The Tempest - The End ( Epilogue )

Epilogue

The scenery at New England was a splendor during the Autumn. It was 1938, twelve years to the day when Ariel drove them to their new homes up here. It was a country home invested by Miranda' father, Paul Miller. He had left it there unoccupied for over twelve years; he had bought it for Bernice but she said only if he retired. It was a two level house with a long porch and a rose garden, with a small orchard on the right side, while the left side housed the garage where they parked the Ford 1937 Model.

But Paul never retired from his work till that night twelve years ago.

Miranda stood there at the window looking out. She had grown much since she left Evergreen. She had lost her young youthful to an adult lady dressed in a floral dress and her hair was all done up in the latest tresses but they were still long. She heard him come in but she did not acknowledged him. He rolled the wheelchair to her but still she ignored him. He looked out to the rain that was going to pour on the outside. He heard the thunder and saw the lightning.

"Miranda, do you want to step back?" Freddy asked her. They moved here as this place hardly had any storms but the radio said this one may be a bad one. He heard that the storm may be a Category Three hurricane; the storm did killed over 682 people, damaged or destroyed 57,000 homes, and property losses estimated at over three hundred million.

"No, I will stand here. Its not the first one I had endured." Miranda replied. She was concerned on her father on the hill in the rundown structure that was once a sanatorium. She had asked to see him but Freddy told her off.

"We are not going back. Not ever." Freddy told her. "My father was there. And he may be dead for I care."

That ended their discussion. Freddy never put the past incident behind him. He was dragged out with two bullet wounds, but he survived to live the rest of his life on the wheelchair. He also lost a lot of other things; his legs were the least worrisome, he had issues with incontinence. His wife; married after he recovered from his wounds, they performed the ceremony in a private place with only two attendee, Ariel and Gonzales. The later had recovered too, but he rebuild his practice with many business booming up with Europe on the threshold of a war. The rich were moving to the States, and a good attorney with knowledge of handling large funds was welcomed.

"Miranda, please allowed me to ask Ariel to close the drapes." Freddy asked her.

"No, I want to hear the thunder." Miranda told him. Freddy knew his wife of twelve years had forgotten about the fear of thunder but not Freddy. He feared it then, with his nightmares going back to his stay at the Evergreen but he died on those nightmares.

"Miranda, its been over twelve years." Freddy pushed him away from the window. "Can you forget it?"

Miranda had been reminding him of visiting the old men but he declined while citing their agreement with Gonzales. He made them take the oath not to visit the place anymore. She had asked Ariel who was their servant cum driver, to drive her there, but he also declined. He was sworn to uphold that oath.

"Freddy, I lived with the man for over ten years. We did nothing but talk and eat, and play chess." Miranda replied. "You grew on him and then in one evening, we were all shuttled away for miles. What is it that you are so afraid of?"

"We sign an oath..." Freddy defended himself.

"An oath kept you away? Please, Freddy. You are not part of a mob family with the oath taking. You never were one to begin with. You only rejoined your father two years prior to our departure." Miranda told him off. "You are one selfish bastard."

"Me, selfish? Who had been my wife and would not let me approached her on the bed. We still sleep on separate beds. I doubt whether you are frigid or I am just to die a virgin." Freddy left it all out to his wife of twelve years.

"You are unable to do anything, Freddy Nates. You could not do either right, back and front." Miranda knew from the doctors but she kept her sanity to herself standing by him.

"Who did it? Your damned father." Freddy snapped back. "He shot me twice."

"No,! Blamed not on my father. Blame it on yourself." Miranda shouted back. "You have no passion for me. Nor of these."

Miranda had pulled aside her dress to reveal her breast.

"Have you seen this? The same ones that you kissed when in the shed." Miranda tears rolled down her cheeks. "You would not see them. Not even now...."

"How could I fulfilled my obligations, when I am unable?" Freddy retort.

"Its only in your mind, the phallus of Man. Do you know that the love involved more than it? Are you so fixated on it?" Miranda replied. "Freddy Nates, do not put the issue on there? You were never into me. You would never be. Your mind was it. You adored it, which was why you stared at it. I could had forgiven you if had diverted your attention. Its not that we needed in our love. Its the feel of our love. I had rejected you from my bed, because you are not keen to pursue the love of myself."

