Favor Repaid, A score to settle

Sinking down to the floor of the river, bubbles formed and soared from Mateo's mouth as he exhaled heavily albeit at the verge of unconsciousness. He could not swim. The river extended into hundreds of meters deep. Hope to see the light of day again was nowhere near his side. Death and burial at the at the base of the river was all that was coming his way. As luck would have it, Crystal fast approached in a nose- dive and grabbed Mateo around his waist. She thus swam back up and waded to the shore. Mateo lived to die another day!

His eyes blinked and his hand twitched. It was the first he made a movement after Crystal had extended an olive leaf to him. Mateo opened his eyes and behold, he laid on a beautiful white- beddings decked bed. The room extended wide and long with white walls. The white drapes ebbed in and out along the wide windows. The room was beautiful. At the same time, it was alien to Mateo. It was nothing he had known before. Opposite the bed was an opulent white chair and thereon sat Crystal. She looked exhausted, dirty and traumatized, and was still clad in the uniform she wore for work. Sobs escaped her mouth as tears welled and streamed from her eyes. Her trembling hands held a mobile phone.

Mateo's dry lips parted and he spoke, "You called them, didn't you?"

Crystal nodded with a straight face.

Breathing heavily and in shear desperation, "Why didn't you just let me drown?"

"Die?" Crystal wondered. "You will die. But I thought you should pay for your sins. You're one of them. You killed my friends. All of them. I will make sure you and your cronies are prosecuted and rot in jail."

Mateo used every ounce of strength in his body and pulled himself to a sitting position. It was a painful but necessary thing for him to do. He looked at Crystal and pleaded, "Please. I… I saved you." But Crystal was not having it, "I saved you too."

Mateo painfully crawled out of bed and fell on the floor. He struggled to his feet and slouched to the door. Crystal shook her head and reminded him, "You'll not make it out of this house. Just save your energy. You will need every jot of it." Mateo opened the door and meandered away at a snail's pace. Outside the beautiful white mansion, he sought to take cover and hide from suspecting eyes. Evidently he was confused and in dire need for medical attention. As he crossed the road, a van speeding along knocked him to the ground. The driver drove on for a few metres before throwing the vehicle in reverse gear. At the spot of the accident, besides the unconscious Mateo, RUTI RASO, a young mechanic in her late twenties, stepped out of the van to check on him. Without saying a word or calling for help, Ruti just about managed to pull Mateo into the Van and drove off hurriedly. His life hung in a shear balance.

A few minutes after Ruti drove away with Mateo, the Police swam to Crystal's home. Yuan, the detective was first to the mansion and to interrogate Crystal. He stood by the window, weighing everything Crystal had to say. "Let me get this straight… You save one of the robbers, bring him home and let him go?" Crystal looked at Yuan and calmly gave response. "He took a bullet for me. In fact, two. He threatened with a Taser. What was I supposed to do?" Yuan looked on in awe, "report in good. Buy time and let us do the rest."

"In all truth, I did. But you took forever to be here," Crystal shot back in a flash.

Yuan paced about in the room. Silence was almost stealing the moment but he made inquiry just in time, "Who's he and where could he be?"

Crystal took in a deep breath and made a prompt reply, "I don't know him. But I can recognize him if I saw him. Where could he be? He could be dead. He was shot twice. I saw him knocked out by a van a while ago."

A smile curved around Yuan's mouth, "you bluffing, right?"

"Look, I'd a long day. I don't have time for this," Crystal replied sternly. "I was almost killed under your nose. All my subordinates are dead. And all you can say is that am bluffing? Do you suppose am aiding a criminal?"

"So it seems." Yuan admitted.

Crystal stood up and motioned to the door. She opened it and made a firm demand, "Get out. Now."

Yuan looked at her and warned before obeying the marching orders, "Am watching you." Crystal closed the door to the bedroom were Mateo laid and slid to a sitting position. Silence was quick to keep her company.

A moment later, Ruti pulled up at the hospital. Mateo barely conscious reached and held her hand. She looked at him – he struggled to look at her but managed to shake his head lightly and spoke, "Please. Don't." Ruti, flabbergasted, wondered, "If you were a car, I would have gladly worked on you. I'm just mechanic. You need help from a medic." Mateo gasped for air and stammered, "The Police are looking for me. Instead of taking me to the hospital, you might as well finish me off right here. I do not have anything to live for."

Ruti looked at Mateo for a moment and hesitantly threw the vehicle in drive. Even so, time was ticking. He was losing blood fast. He was surely dying. He needed help – but not from his newly found mechanic acquaintance. Ruti drove to her garage that doubled as a home at the same time. It was not much – nothing fancy about it, but it was all she had. She struggled to pull Mateo out of the van and helped him to the sleeping quarters of the garage. And as the day was fast closing, Ruti had a dying man on her bed. Two bullets were still stuck in his back. He was hit by the van.

The worst part, she didn't even know his name nor where he came from.