A Stubborn Man

A Stubborn Man

   It was in a civil war in a Middle Eastern country. Michelle, Jack, Elliott and Laura were American journalists, they almost always travelled together because in wartime it is safer to work as a team than alone, then at night, each one writes their own report and sends it to their bosses.

Like almost all journalists, each of them had a Twitter account, it is a great tool to freely give and receive information. During a car ride to a meeting with some underground rebels for an interview, Jack lamented having to delete one of his tweets because some of his information was inaccurate. Elliot taunted him. Laura was upset with Elliott's arrogance and reproached him saying that surely he must have had to delete his own tweets hundreds of times, but Elliott said that he never deleted any of his tweets because he is so confident in himself. At that moment, Elliott's arrogance was unbearable.

The interview with the rebels was not easy at all. They had their faces covered. The rebels acted very restless and apprehensive, which made the interview difficult, in fact, the interview was being a nightmare for both groups. They both wanted to finish as soon as possible except for Elliott. Elliott began to be impertinent by asking questions that were quite obvious they didn't like. In fact, Elliott made the situation too tense until the rebel leader said; "Enough, the interview is over," but Elliott insisted on getting more information, it was too late, the rebels refused to take any more questions.

The meeting had taken place in a lonely house on the outskirts. After that, while they were walking back to the car, Elliott was showing very angry with the rebels, he wanted to go back to the house to ask a few more questions, his companions tried to persuade him to relax. However, Elliott was determined to ask them a couple of questions. Michelle, Jack, and Laura were in a difficult situation because they couldn't let Elliott go there alone. Elliott was acting like a stubborn, selfish, and stupid man because he was putting them all at risk.

Then Elliott started walking towards the rebel house again, the other three were following him against their will. When they were about 50 meters from the door of the house, the door was suddenly opened and the rebels came out screaming with firearms, the four journalists fell to the ground, but it was too late, the rebels killed them all. The rebel leader said: "I told you it was over."

Elliott's stubbornness ended his life and that of his peers. However, this is not a justification for the murderers, they committed a crime and they must pay for it.

 Antoni Font Bardolet 21/08/2020, Aberdeen.

  

Starsky and Hutch

 Starsky and Hutch

   William was in the corner of the yard trying to fix a puncture on his bike wheel. Anyone who has repaired a puncture knows that it is not at all easy, especially the process of removing the inner tube out, but William did it very well. While he was looking for the hole in the inner tube, his sister Jessica approached him, she was crying in a panic because she accidentally broke the fish tank while doing fitness in a YourTube session. She simply lost the balance of her body and with a quick movement to regain her body balance properly, her elbow hit the fishbowl enough to knock it to the ground. It wasn't a big tank, but ...

The fish tank was very special to his father, Paul, sometimes it seemed that Paul loved Starsky and Hutch more than his own children and wife. Starsky was a red fish that replaced the old Veronica who sadly died three months ago, Hutch was a blue fish that Olivia, her mother, had demanded of Paul, she no longer wanted lonely fish. At first, Paul didn't like the idea of having two fishes, he saw it as a threat because maybe they would not be friends. After all, Paul was more than happy with Starsky and Hutch.

"Did you put Starsky and Hutch in water ?!" William said, Jessica opened her mouth in a surprised expression, "Damn it!" shouted William and ran into the living room, easily found Starsky and Hutch, they weren't moving at all, anyway, William put them in the sink and turned on the tap, it was too late, Starsky and Hutch were dead. "now what?" William exclaimed indignantly and knowing that Jessica had had problems with her parents recently.

Jessica was 17 years old, she was hiding her boyfriend, Tom, from her parents, and that was creating constant problems for her. Jessica sometimes had to hide Tom in her room or even she would occasionally go to Tom's house in the middle of the night. William knows this and is very upset with her. Her parents knew something was happening to Jessica, well ... in fact, they already know it intuitively. But the point isn't that, William thought, the point is that Jessica should tell that has a boyfriend to them even though they sure wouldn't like it. And now, if they find out that Jessica is responsible for the deaths of Starsky and Hutch, surely it will be a bad mood at home for a long time.

William thought very fast, although he was upset with Jessica, he did not want to live in constant arguments at home, that made him sick, so William proposed a deal to Jessica, if she promised to tell her parents the truth about her boyfriend Tom, then William would say that he had broken the fish tank. After hearing Wiliam's proposal, Jessica was speechless, "Hurry to think, they'll come soon," William said, then Jessica said that she broke up with Tom. She burst into tears.

William knew his sister's crocodile tears, he didn't even believe at all about her break-up with Tom. "Okay, crystal clear, we'll tell the truth, no lies," said William, "wait!" Jessica replied, then she told him the real truth. That made everything worse than worse, now it was William's mouth that fell open. They weren't crocodile tears, she was really scared. At that moment, her parents' car was arriving.

William gave up, he was not for alibis, he was too overwhelmed. Olivia entered before Paul. When Olivia saw William and Jessica's faces, she deduced that something was wrong and said, "What's going on here?"

Then it was an intense silent dialogue, Olivia and Paul had seen the crime scene, even the corpses of Starsky and Hutch in the sink, but they knew it was not the worst, their silence hid something worse. Olivia had a hunch and then she looked at Paul, Paul read her eyes correctly, then they both slowly took a step back.

Finally, it was Olivia who spoke looking at Jessica: "oh dear, you are pregnant."

 Antoni Font Bardolet 11/08/2020, Aberdeen.