"I wished he had shot you then." Miranda paused. "Dead so we would not have this talk now."

"I...." Freddy paused in his words. He was always lost in his mind; who am I? A man or part of a man? He does not loathe women, he just find himself not desiring them. They are his friends, but he sometimes drew on his own inner self to say he could love them when its the man he desired most. The thing they have; he worshiped it. Father had said he was wrong; he was demented but inside him, he felt right. He denied it all, but he found it in London. He was his own person there; no guardians, no snoops, no restraint. He was the enjoying his new freedom.

It was till Christopher told him more.

"You could be be your own man, but do you have to wait that long? I can help you." Christopher planned with him. It was a ruse that he build about him dating the daughter. He never did, and all he ever do was walked the line between himself and his sanity. He looked once more at Miranda. He had not failed her. He had failed himself.

Freddy pushed his way out of the room. He went past the incoming Ariel who brought the tray of tea for his mistress.

"Miranda," Ariel himself had remained about the same but he had straighten his back. He placed the tray on the side table. He then walked to the window to pull the drapes but Miranda stopped him.

"Any news for me?" Miranda asked.

Ariel looked to the doorway and spoke up. "He had arrived."

Miranda walked to the main door and picked up her coat. She may be blind in sight, but she knew her way in the house and the grounds outside. She went out and walked towards the garage, and pass it to the hill behind. She walked on despite the feel of the coming rain. Ariel had rushed after her with an umbrella but she ignored him. He then stood at the foot of the hill while she went up. It was a made path for her, with the markers on the ground so that she would not be lost, but every step she took was another agonizing one for her. Her heart beats like the flutter of the butterfly wings while her body was worked up to see the person who awaits her. She soon reached the top of the hill, and then on it was a downhill move towards the small hut hidden among the trees.

Miranda walked in through the door just as the rain had started on the hill. She stood there at the doorway and looked into the dim lighted hut. He stood there by the fireplace as he placed the woods there.

"It would be cold with the rain falling outside." The figure continued on with the stoking of the fireplace. "You never did like the cold rain."

Miranda ran forward to clasped the hunchback frame of her lover who come over once every few weeks to see her. Since their freedom from the control of her father, Kabib had been his own person. He treats the two old men as his duty permits; with their food and drinks, and their basic needs, but most times, he was left alone while the two played chess.

It was five years ago, when Christopher die of a heart illness that Kabib was allowed to go out to see Gonzales. He had brought the message to tell the Attorney that the man requested for a nurse to take care of his needs. He was getting more sick and so that two new nurses were employed. They attended to him on rotation, while Kabib supervised their works. One of his routine was to drive the nurses for the weekend, but he also divert to see her. Their time spent together would be short but it was worth the drive.

Kabib pulled her hands from his chest and turned around. He may be a hunchback on his frame, but he was leveled to her face. He kissed her on the lips and trailed his lips towards her eyes. While he was kissing her, she held back to her body and whispered into his ears.

"Kabib, I love you." Miranda told him. She had loved him then when he was with her, but they were too young to love then. They made a mistake of trying but it caused him pain. Much pain. She remembered it all. It was not what her father thought it was.

It was not the whole truth. 

The whole truth lies in her.

That one day, Miranda made a mistake. She did taunt him. They been friends for some years then, he was her sight and led her many a times into the hidden corridors. He told her tales of the old days when the place was filled with people.

"They were funny people then." Kabib had told her. "They needed the doctors and nurses to stopped them or they would go all funny."

Both of them laughed. All she could remembered being funny was when the clown come onto the stage. She always laughed at them. They would pulled at each clothes and ran when chased.

"That was the same here. They pulled at each other clothes and ran in the rooms. They would jumped on each other and play." Kabib told her. He was then a growing man, and though he laughed, he felt the presence of her next to him. She was a girl and he was a boy. He remembered then the occasions when he saw the boy played with the girl. He then looked at Miranda.

"Do you want to play some more?" Kabib asked her. She nodded to his request in her mind.

