Hang in There

By: Armando Covarrubias, Writer/ Cartoonist



Halloween 2020

By Armando Covarrubias, Cartoonist/ Writer

SHORT STORY Father Domingo Sits Alone: The Last Confession

By:Armando Covarrubias, Staff Cartoonist

Father Domingo is a Mexican Jesuit priest for the Chapel of All Holy Saints. He is a tall man, with dark brown skin. He has black hair and brown eyes. He is a teacher for the Agnus Dei University in their religious department. He teaches a variety of different classes such as World Religions, and History of Catholicism. He is always seen either in class, eating by himself, at his office, or in his room at the Jesuit house. One day during his lunch break he was greeted by Father Ahab.

“Afternoon brother,” Father Ahab said with a grin on his face. He was a couple of inches shorter than Domingo. He had blond hair blue eyes and was clean shaven.

“Afternoon,” said Father Domingo as he continued eating his burger.

“I have always noticed that you are always by yourself, and I thought that maybe you need the company.”

“Are you intentions true?” Domingo asked.

“Yes, of course that’s why I’m here.” Ahab responded.

Domingo takes in the last bite of his burger, licking his fingers, and says “All right, let's talk.”

“Ok. About what?”

“I don’t know? You wanted to start the conversation.”

Ahab responded, “Yes but I don’t have any plans, we could talk about anything like work, or our hobbies, or our family.”

“Or our love life.” Domingo said abruptly.

“What?!”

“It’s a joke.” Ahab looked in relief. “Well, its confession season, so have you been hearing out any confessions lately?” Asked Father Ahab.

“No, I haven’t heard any confessions. The last confession I heard was five years ago.” Ahab, in shock, said, “Five years! Are you insane!”

“Yes.”

“Jokes aside you can’t tell me that you have not been hearing confessions for five years.”

“But I did.”

“Why?” Asked father Ahab.

Domingo lets out a large sigh. He says, “My last confession was unreal, bizarre, and as far as I’m concerned, unnatural.” Ahab responded, “It could not be that bad.”

Father Domingo abruptly replies, “But it was.” Ahab stayed silent. “The story I will tell you is a story of greed, murder, manipulation, and other things that can not be explained.” He lets out another large sigh and begins to tell his story. “Five years ago before I was a priest at the university, I went traveling to different parishes. More specifically I traveled around Mexico. I was at a confession stand where I met a man who told me his sins. His sin was so great that it haunts his every move.”

Ahab asked, “What was it murder, assault, thievery?”

Domingo responded, “No, he made a homeless lady upset.” Ahab, in shock, said “That's it? That’s why you stopped doing confessions.” Domingo continued “No. That’s just a part of it, keep listening.”

“Okay.”

“Thank you. So yeah, the man was Miguel Reginald. He worked as a delivery boy for a Mexican bakery shop. He had blonde hair green eyes, and white skin. Everyday he would deliver a variety of Mexican pastries such as conchas, cookies, cakes, porkitos, and so much more. Before he would leave, an old homeless lady would show up at the front of the bakery. She would beg for bread or a pastry or something, but he would say no. One day the lady asked if she could have some bread. Instead of saying no, he decided to compromise with the lady. He said if you help me with these deliveries I will give you something to eat. She says yes but only if she eats first. He says no she has to earn it. She screamed in anger saying ‘Me and my ancestors will hunt you down on the eve of your daughters quinceañera, at the peak of your happiness.’ She laughed maniacally as she died on the street.”

Ahab says, “Two things: one, never do a witch voice again, and two he came to confess for not helping that poor ill woman?”

Domingo replies, “Oh she was not ill, I can assure you.” Domingo then continued, “So after that incident his life went uphill from then on. He got a pay raise, he eventually became the manager of the bakery and created a chain of bakeries. He made a lot of money and became a billionaire. He owned a mansion , had a multitude of servants, married a model despite his inexperience with dating and had a beautiful girl named Sarah. Such is the life for those who worship Mammon.”

Ahab asked, “Who?”

“Nothing,” Domingo responded. “ Anyway, his daughter was going to turn fifteen soon, so Miguel planned huge quinceañera for her. With music, good food, whatever you thought your best birthday party was hers was better. On the day before her birthday they decided to go to the park where they used to take Sarah as a child. He was sitting on the bench when he noticed that his daughter stood still. He thought that it was probably nothing, ten minutes later and she was still standing there. At that point he ran up to her and asked her if she is okay. She responded saying, ‘No, because I’m already dead!"‘ As her face turned her skin was yellow, her skin had holes where maggots spilled out. He screamed in horror, she lunged towards him constantly saying, ‘I said I would be back with my family.’ As she spoke faces began to emerge from Sarah’s body. He was scared and confused not knowing what to do. He begs for mercy. The spirits say, ‘We will let you go if you answer this one question: Why is the devil smart?’ His response was, ‘Because he’s evil.’ At that moment it was silent. A red line of blood drips from his throat, and his head falls off, and the spirits left the body of that girl. The next day Sarah had her quinceañera with her mother and father by her side.”

Ahab exclaimed, “Wait what, I thought he died?!”

Domingo said “He didn’t, during his confession he explained that he knew this was coming. So he got one of his loyal servants to swap faces with him so the spirit of the old lady and her ancestors will kill his servant instead. So when I got to see his face he had black hair, his skin was brown, but he still had those green as that he described before. He says to me that even though the spirits killed his doppelgänger, they eventually found out the truth. So now he is haunted by the spirits of the old lady, her ancestors, and now the servant too. As he leaves the stand I saw them.”

Ahab asked, “What?”

“Phantoms,” exclaimed Father Domingo! “Phantoms, ghosts, spirits, remnants of the old lady’s family and the servant who is carrying his own head. I saw ghosts from different time periods such as the Aztec War priests, conquistadors, Spanish inquisitors, Visigoth warriors, and others. I grasped ,y rosary praying that God may protect me, and he did.”

”So that’s the reason why you stopped doing confessions,” asked Father Ahab.

“Yes,” replied Father Domingo. Ahab got up and said, “Well lets just say I’m a bit skeptical about your so-called reason. And by skeptical I mean I think you’re lying.”

“Whether you believe it or not I’m just happy I got that off my chest,” Domingo replied. “I mean this was bad but that was nothing compared to my other past experiences.”

Ahab asked, “What do you mean?”

Domingo gets up, saying, “That’s my cue to leave.” Then grabs his plate and goes inside the cafeteria. Never to tell Ahab the things he has seen, for it can drive most men into madness.