard Victoria. You stay away from her, and also from me, because if you insist, I will hit you again, and this time with a club!" Don Alejandro barked. He stood up then and offered his arm to Victoria. "Do you want to come out to the garden with me while we wait for the doctor to finish?"

"Yes, please. The air is a bit thickened in here," she said standing up, taking the old don's arm to go outside.

Esteban watched them go and then sat on the chair Victoria was occupying. With his head between his hands, he wondered what could he do to make her understand the plight he was in: he couldn't marry Lucía to save the honour of the family not only because he had nothing to do with her problems, but because he was in love with Victoria, and as he had said while they were in jail, he didn't want to lose hope until she married someone else, whoever that could be. So, marrying Lucía now was out of the question, but doing so, Victoria would never look at him with respect. What a predicament!

ZZZ

"Victoria, are you enjoying my roses?" Don Alejandro asked when she stopped by the bush to look at them.

"Yes, of course, they are so beautiful. I hope you don't mind Zorro has been stealing them for me."

"I don't mind because the flowers are for you, but I would mind if he was taking them for someone else. What really bothers me is that he never asked permission to do it."

"I guess that's not his style. He is a go-get kind of guy, isn't he?"

"Yes. And a bit too insolent sometimes. Victoria, I want to ask you something. I love you as the daughter I never had, you know that, don't you? I'm very worried about you, and I have been for a long time now. Are you happy with Zorro?"

"Yes, of course. I love him."

"That's not what I asked. I know you love him, but can he make you happy? Are you happy, Victoria?"

She took a while to answer, and she finally did with a not very convincing: "Yes".

"How can you be happy when you are all the time so worried about his safety, and having to deal with the alcalde's rage? It's not fair. You are an easy target for Ramón every time he gets angry with Zorro. It's not fair, is it?"

"No, it's not. But there is nothing I can do about it. That's why Zorro is so reluctant to tell me who he is, to keep me safe. And why we haven't got married yet."

"I can't see that marriage ever working for you, my child. The alcalde told you that today: if he ever catches Zorro, you will hang with him."

"That's one of his worries as well, yes."

"And do you think it's worth it?"

Again, she took a while to answer that question. "Yes, it is."

"One hundred per cent?"

"What are you trying to get at, Don Alejandro?"

"To put it bluntly, I think you are wasting your life, Victoria, and you should marry someone else. I know you love him, and he also loves you, because he told me that, but if he loves you so much, he should give up on you. Before it's too late and you both get killed. That's my honest opinion, and I'm telling you this because I appreciate you so much."

"Thank you very much for your advice, Don Alejandro, but at a risk to sound ungrateful, this is none of your business. Or anyone else's. Only ours. We talked about this, and we are trying to get a solution for the problem. Although, the only solution I can see, would be if the alcalde disappears, one way or another, and Zorro can hang his sword when we get a fair leader in Los Angeles. If you really want to help us, organize that revolt and get rid of Ramón. That could be the only way."

"I am working on it, my child. I am working on it," Don Alejandro said, taping her hand lovingly. "There, have one," he said then, cutting the best rose in that bush for her. "Zorro cannot be the only one having the pleasure to impress you with them."

"Thank you, Don Alejandro. That's so beautiful," she said, smelling the flower.

"Should we go back? The doctor should have finished by now, I think."

Victoria let the old man guide her back in, wondering when it would be the next time she could see Zorro, hopefully bringing another rose for her collection.

ZZZZZ