Romeo o' Romeo - Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

There is a place out there where rationality and morals don’t matter. A place where right becomes wrong. A portion of life where the circumstances do not play any part in the shaping of events.  It is a place most people have been, or perhaps are still in.  It’s called: “in Love”.  The mystical place where dreams and fiction trample over reality.  It is a place where you are helpless and your fate rests in the hands of the object of your passion.  Few people have ever come out of it unscathed, while more still wander aimlessly in it.

Romeo’s letter to Mrs. Rosales

Mom,

I haven’t done in this in a while. As a matter of fact, I have never done this for you.  Writing has never been my strongest suit.  I don’t know, it just seems like I am unable to phrase anything that I want to say in the way that I want it to be read.  I have always preferred to talk to people face to face.  Kind of gives me the opportunity to actually show them how I feel, rather than just have them read it off a piece of paper.  But that of course wouldn’t be possible. It is impossible given our current circumstance.  I believe this is actually the best compromise in our situation.

You haven’t been exactly a mother to me and we both know it.  You leaped from one man to another ever since my father died, which most often than not ended with you, or me, being abused.  Sometimes even both of us.  But you continued anyways.  I know it must have been hard for you, and it must have felt like the logical thing to do since raising me on your own was just way too much for a high school dropout who got pregnant in her teens.  But have you, for one second, even paused and thought of what was logically the right thing to do for me?

Have you ever once sat down and seriously thought about whether getting a new partner would be good to my homosexual son?  Obviously not.  But you know what? I really wish you did.  I really wish you at least took the time to see if they are capable of accepting someone like me.  Or if they are ok with having to provide for a gay kid who isn’t even their own.  Did you know the horrors I had to go through because of them? All of them couldn’t accept me for who, or what I am.  All of them shunned me and verbally abused me.  Not once did they allow me the dignity of being true to myself.  They would call me ‘Bayot’ while being outside and humiliate me in front of other people.  They have treated me less than the dogs.  All of them.  Is that what you call parenting?  Is that what being a mother is to you?  Did you once stand up for me against them?  Or were you ignorant of all those times?  Better yet, were you aware all those years and just let it happen?

But we can put all of that behind us now.  It has passed, and it is now just water under the bridge.  What I want to talk about now is about what happened when I went to you earlier.  I lend you that money because you promised that you would pay me back right away.  I told you I needed it but instead of talking to me nicely, you started your mad tirade at how much I owe you for raising me.  Isn’t that a bit funny? Isn’t it a little too much of an audacity for you to assume that I owe you something for literally doing nothing while I was growing up?  You have literally milked me for money for you to spend on your new boyfriend while I was working every night.  And now that I have come to collect some of what I needed, you’re giving me this?  And you even threatened to have me beaten up by your boyfriend?  Is that what a mother should be?  Did you do that because you were inherently evil? Or did you do that because after all these years, you still cannot accept me for who I am?  That’s it.  Isn’t it? I’m sure you wouldn’t have treated me the way you did if I was a straight guy, or perhaps a natural girl.  I’m betting you were disgusted at me ever since you found out about my true sexuality.

You see, that is what I don’t understand about you people.  Why can’t you just accept us for who we are?  Why do you have to treat us less?  Why is there always a different treatment for my kind?  But what’s worse is, it is you.  My own mother.  The one who gave birth to me.  The very person who is supposed to accept me for who I was.  Why mother? Why?

Anyways, I am set to leave tomorrow.  I will be going away with him and there is nothing you can do to stop us.  I also want you to know that I went home and took what rightfully belonged to me.   My father left it for me and it isn’t right that you and whoever you’re with now would take part in it.  I hope you get to live in peace as I go.

Yours,

Romeo

Holy mother of cows!

I didn’t expect these letters to reveal so much about what has been going on.  I mean, yes.  Most of the time, suicide letters reveal the cause of the suicide.  But these things are different.  These are thing we would never have known or found out in any form of investigation.

I quickly picked up the phone to call Phil and check up on what I asked him to do.

