Jon Bilbao - Still the Same Man

And turning to face the man, he added, “Don’t worry. I have no intention of hurting him.”

The man gestured at the cane with his chin.

“The cane? That’s what you use?”

Another nod.

Joanes took the cane and examined it. It was thick and hefty, and decorated with geometric carvings that made it look like a ritual weapon, an instrument used in sacrifices. There was a shackle fixed at the upper end and a spike at the other.

“Good,” he muttered, and he proceeded to untie the chain from the man’s waist.

Next, he picked out a kiwi from their small food store. Kiwi and cane in hand, he moved slowly toward the chimpanzee.

“Hello, Gagarin.”

The monkey flashed him a fleeting look, more interested in his preening.

“Do you want this?”

The monkey looked at the fruit but didn’t move.

“Come on. I’m sure you’re still hungry.”

Joanes split the kiwi open, sinking his fingers into it, and showed the monkey the two juicy, dripping halves. The monkey gingerly stretched out his arm and took the fruit. He let the remains of the finger fall to the floor and starting munching.

Joanes gripped the cane with his healthy hand, supporting himself with the remaining fingers on his other hand, and used it to strike the chimpanzee with all his might. It hit the animal on the back of the head. The cane vibrated as if it had smashed against the concrete floor. The chimpanzee dropped the fruit and collapsed, stunned but still conscious.

The professor’s wife muzzled her mouth with her fists. On the floor, the monkey’s master screamed through his gag.

Joanes raised the cane into the air once more, this time striking the animal on the back. The third blow hit him again on the head. The animal stopped moving.

The creak of the door to the other room opening interrupted the stunned silence. Nothing about the professor gave away what he’d been doing in there.

“What’s going on?”

“Settling some unfinished business,” replied Joanes.

He pulled the chain through the shackle at the end of the cane until the tip of the stick was right against the animal’s throat. Then, holding the chain taut, he hooked one of the links onto the spike at the other end. This way, if he kept a tight rein on the cane, the monkey couldn’t get anywhere near him. Next he picked up his ring finger — of which only a few picked bones remained — and put it away alongside his pinky.

“Dump out my backpack,” he ordered the professor.

“Why?”

“Just do what I tell you.”

“I’d like to know—”

“I just want to be done with this, once and for all. I know what I’m doing. Please, do what I say.”

The professor tipped the contents of the backpack onto the floor.

“Now put it over the monkey’s head.”

Without taking his eyes off the chimpanzee’s teeth for a single second, the professor covered its head with the backpack and closed the zipper as far as he could. The result was a kind of crude hood.

“And now find something in among our friend’s things to tie the monkey’s hands.”

The professor used a pair of black pants. He finished just as the chimpanzee began to rouse. Joanes held the cane tightly.

“You see? Your pet is just fine,” he said to the man, who was sobbing with his face against the floor. Bits of trash had gotten stuck in his hair.

“I’m sorry it’s come to this. But I didn’t have any choice,” said Joanes.

Then he added, “Do you want your monkey back?”

The man looked at him with tear-filled eyes. A thread of snot hung from his nose.

“You love him a lot, don’t you? You have no one else.”

The man nodded.

“You love him as if he were your son.”

Another nod.

“And you loved Lolita in the same way, like a daughter. That’s why losing her hit you so hard. I imagine you don’t want to lose Gagarin as well. That would be too much. You’d wind up alone, with nobody to care for.”

Now the man was shaking his head.

“And I’m going to give you back your monkey, and the two of you can get out of here. I know it’s late at night and it’s raining, but I don’t think you mind, right? Just a little drizzle, as you say. Do you want to get out of here with Gagarin?”

The man nodded again.

“Excellent.”

And turning to the professor, he said, “Untie the cuff and gag. I can’t do it with my hand like this.”

And then to the man, “Now, you’re not going to give Gagarin another of those orders, right? Because if you did that, I’d have to hurt you both, a lot,” he said, pointing to the machete. “And neither of us wants that.”

The man shook his head several times.

“If you do that, I’ll split your monkey’s head in two.”

More shakes of the head.

“Excellent. Whenever you’re ready, come in here with me, please.”

With that, and under the steady gaze of the elderly couple, Joanes retreated to the bathroom with the chimpanzee, which hobbled along behind him.

“What’s going on?” asked the professor’s wife.

“I don’t know. I think the kid’s lost it.”

“And is that any surprise?”

The professor didn’t answer. He untied the man as he’d been ordered to do and withdrew a few steps, putting himself in between his wife and the stranger, who got to his feet and looked around, disoriented. He massaged his wrists and felt his head.

“You ought to do what he says,” said the professor.

The man nodded and followed Joanes, his back stooped.

The elderly couple kept their eyes on the entrance to the bathroom. The wind veiled whatever words were being spoken in the dark and almost in whispers inside.

“Did you say anything to the kid?” asked the professor.

“No.”

“What were you two talking about?”

“We weren’t talking about anything.”

“Why did you let him take the machete?”

“What could I do?”

Soon after, Joanes left the bathroom, the chimpanzee still in tow. The elderly couple looked at him expectantly, but he simply walked past them in silence, not even catching their eye. He picked up the flashlight then went into the little room were the professor had gone earlier, and he closed the door.

Joanes switched on the flashlight and put it on the floor. He studied his maimed hand, the empty space where his now severed fingers had been. If he kept it still, he only felt a kind of faint, throbbing pain, as if his arm stretched out many, many feet ahead of him and he were looking at his hands through a telescope. If he tried to move it, it was a whole other story — the pain was lacerating, almost unbearable. The monkey had collapsed on the floor against a wall with his head down.

Not much time had passed when he heard a scream in the other room. The chimpanzee jumped, forcing Joanes to hold the cane firmly.

It was the professor’s wife. The scream only stopped when the last drop of air had left her lungs. Straight afterward, through the sound of the wind, strangled voices and hard thumps could be heard. Then, for a moment, nothing, and the storm suddenly roared doubly loud.

He heard more blows. And then a noise like something falling to the ground. After this, a pause and then another scream, once again coming from the professor’s wife.

Joanes left the cane on the floor; this forced him to relinquish control of the chimpanzee, but he had to take that risk. In any case, in its current state, the monkey didn’t pose much of a threat. He clutched the machete firmly. The door boomed when someone knocked on it from the other side.

“Sir?” said the man, shouting to be heard over the wind.

“All done?” shouted Joanes.

His voice sounded exceptionally loud in the tiny space of the room.