FOR REASONS BEYOND CONTROL - First 500 words
The location where everything that follows took place, will not be named because it would only disturb the guilty and sully the innocent, since by stating that one name, it will automatically and indirectly, give fingers a point to lay blame, thus, exonerating others that are responsible for just as many atrocities. For starters let me say that this is a place where misery abounds and even the natural habit of breathing is a struggle because of high altitude and where the bird’s chirping in the morning sounds more like a lament of sorrow and regret, rather than a chant celebrating a new day.
I always felt discomfort and dread, but it took blood and tears, -literally-, to realize the truth, and at first could only rely on the childish principle that there was no fairness…reality though slapped me across the face as if to say open your eyes and see the ugliness before you, accept it and do something about what causes so much anguish, and in retrospect recoiled in disgust and dismay for what reality might have been, had I not grabbed destiny one night and forged my own fortune without a third parties’ involvement…
The nation’s capital, is the epicenter of everything that trickles down to the rest of this nation, a city incidentally sitting high in the mountains that from afar presents a beautiful scenery of lush fauna and flora to tourists who in awe admire the striking and rustic surroundings. However, the truth is that resentment abounds for those who must survive in this deplorable-poverty- stricken inhumane place. Whose citizens day after day must face cold and rainy mornings, afternoons with an oppressive sun that rather of giving warmth and comfort, instead it stings like needles pricking the skin, and to end the day cold evenings usually with rain. The question came up once if this place has any redeeming qualities, the reply was yes, it has airports to get the hell out as soon as possible…
The people step out to face the amalgam of public transportation in a kaleidoscopic array of colors, shapes, and sizes. And these vehicles disregarding traffic signals, rush from one street corner to the next, dumping passengers and picking others up in haste to make the daily quota, because whatever is made in excess of the day’s expected take, the driver, -to whom the vehicle is rented for just a few hours a day-; may keep. Smaller automobiles, also in a hurry to get out of the way of the larger one’s rush, and pedestrians in despair running to catch that bus lest be late again for work. And every few yards a street vendor or peddler offering anything to passersby from edibles to magazines, cigarettes, and -this last per pack or single sticks for those not so addicted-. These individuals dispense their goods from metal shacks, others from wood-carved carts, and those at the bottom of the industry’s ladder, display their merchandise on a piece of canvas or