“Found anything on our guy Phil?”

“Yes Marcus.  And I believe you will be very interested about our guy here.”

“Ok wait.  I’ll head over there.”

I grabbed my stuff and placed the letters back in the envelope as I rushed down the hall over to records where Phil is currently in.

“What do you have for me Phil?”

“Look here.  This guy has been arrested for violating RA 9165 section 15.  Two counts.  The second one right after rehab, which got him locked up for 7 years.”

“He tested positive? What was the test for?”

“City Hall. Our guy here was picked for random drug test while he was a clerk in the Mayor’s office.”

“And the 2^nd time?”

“Let me see.  2 years later while working in a private company.  Random drug test again.  Seems like we have a very unlucky guy here.”

“Or perhaps a victim of prejudice.  Anyways, reel him in.  I want to have a word with this guy.  I’ll be out to pay Mrs. Rosales a visit.  Do not talk to him unless I’m here. Understood?”

“Aye Aye captain.”

I made my way to the registered address that Mrs. Rosales has given us during the inquisition but there was no one home.  So I decided to look around the area and perhaps talk to some of the people nearby.  The place was what one would call a common slums area.  The houses were made of light materials, mostly thin wooden planks and even thinner metal sheets.  Every now and then you would see one house in a block that’s made out of concrete. A clear depiction that the people living in it has it better off than the others around them.  A tallest midget sort of thing.  To my surprise, the people around here doesn’t seem to know Romeo’s mother at all.  Some would say that she’s just been reeled in by her current partner in that place and that what they heard is that she used to live somewhere in the southern part of the city.  Some know her as the “Woman who works in the club at night”, so mostly information that isn’t relevant to the case.  So I just decided that I would gather information on her partner rather than herself.  But even that seemed to be an even bigger challenge.  Apparently, Mrs. Rosale’s current partner is some sort of a small time criminal in the area.  Some say that he is a local thug, while others claim that he is also a long time drug pusher in the area.

“Oh Dennis? That guy is a rascal.  Always getting into one trouble after the other.  If I’m not mistaken, he may have killed several people already.”  Said one of the residents in the area.

Some people also shut me off claiming that they’d be putting their lives in jeopardy if they talked to me about Dennis.  I would have pressed on, but I wouldn’t want to put them in a position where they would feel like they put their families in harm’s way.   So I decided to call off the investigation in the area and just look for Mrs. Rosales in the place where she works.

“Hey Phil.  You back in the office?”

“No Marcus.  I’m on my way back from the apartment with Mr. Santos.”

“Ok.  Do you happen to remember the place where Romeo’s mother works?   Know it’s a night club.  But can you give me the exact name and location.”

“Sorry buddy.  You gotta patch yourself up with the office on that.  Didn’t pay much attention to the lady.  Why the sudden interest?”

“I don’t know. It’s just a hunch.  But I feel like I need to have a word with her.  Anyways, thanks man.  Take care.”

I dialed back to HQ after hanging up the phone to get the information that I needed.  Which was readily available of course.  You see the thing that people don’t realize all the time is that the police force is actually doing a good work.  I mean, yeah there are some shady cops who take advantage of citizens and slack off all the time.  But the rest are still true to their calling.  The media just fail to show it.  Every news headline, or every article ever written on the front page isn’t about how things are going the way they’re supposed to.  Just think of it.  It’s like writing a headline somewhere between the lines of: “Water, wet.” It just doesn’t make sense.  But that doesn’t mean it is right all the time either.  Sometimes, we need the truth.  No matter how boring or ridiculous it may sound. Not every time, but just frequent enough for us to remember that the world isn’t as bat-shit crazy as we thought.

It took me about 30 minutes to arrive at the Red Dot Night club, the place where Mrs. Rosales worked.  It was located along the stretch of one of the main highways in the city and would have probably been there in about 10 minutes if not for the heavy traffic in the area.  I parked my car and went inside to start looking for the one person who can shed some light to the mystery of Romeo’s death.