The Justice of a Body Snatcher
– a love story by renan goksin –
Episode Twenty-three: The Deception
In the morning of the 22nd of April, Easter Sunday, Alphonsina died quietly, as if nothing had ever happened. She joined the conspiracy of those who were never born. When Herman was awakened from his nightmare by the shuffle of hurried footsteps and some unfamiliar sounds, he was relieved to have escaped the venomous creature and joyous to find his Sweet Alphonsina lying safe in bed.
Augustus had already been hovering over Alphonsina’s corpse for quite some time. Herman, still dazed by his unsettling encounter with the fish-girl, had difficulty comprehending the mood in the room. He simply froze.
Augustus could not muster the courage to look at Herman and face his unresponsive blue eyes. He continued to busy himself over the corpse, despite being fully aware that there was not much else left for him to do except perhaps prepare the dissection room.
“In our wishful haste to see her alive, we hoped for too much too soon; I too, foolishly, succumbed to wishful thinking,” he confessed finally. Herman didn’t show any emotion; he stared blankly at Augustus as if he had made the most inane statement. “I don’t understand how I could have been so misguided not to remove the foetus immediately,” said Augustus.
Hours passed, and it did not matter how many times Dr. Augustus returned to the room and told Herman as calmly and gently as he could that Alphonsina this time had truly passed away, Herman simply shook his head and refused to believe it. His eyes were secretly searching the sky for a vagrant raven.
Later at night, when Augustus returned once more, he finally said: “Herman, we ought to remove the body.”
Like a ship swaying off its mooring, Herman slowly stood up and rested his hands on Alphonsina’s face. He then, with his fingers, forced open her eyelids, “You deceived me, my Sweet Alphonsina,” he softly exclaimed and spat into her eyes. Then, he buried his head inside her neck and started crying. Dr. Augustus could no longer bear to watch.
When, in the morning, Augustus returned, he found Herman in the same position as he had left him. His entire face was still buried deep inside Alphonsina’s neck, trying to breathe in all of her. Augustus knelt before Herman and placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder in an awkward attempt to console. The three of them, silently together, resembled a Byzantine iconograph frozen in time.
“I don’t understand,” Herman suddenly burst out, pushing Dr. Augustus out of his way, and began sobbing uncontrollably. He was once a proud, defiant body snatcher; now he was nobody. The moment he had believed in justice had been the moment of his downfall. He had fallen victim to the arrogance of love. He looked into the pale, insipid sky and cried out in tears: “I despise us both.”
As days, weeks, and months passed by, his wound deepened only to become incurably infested with shame. No one would ever see him again. Not even Gabriel.
The End
