Good Hope Hotel - A Swallow Is Born
Part Four - Chapter thirteen
One
evening in September in the bigger city in the county, during an important
sporting event, two opposing fans, always enemies, faced hard. Perhaps the
referee had caused some injustice. There was a massive launch of all kinds of
objects. The competition continued between choirs and insults until the final
whistle.
Everything seemed to be back to normal but, outside the stadium, the hottest of
the fans, faced each other starting to envy, to burn cars and garbage cans.
Pieces of gravel and stones flew from one side to the other of the two sides.
At the
climax of the tension, the guns came out and heard gunfire. Two black boys fell
down, poured into the ground. There was a general escape while the boys tried to
resuscitate them. The ambulance arrived to take them away. Shortly after, news
came of the death of the two boys hit by gunshots.
Someone
had already set out to pursue the four fans guilty of shooting. When they were
warned of the death of their friends, other cars reached the first. Together,
they set out to pursue them by clogging them up close.
There
was chaos on the streets of the city between pursuit, braking and sudden
maneuvers. They caused a lot of tampering until the fugitives, taking a narrow
path, managed to lose their road. The pursuers did not abandon the search by
dividing and going in many possible directions.
But the
fugitives had ended the suburbs and managed to move on less crowded country
roads. When they felt far enough away and safe enough, they decided to leave the
car and sink it in a pond. They continued on foot until they reached the Good
Hope Hotel and entered trying to show normality. They sat at a table ordering
four beers.
Meanwhile, the pursuers had expanded their search to the streets of the suburbs.
A chase car arrived shortly afterwards and came in to check. They sat at the
bench looking around. Suddenly they noticed the four boys sitting at a table,
bending to be unnoticed. They stayed calm so as not to alarm them, but after
they paid, they went out and called the others. Other cars came into the parking
lot. They consulted and decided to go through the bar door. They immediately
glanced at the table of the fugitives. They smelled it pointing at their finger.
The four boys, feeling exposed, rose up in a flash, overthrowing the table and
repairing themselves in the back.
“If you
move, we’ll kill you all.” said the first man behind the table, pointing a gun.
The
group repaired themselves by overthrowing another table. Some of them ran out
the door waiting for reinforcements to arrive.
“What
are you doing?” Margaret cried out in panic. “If you don’t stop, I’ll call the
sheriff.”
“If you
try to call the sheriff, we will kill you too, we have nothing to lose.” said
the fugitives.
Charles, hearing the crash, came in through the back door, unable to understand
what was going on. “Calm down, guys, what’s going on?”
“Stay
behind the counter away from us.” cried one of the pursuers, pointing his knife
at him. “It’s none of your business. It’s with them we have to deal. They are
murderers.”
Outside
in the parking lot other cars had arrived and other boys were hiding behind the
door. Others surrounded the house to prevent the escape. They called the
remaining hunters in the bar who, holding the table upside down, slowly crawled
towards the door. Before they went out, they cried out, “Don’t think you will
see us go away. You have no escape.” They came out and slammed the door and
joined the other persecutors.
There
was a long silence in the bar. Charles walked slowly considering the mood of the
fugitives.
“We
don’t want to hurt anyone.” said one of the fugitives turned to Charles. “But we
must find ways to escape. Otherwise those out there,” with an outstretched arm
he pointed at the car park. “killed us.”
Poems
You Can Hear Me
Fairy Tales
Wood of Tales
Part Four - A Swallow Is Born
Good Hope Hotel
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
A Swallow Is Born
Other Works