Episode 6

Emma: I came because I couldn't stop bleeding. But I believe it has stopped.

Gustavo: It's deep, Emma. It needs stitches and I'll have to do an exam. I'll have to shave your hair to stitch it up.

Emma: It's alright. I just need to do this quickly, I'm late for work.

Gustavo: Emma, you can't go to work today.

Emma: The issue is not being able to go to work, doctor. I have to go, it's not an option.

Gustavo: I understand, but you have suffered a concussion and you need rest.

Emma: Alright, just give me the stitches, please, doctor.

Gustavo: I'm sure Emma will go to work. I shave her hair and give her the anesthesia, Emma doesn't complain, she just keeps shaking her leg.

Emma, how did you cut yourself?

Emma: Well... I... Hit a corner.

Gustavo: A corner?

Emma: It wasn't that sharp.

Gustavo: Liar, I hate lies and especially those who lie. I have no idea how Emma cut herself, but I'm sure she didn't hit her head as she reported. I request a test for her to do and I'm informed that she simply left the hospital. Her file says she's 18 years old. I noticed calluses on her hands, which correspond to manual labor. And she seemed to have not slept at all. What secrets is Emma hiding? I finish my shift and go straight to the bar, as I suspected, there's Emma, with a ridiculous scarf on her head. I stay far away, away from the tables she serves, just observing.

Emma: My head hurts a lot and my vision is blurred. I keep serving the tables and the manager doesn't stop yelling at me for being slow.

Manager: Emma! Table 07 is waiting.

Emma: I know, I'm coming.

Manager: Damn it, Emma, pay attention, you've delivered the wrong orders!

Emma: I'm sorry.

I try to speed up the orders, I trip and a customer grabs me roughly, pulling me onto his lap. I try to get up and he starts laughing with his colleagues, saying that I'm not that difficult after all.

Let me go!

Customer: Why, sweetheart? You're the one who sat on daddy's lap.

Emma: I'll call security!

Customer: Go ahead and call, what are you going to say? That you wanted to grind on my dick? Darling, you don't have to play hard to get, I'll pay, just name your price.

Emma: I feel my eyes burning, I'm trapped in the arms of the idiot who puts his face between my breasts. I feel someone pulling me, the person hugs me and asks if I'm okay. The voice is familiar, I look and it's the doctor who treated me.

Gustavo: Did he hurt you, Emma? Did he touch you?

Emma: I just shake my head as a sign of negation, with tears rolling down my face. The doctor gently sits me in a chair, grabs the customer who held me by his collar and drags him out of the bar, as if it was nothing. His friends follow and I'm afraid they'll hurt him because of me. I stagger and follow him. I reach the parking lot and can't believe what I'm seeing. The doctor literally, on his own, has beaten up three of the customers and one ran away.

Doctor...

Gustavo: I hear Emma's voice and stop beating up the jerk who held her. She doesn't seem well, I quickly approach and catch her before she falls to the ground.

Emma, what are you feeling?

Emma: I feel dizzy, doctor, my head...

Gustavo: Emma faints in my arms, I pick her up and take her to my car. The idiots run away and I take her to the hospital. A colleague is on duty and attends to Emma. I stay as her companion and pay for everything. I don't know why she works so much, but I imagine she can't afford a medical bill. I let my parents know that I won't be coming back tonight and I sit in the armchair, waiting for Emma to wake up.

Emma: I wake up dazed, without the unbearable headache I was feeling. I try to remove the IV from my arm and I'm stopped. I face the silhouette of a man, blinking several times to try to see better.

I have to go...

Gustavo: You did that and look where you are now.

Emma: I try to get up and the doctor won't let me.

I'm feeling better.

Gustavo: You had a concussion, Emma, you need rest.

Emma: I need to go back to the bar, you don't understand.

Gustavo: Then explain to me, what's more important than your life?

Emma: I look at the clock and become even more distressed. I grab my phone and talk to Hortênsia.

How long do I have to stay here?

Gustavo: Twenty-four hours.

Emma: That's impossible.

Gustavo: I have never seen such a stubborn woman. Emma sits on the bed looking for something.

Emma: Where are my clothes? Did you change them?

Gustavo: A nurse changed you and your clothes are in the closet.

Emma: I breathe a sigh of relief without looking at the Doctor.

Gustavo: The nurse reported that you have several bruises.

Emma: I am very clumsy.

Gustavo: The bruises are consistent with abuse, Emma. Why have you been lying since the first time I saw you?

Emma: I feel my face burning with shame, stopping to think, a few years ago I became the worst liar in the world. Something that I abhorred and now has become a routine.

Can I leave?

Gustavo: I just want to make sure you'll be okay.

Emma: I just have a terrible headache.

Gustavo: I will ask the nurse for some medication for you.

Emma: The doctor leaves, I tear off the IV from my arm. I quickly change and leave the room with a visitor's tag that was in the trash. I go unnoticed and make my way as fast as I can to the bus stop. I try to talk to the bar manager, but he is relentless and says he can no longer keep me, I cry anxiously. I really needed this job.

Damn it!

Gustavo: I return to the room where Emma was and observe the discarded IV on the bed with drops of blood, the girl is not only stubborn and a liar, but also irresponsible. I go after her and see her getting on a bus. I go back to the parking lot and catch up to the bus, Emma gets off the bus crying, hugging herself. She walks to the house where I first saw her enter, visibly shaken, and the same woman exits as soon as she enters. I return home disturbed by Emma's mystery.

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