He got up and told her to follow him. He took her on the runs in the dark corridors, unknown to her while they moved past the maze. Soon he left her there in the room and left. He was at his hidden hole in the wall.

"Miranda, you are alone there. You can't see me." He was play acting his scene

"Take off you dress. Pretend to change." Kabib told her.

"No, I would not." Miranda told him. "Father said I must never changed in front of a boy. You are a boy."

"A bad boy." Miranda continued on.

"No, I am just playing." Kabib replied. He then stepped back and told her that was how the funny people played their games.

"Then I do not want to play." Miranda replied and proceeded to walk out but she was in an unfamiliar room. She knocked and tripped on the furnitures. She then cried out.

"You bad boy! You hurt me." Miranda screamed out. "You bastard."

The one word, that Kabib would not take for lightly. He rushed at her and pushed her to the flooring.

"Do not call me a bastard. I am not a bastard. I have a father and mother." Kabib shouted back. He had left the hidden corridor door opened. It carried the words through the house within its walls. But Kabib cared not. He shook at her and slapped her.

"I would make you a bastard child. One I would not recognised as my own." Kabib tore at her dress but it was then her father came in.

The rest was told before. It was the real truth that she soon find herself longing for him. Even after leaving the place, she could not find herself to consummate her marriage with Freddy. His medical condition helped her to defer it, until he had given up.

That day during the new storm, Miranda had to tell Kabib another truth.

"Kabib, I think I am pregnant." Miranda whispered to him while he lain in her arms on the small cot they made in the hut. She listened to the falling rain and the howling wind. "It could had been your last visit."

Kabib did not reply. She continued on.

"You must not tell Father."

"He would not know. He is dead." Kabib replied. Miranda sat up and looked at him.

"When did this happened?"

"Two weeks ago. I had just dismissed the nurses." Kabib replied. "He died of old age."

"Then we are free of him." Miranda looked to him.

"Yes, he also asked me for your forgiveness. He felt bad to marry you to Freddy, but he needed you to know that he was fulfilling his wife's wishes. Your mother wanted you to marry Freddy since young. She had dreams of the two families together. But she died before she could see it. That was why he was reluctant to kill Freddy and also Alan. He only wanted to teach the later a lesson in killing his wife, but not to rake vengeance with his life."

"And I agreed to marry Freddy to stop the fighting." Miranda replied. "It was a blessing then. One who was blind and the other binded to servitude. More to it, it was freedom. To be away from there."

"What of mine, did anyone asked too." The voice came from the doorway; standing there soaked to the skin was Ariel. Miranda heard his voice and covered her bare skin with her dress while Kabib sat up to hold his love.

"I came bearing bad news too. Freddy Nates had died. He fell into a pond of muddy water." There was a pond by the small hill. "He had pushed himself to see you. He fell down and rolled into it. Given his condition, he was unable to get clear. He had struggled but the mud around it pulled him in. He drowned in it." Ariel told them. "I was late to saved him."

"Why did he come?" Miranda muttered to herself.

"He wanted to know if you are ...with your lover, I guess. The one he may not replaced." Ariel told her. "He did confide in me. He wanted to be who you wanted him to be but he could not. He found no words or feeling to compensate for it. He remembered you since young, you were always his friend. Never his lover. He loved you like his sister."

Miranda cried on her lover' shoulder but Ariel placed in the good words to comfort her.

"It was better this way for he had died in his body a long time ago. So was his physical love, if there were any for you. In death, there are no need to forgive as they are forgotten in our journey." Ariel told her. "Something your father once taught me when I was serving him. He never forgive the ones he killed. He said they are dead and deserved no more thoughts from him. Its the living ones he try to forgive."

"Now with that done, and you reunited with one who loved you, I am free to leave." Ariel spoke up and turned to leave.

Miranda to looked to her lover.

"What have we to stop us now? I am free and so are you." Miranda leaned over to kissed his lips. "Your past lies behind but your future lies in me. Do we lived the present and forget the past, and wished for the future?"

Kabib smiled and kissed her back.

"Forget the past. Its the future we lived for."