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.”