I wake up screaming and to a burning smell, I'm sitting on the floor tied to a tree, two guerrillas take my arm while another burns my wound. Before he could finish, I lose consciousness again.
I cough while pouring water out of my nose. The pain in my arm and my body remains, and I'm still stuck in the same position. I have a shirt tied to where my hand used to be, it's bathed in blood and I feel it glued to my flesh and skin. General Fabio looks at me with the same look he gives to all thieves who are caught stealing, as if he was a merciful being doing a favor to society by getting rid of them.
"Wake up Marcelo, wake up."
The jungle's still spinning around me, I can barely see, but I distinguish his voice from the rest. The guerrillas are behind him as bodyguards, their eyes look furious, following orders from this tyrant.
"Where am I?" I ask.
"It doesn't matter," says the general.
"And my family, where's my family?"
"It doesn't matter."
"My mother... Where's my mother?"
He doesn't answer my question.
"You killed my mother you son of a bitch."
"Be careful with what you say boy or your tongue will end up on the floor too."
"Did you kill my mom?"
"Not exactly."
"What do you mean by that?"
"We didn't kill her; your mom was almost dead when we got to your house. Basically, what our presence did was bring forward the inevitable."
"Bastard... You bastard, my mom was alive when I left."
"Marcelo, your mom was almost dead, the malaria took her not us."
"I had the medicine, if it wasn't for you she'd still be alive."
"I don't think so."
"She'd still be alive, but you killed her."
"We did not do such a thing!" Fabio refutes. "We went for you, if you had been there it would've been a different story, your mom would be alive and you'd be getting the punishment you deserve."
The General squats to see me closer.
"You know why you're here?"
"I don't, you just caught me in the jungle out of nowhere."
"Don't play fool with me Marcelo, tell me the truth."
"I don't know what I'm doing here."
"If you tell the truth I will make it easier."
"I don't know what you are talking about."
"Where's the foreign girl?"
"What foreign girl?"
He hits me right in the chin, takes me by the hair and gets his face closer to mine.
"What foreign girl?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, I don't know any foreign girl!"
YOU ARE READING
The Golden Dream
Storie breviMarcelo has lived his entire life in hell. A young, poor miner, his life is already written on stone, live and die in the mines like his father did, in town controlled by corruption and a guerrilla force that threatens to destroy the rebels who want...
