The Gift // STORY

It was his 24th birthday. Alfredo Ramirez went to his fiancée's house. It was 9:00 a.m. He was accompanied by Sebastian, a childhood friend and member of the separatist political movement in the region. Sebastian said that he was waiting for him in the car and that please hurry, they had important matters to attend to.

Camila gave him a long kiss. It was the first birthday present Alfredo would receive that day. The bride was planning a dinner party. Her parents, who lived in a nearby town, would be attending. The young couple were planning to set the date of the wedding. She asked about the boy who was in the vehicle. Alfredo told her that he was an old friend and had to go with him to do some things. A yellow umbrella caught Alfredo's attention. It was a very intense yellow. - It belongs to my aunt Mercedes, she left it behind last night. Camila gave him some sandwiches for the road and they said goodbye with another kiss that reflected the love they felt.

They drove along a secondary road, left the city and at the third intersection they drove along a dirt road that served as the entrance to a leafy forest of large trees. The wood industry was the main source of income in that area. They continued straight ahead for two kilometers. They arrived at an abandoned sawmill. Two men were waiting for them next to an old Renault vehicle.

The men from the forest opened the trunk of the car. Everyone was pleased with what they saw. One of them, the tallest, gave Alfredo some instructions. Meanwhile, Sebastian and the shortest man were talking. Do you think he has the balls to do it? Yes! He does. He has enthusiasm, today is his birthday. This opportunity is a gift for him.

Alfredo got into the '98 Renault and drove back to town. Sebastian would follow him from the other car. He was to take him to the planned destination. He was excited. Two months ago he started attending the clandestine meetings of the separatist movement. He was tired of the injustices they were receiving in their land. They did not feel part of the country. They wanted to have their own government and form a republic. In one of the meetings where they discussed the political future and the actions to be taken, he recognized his old classmate, Sebastian. It was he, who seeing him committed to the revolutionary cause introduced him to the leaders of the extreme left.

_Source

I'm going to show what I'm worth! Alfredo thought as he drove. He wanted a better future. He would soon marry Camila and have children. What he planned to do was necessary. It was his duty as a patriot. Today, on his 24th birthday, he had to pass the test. It was the second gift he had received. He took the sandwich out of his jacket and ate the sandwich his beautiful fiancée had made for him. The clouds were black, the rain was coming.

After several laps, he managed to park the Renault in the planned spot. In front of Francine's Cafeteria, near the city center and one street away from the police station. Many agents were meeting there for lunch. Next to the cafeteria was a music store. He saw the guitar he liked. A week ago, he had passed with his girlfriend on that street. He invited her for a walk downtown. But he was actually studying the area. He turned off the car and following the instructions of the man in the woods, he pressed a button installed on the dashboard. Immediately he got out and trying to act normal, he covered his head with his jacket to protect himself from the drizzle and walked in the opposite direction. Sebastian was waiting for him two streets away. Five minutes was the time he had...

...his heart was pounding. In just five minutes they would declare war on the oppressive government. He accelerated the pace, but something stopped him for a moment. He turned to look at the cafeteria. He looked up at the yellow umbrella. A girl was holding it. She was in front of the music store. It was his fiancée. Camilla was there to buy the guitar they saw a week ago. It was the surprise gift she wanted to give him.

Alfredo ran to the cafeteria. The expression on his face reflected anguish and despair. He was screaming his girlfriend's name. But the sound of the horns prevented her from hearing him. Alfredo thought he could make it in time. The blast wave made him fall to the ground. He felt the shards of glass penetrating his face. The cafeteria and the entire area around it was destroyed. Mutilated bodies on the floor. He saw what he had done. The horror of hate. People grimacing in pain, others asking for help. The screams he couldn't hear. Unable to get up and bleeding from his ears, he lay there. The wind of the storm that was about to start blew the yellow umbrella to his side. Looking for an apparently better future, he ended up destroying the future of hundreds of people and his own.

On his twenty-fourth birthday, that was the third gift Alfredo received.