TE17 Mysterious Montenegro

Serioja, Maria and the Mop

Afterhefinishedmopping, heusuallyusedhisplumbingallowance for a quick drink at the corner pub where some of the fans of his “Evil Woman” still met. Well, maybe it wasn’t always that quick—sometimes it took him three or four hours to return—but how could he go on living otherwise? He needed their company and sympathetic ear. In fact, it was one of themwho, seeing how Serioja was racking his brains to come up with a trick that would bring back Maria, suggested breaking into a doctor’s office. He just had to convince her that he had cancer, and unless she was a stone-hearted bitch, she’d come back. For this, he needed a doctor’s cooperation, or at least, a doctor’s letterhead and rubber stamp, which could be used to put together an official-looking document. That day, Serioja left the bar with a spring in his step and cancer on his mind. He remembered that at the Municipal Hospital the cleaning women opened all the rooms, including the doctors’ offices, at seven a.m., but the doctors never came earlier than nine, so their offices were unlocked for about two hours. The next day he left home at seven in the morning, carrying a duffel bag with the blue uniformhe’d inherited from the previous caretaker, and which was identical to that of the cleaning staff in all the city’s institutions. He arrived at the hospital at seven twenty, and promptly removed the uniform from his bag, then put it on over his clothes. It was a quiet morning, and with the exceptionof a fewcars parked in the front lot, therewas no human 187 “Cancer. It always works.”