Dí­a De Juicio

12

Alexandria was a monster of a ship; weighing well over 25,000 tons and spanning over 620 feet in length, sailing at a speed of 17 knots she was a sight to behold when leaving from the port of Sinclair for her maiden voyage. Needless to say she required a ridiculous number of men to supply, support, command and serve just about one thousand significant men and women who had boarded her.

The ship was never at peace. It was almost like a bee-hive humming with voices of men and women; laughing and merry making at their own free will on top of her, whilst her bottom was rumbling with the sounds of a trillion machines running at their maximum speed, trying their best to keep up the chaos surrounding her.

In the midst of all this rumbling and noise was a man who looked at calm in spite of his surroundings; a giant who seemed to have just completed the mission of his life!

Rojelio as he had now come to call himself was not a stranger to a ship, having spent the best part of seven long years on a few of them. He was however relatively fresh to the ideas of peace and quiet. He had nothing left but to ponder what had passed through his life over the years.

How the life which was so much at quiet amongst the bites of rattlesnakes and the sounds of the wild beasts had come to a complete disorder thanks to the men from the other lands. How much had he wished for peace and quiet at those times!

He had nothing to do but to ponder over how one such man had taken away his everything; how much he had longed to avenge him; how many narrow escapes he had had from the weapons of his enemies; how much he loathed that period of loneliness, perhaps the darkest part of his whole life; how he learnt that his worst enemy had escaped to foreign lands; how he had decided on the spur of a moment to hunt him down and kill him just like what he used to do with the sparrows.

During those times, he had to take perhaps the most crucial decision of his life; either to leave his only known kin in the whole wide world – the Amazon, to pursue his foe, or to survive the rest of his life in mere frustration. For once he was happy he hadn’t gone by his native instincts.

He worked in ships as slave; spent time in unknown lands as a servant; all the while recognizing the solitude that had come to be a part of him. Finally managing to escape from those cruel places he finally came to the very land where, he knew for sure, existed a man for whom he had so much hatred for.

Having managed to come so far he finally got to meet the man himself and immediately recognized a hint of fear in those very eyes that had deceived his village. Oh! How much had he to do to control the rage burning within him. He did not want to survive the rest of his life as another slave or prisoner as he had come to forebode the meanness in such a life. No he was not the one to be punished, the man in front of him was! And he did not want those long years of built up wrath to pass away in that one moment.

He watched and waited for each morning with much gusto to see the man in front of him die a death every single moment, just because of mere suspicions. He loved those days so dearly when his enemy would follow him closely thinking he was safe when trailing behind. He knew he had a task at his hand but he hadn’t thought about the worst complication that was to come along his path – the lady.

Even though she was his enemy’s beloved, she had neither the treachery nor the cruel intentions that he had started associating so strongly with the man of his hatred. His pent up anger was getting buried in her innocence and blind love for her husband. His days became more morose thinking what was to become of the woman whom he had come to respect so much. His faith was falling in front of him and he didn’t have the guts to give those feelings, which had kept him alive for so long, a helping hand.

It took just about a year to calm down all those feelings which he thought were now a part of him. He decided to give it all up. Slowly the thought sunk in him that he was no longer going to bother the household anymore. He decided to leave the land the very next day after leaving a note and some needles (that he had gotten from one of the lady’s boxes), which he had managed to poison and preserve with so much care, in his master‘s table.

He had seen the man, his ex-enemy leave for his house in a hurry from the parade and suddenly made a decision to go and meet the man personally and explain that he can now live in peace; that his murderous intentions had vanished. And visit the house he did, only to find his master lying near the bed with those needles and some powdery substance besides him.

He couldn’t understand why the lady cleared out the bottles containing the same powdery substance after sending the housemaid for help. He couldn’t understand why she hurriedly asked him to dispose of those needles. He couldn’t understand why a man would die when his devil had decided to take rest. He did not understand a lot then; neither had he now; and had no intentions to either.

Seeing no good reason for his letter to be there, causing more confusion and trouble to him, he took it away before the others arrived. He left that place with his few belongings, in his steed, and was now on his way back to his homeland; probably not in the way he had imagined, not with the same feelings he had started from his soil and most certainly not as the same man who had left it all those years ago, for a long hunt.

He did not know how he would survive the rest of his life in those unforgiving forests which he had so long been away from; but he had learned that things had changed for the better in his native place (by word of mouth, of course). ‘It won’t be long now‘ he thought. ‘This journey will pass on too…‘

—-The End—-