Cause and Effect

Juan Rodrigo came to the illumination in the midst of his deepest depression in years. The lucid light did little to alleviate his suffering as it came at a moment when he was rendered impotent by means of his own labyrinthine mind. The self-inflicted wounds of modern psychosis were simply too much of an obstacle to mount. Nor was Juan Rodrigo in any condition to attempt such a reckless undertaking. Sitting at the bar and drowning in tequila is a sure means of wallowing and watching the world swim past and his only solace. In all fairness Juan Rodrigo was never before so inclined. His drunkenness was merely the side-effect of the cruelty of the inefficient bureaucracy that ran the General’s office. While the proof of his brother’s innocence was substantial and aptly demonstrated he had arrived too late. His brother had been shot two days before in response to a clerical error. The young woman who caused the error was unaware of the consequences and if she had been would have collapsed beneath the stress. Already she was showing signs of coming apart at the seams. The nasty cat-calls of the soldiers that patrolled the front of the office, the spreading sickness of her mother, and the fear of her little sister’s involvement with a notorious drug dealer were mountains of weight. Her mother had undiagnosed cancer and wallowed in the hammock from day to day, filling the house with a dread that was tangible to touch. All the known medicines had been shown to be useless and every day was a vigil till the end. Juan Rodrigo was slated by the heavens to meet this young woman, a meeting that would have ended in an alleviation (to various degrees) of everyone’s suffering. However, as it were, the meeting was postponed by two days because of a storm that was meant to pass through the northern countries but was reverted by a whim of the unknown. The storm knocked down a number of power lines and forced Juan Rodrigo into extra hours at the grid sector controls, postponing his trip to the General’s City by two days. He believed he had extra time since the execution was to be done in three weeks time. Needing the job for money, after all he did have a niece to support, he could not leave just then. This led to the untimely and innocent demise of his younger brother who had been mistaken for a rebel leader in hiding. The resemblance was uncanny to the Rebel leader, but the charges unwarranted.
In the same time, the same set of actions, another scene creates itself. This one sees the whimpering brother being released to tears and embraces. The clerk and Juan Rodrigo do meet and begin a friendship that proves deep and lasting, though never carnal.
Again, only now the storm does not change direction and Juan makes it on time. The normal clerk is off, her mother had begun to convulse and she needed to stay behind to care for her.
And so on… Numerous and minute changes that flesh together a story so varied and vivid, and all just possible. Hope and despair teetering on a tight rope held together by maybes. Wrapped within these stories are the choices made, limited or grand, marked by the ripples they produce.