A parallel world (true story)

A parallel world (true story)

Once upon a time, in August 2000, I went to Brazil as a volunteer for a Catholic NGO called "Enllaç". We went to a small town in the middle of nowhere called São Miguel do Guaporé. Mainly, we were around the church helping with whatever; I remember painting walls and doing events with the youth of the town. However, for a week, each member of the NGO went to live with different families from the "Lineas".

The "Lineas" are large lands that the government gave to families in exchange for their taking care of it. I don't know more about the details of this deal, but it sounded good. I went to live with a beautiful family, they were a married couple with a young son and daughter. During the week, I mostly spent time with the son; he showed me his horse and we went fishing in a little stream too. But the most I remember is when in the afternoons we used to meet in a courtyard with people from other lines. Although we speak different languages, we understood each other, our will to understand each other was above our different language. They explained to me what their life was like there and I what mine was like in my country, we learned a lot from each other.

On my last day, there was an event that brought together all the families of the different "lineas" in the area. As we walked to the event, different families that I already knew from the previous days joined us on the way to go to the event. It was then that something got stuck in my brain, it was a feeling, in fact, I felt deeply as if I was in a dream, or more likely in a parallel world that was absolutely different from my world and where there was no one from my world, I was alone with these new friends. Today, a piece of my heart is still there.

For a period, I corresponded with my friend on the line. Every time I received a letter from them, I had the same feeling, the feeling that I was having contact with a parallel world. I love them.

  Antoni Font 04/02/2021, Aberdeen.

Acknowledging your guilt

Acknowledging your guilt

   Nestled in a cool green valle, lies the small town of Greenstone, with the gentle Gosp River winding through it. Max Scott is the town’s mayor, though his reputation is less than stellar. One morning, he receives an unexpected visitor: Melanie Bardell, a county administrator. Melanie’s purpose is straightforward: she needs Max to sign documents that would secure essential funds to enhance city services, especially since Greenstone has been expanding rapidly over the past decade due to the opening of a nearby factory beside the old town. This growth has led to a surge of small businesses and, with it, a demand for improved municipal services, like more medical services (first aid), bus service, improve shool structures, nurseries, etcetera.

Melanie and Max have a long-standing, rocky relationship. Melanie harbors frustration toward Max, who she sees as an absentee leader. Instead of attending to city matters, Max offloads tasks to his team and spends his days with friends, using his mayoral title to benefit his private ventures. Her unannounced visit is no accident; she’s strategically timed it, hoping to catch Max alone, knowing that he often prepares for meetings with his team in advance to deflect her questions to his team and exempt him of giving any explanation.

Max seems irritated, protesting that this unscheduled visit disrupts his day, but Melanie is insistent. She reminds him of his duty to sign the county budget document, urgently needed for Greenstone’s development. When he asks for the document, Melanie explains she emailed it to his private account that morning. To download and print it, he must access this account himself, as only he knows the password.

Reluctantly, Max opens his laptop, pulls up the email portal, and tries to enter the password. His first attempt fails, much to Melanie’s silent satisfaction. Each second he struggles, her confidence grows. “Everything alright, Max?” she asks, barely masking her amusement.

Max hesitates, blaming a slow internet connection as he tries to collect his thoughts. But as Melanie steps closer to peek at the screen, she raises an eyebrow, “Could you have forgotten your password, Max? By law, only you can access it.”

After a pause, Max takes a deep breath. “You’re right, Melanie. I may have been neglecting my responsibilities. But I know the password—I’ll prove it.” Acknowledging his failings eases some of the pressure, and, with a clearer head, he successfully logs in, downloads, and signs the document.

As Melanie leaves, she reflects on Max’s admission. While he ultimately did his duty, she still sees little true commitment in him and hopes for new leadership in Greenstone soon. Her last thought is simple but satisfying: “At least he admitted it—better than nothing.”

 Toni Font 04/09/2020, Aberdeen.

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.