7 Fornications (2/2)
”What are you doing?” Mateo asks after he noticed that I am eavesdropping.
”Shut it,” I say to him.
”How can I shut it if you are eavesdropping on some conversation?” he asks.
”Shut it!” I say firmly. ”I'll tell you later. Just work with me and shut up.”
He spoke no more words and I allowed myself to listen to their conversation. What is going on? What kind of friendship does my professor have with this lady?
”It has been a long time old friend,” she says. ”What has changed, except for your apparent looks and all?”
”Friend?” Professor Diwa asks. ”I thought you had ended our friendship years ago.”
”I know,” she says. ”But I like to remind myself every day of what happened back then.”
”What do you need?” Professor Diwa says through his teeth in annoyance. ”Hurry up. I have a class in an hour.”
”An hour is a long time,” she says. ”Don't be in such a rush with everything.”
”I haven't got time for this, Chloe,” Professor Diwa says impatiently. ”I am a busy man. As a former professor of Ferrydell University, you should know that.”
”Alright, well I'll rush things then,” the lady says slyly. ”Some say that you have been a bit of an adulterer during these past few years.”
”Madam, I am no adulterer,” he says flatly. ”I have no wife nor am I promised to someone else. Wherever you acquired that information only proves to be false.”
”Then what it is then?” she says. ”I think fornication. You damned fornicator! Don't you think you would have gotten away with it?”
”I don't know what you are talking about,” he says steadily with no rise in his voice.
”Oh, I'm sure you do,” the lady says. ”You liar! I know what you did. First, you conceived a child with a woman. I don't know how old, but four months into the pregnancy, the child was miscarried. I do not know if it is merely a cover-up for 'aborted' or something. Next, another child was conceived from another woman. It was prematurely born, but it died early. You did not acknowledge the child as yours. You are a son of a gun. Shall I go on?”
”How do you know?” he asks.
”I have my ways, Dave,” the lady says. ”You should have known that by now. This information would destroy you, you know.”
”What do you want?” he asks nervously.
”I came to haunt you,” she says. ”I came to haunt you with your past. Though some say you have changed and became a pastor in all but name, the past will always haunt you. Fool, do you think you would have gotten away with it?”
”So, you come here to waste my time by haunting me about my past?” he asks. ”What is it that you really want? Hurry up.”
”I told you,” she says. ”I want nothing. I only came to haunt you. Alas, I must go now. I only wanted you to know that your secrets are not safe. Good day, professor Diwa. May God be with you.”
I did not understand a thing that just happened. Also, he is a fornicator? How dare he? He dared conceive a child and he did not acknowledge it! What a despicable man! I can feel my hands trembling with anger. So, that man is a liar and a fornicator! No wonder he doesn't have a stable relationship!
He left a few moments later. I knew that what Emma sister said has haunted him. The question is how does she know all of those? What is her reason for haunting him?
”Do you mind explaining what just happened?” Mateo asks suddenly. ”Who is that fornicator?”
I forgot that he is with me. Apparently, this is none of my business. This is his private life. I only have to mind two things: my job and Emma's wish. I should let that slide. What I heard is nothing.
”He was my former professor,” I say. ”It turns out that he is a fornicator and a liar.”
”Why did you eavesdrop on them?” he asks. ”You are a hypocrite! You said that you care about other people's privacy, yet you eavesdropped on a private man's conversation!”
”I found this too odd,” I say honestly. ”That lady is Emma's sister and that man was my former professor. What is this? Mateo, you would not understand.”
”Oh, I understand,” he says. ”You are a hypocrite. Rose, it is their private lives. This is the difference between journalism and invasion of privacy. What we did earlier is journalism. What you did recently is an invasion of privacy. You disappoint me, Rose.”