The Gold Hard Truth

Prologue

18:36 Tuesday 14th July 2018 Amazon Rainforest, Peru

I was standing there with a gun pointed at me and I couldn't help but ask how I had got myself into this situation. The man holding the gun was my father and the last person I would have expected to wish to see my life taken away from me. To the right-hand side of me was my biological father filled with anger and dismay and I wanted to reach out to him. To hold his hand and to tell him although we had just discovered one another and barely known one another for less than a week it would be alright. I wasn't ready to meet my maker, whoever that was and however, they would judge me. 

I wanted to curl up into a ball and pretend none of this was happening but instead, I closed my eyes. I imagined the small clearing near my home, with the tall spruces reaching far above. As clear as if I was standing right beside them, close enough to feel the roughness of the bark against my fingertips and smell the sweetness of the sap oozing from open wounds. 

I imagined the rain splashing down on the forest debris beneath my feet, sending the leaves spinning upwards as if caught in tiny hurricanes that danced all the way across the floor. I imagined the sun with the laughter of children skipping around the picnic tables whilst their parents would chow down on sandwiches. I imagined the winter cold snow falling between the naked branches, offering a soft new carpet and I imagine myself walking through on the warmest day in summer with the sun basking against my cheeks. 

I can imagine whatever my imagination would allow me to create but that isn't reality and in a few more moments I would be dead.