Like always, before sunset Father Xavier had been sitting in the small confession chamber, quietly going through the verses of the Bible. He would wait to hear from a sinner for another half an hour, then he was going retire for the day. The noise of someone taking the seat on the other side of the curtain, woke the priest up from his deep spiritual dive. He cleared his throat and said, “Yes my child, let me hear what troubles your soul.”
The voice from the other side sounded hoarse. The priest could not remember hearing this voice in the past, though it sounded familiar. The priest stopped wondering and focused on the man who was in the confession chamber. In an unusually feeble voice the man said, “Father, for quite some time I have been thinking about it,” then the man paused.
The priest said, “Thinking about what, my child?”
“Thinking about the sins of my flesh,” he took a deep breath before resuming, “actually I’ve been dragged into this.”
“My son, at one time or another, all of us fall into this trap. The good news is, if we sincerely ask for forgiveness and remain steadfast in our promise not to tread the same path again, our Lord is ever so forgiving. Now tell me who has dragged you into this?”
“If it was just one individual, it wouldn’t be a big problem.”
“Alright son, how many of them are involved in this devilish practice?”
“All of them.”
The priest was confused. He didn’t understand what the man meant, so he asked again, “What do you mean by all of them, could you please clarify?”
“I mean I’ve been sleeping with all the women folks of this town.”
“What!” The priest was completely taken aback by the statement of this man. He remained quiet for a while and then somberly said, “Let me get it straight son, we have over nine hundred residents in this town and over three hundred of them are ladies, excluding the children. Are you saying that you’ve been sleeping with all three hundred of them?”
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The man whispered, “Yes father, all three hundred of them, minus one or two.”
“Have you slept with Monsieur Beau’s wife as well?”
“She’s the craziest of them all.”
“I thought they were the perfect couple!”
“They are, as long as Monsieur Beau remains sober. She says if his customer consumes one glass of our Rum, he consumes a bottle. Most of the times, he remains in a state of intoxication. This has adversely affected his sex life as well.”
“So, she comes to you for solution, right?”
“Now you’re getting smart father.”
“Is the Mayor’s wife in your list too?”
“Yes she is, she’s the one who brings most of them to me. She says she has found out from Luis what the mayor does in the hotel with those beautiful ladies. So, she doesn’t feel guilty.”
“Madam Beau’s case is understandable, but what about the other women folks, why do they come to you?”
“I don’t know father, perhaps they find my physical attributes, manners simply irresistible.”
“And what about you, why do you do it?”
“Father, I get paid for it. They pay me handsomely. How else do you think a man of such measly means lives like a king?”
“For how long have you been running this brothel of yours?”
“Since the day I set foot on this island.”
“You work in that distillery, don’t you?”
“Oh father, you’re a priest, you shouldn’t speculate like that.”
“Then why did you say Monsieur Beau consumes your rum? Now I remember your voice, you must be the manager, aren’t you?”
“Father, don’t point your finger at an innocent man. The manager is clean, I’m just one of the workers.”
To the priest it sounded like the man was then trying to hide his identity. He was certain it was the manager’s voice. Father Xavier refrained from expressing his thoughts. He said to the man, “What you’ve been doing is utterly wrong! It violates the very sanctity of this civil society.”
The man refuted the priest’s assumption, “What civil society! What sanctity! Father you’ve been living in a delusion.”
It infuriated the priest. With clear signs of irritation in his voice he said to the man, “Shut up and listen to me. What you just revealed to me, if it leaks out, there’ll be chaos. They might even kill you. Stop this devilish business of yours right away.”
The man interrupted, “If I stop now, I might as well be killed by those bitches.”
“Tell them I know all about it. If they try anything, I’ll deal with it and it won’t be very nice. Now go home and say Holy Mary at least a thousand times for at least a month. If I ever hear you coming to me with the same dirty tale, I’ll skin you alive.”
“How will you find out who I am?”
“Oh, don’t worry about that, I have my ways.”
When the man had departed the priest came out of his confession chamber. In the evening it wasn’t really warm inside the chamber, yet he was drenched in sweat. He stared at the sea from the stairs of his church and took a deep breath. He felt suffocated by the hard collar of his white gown.