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Fuente

Blind Justice

Chapter I:
Daniel

Daniel got up from his bed as soon as the great clock in the living room rang. Actually, he had not been able to sleep all night, or in the little bit of nighttime they had been granted. It seemed silly: to sleep. It was not the most reasonable option with everything that was going on, but it was undoubtedly the most necessary. He didn't have much choice either. His mother had ordered him, and he, like an obedient child, had to listen. He went to bed at 9:00 p. m. the night before just to roll around in bed. Many thoughts invaded his mind. He wondered what the alarm clock would sound like at 3:00 in the morning. He had been living in that house for years, but he was convinced that this time the clock would sound different, it would have a definite sound. Even though he was the youngest in the house, he was the smartest of them all. From the age of 3, his parents said he was a prodigy and would become one of the brightest minds of all time. Perhaps they exaggerated a little bit, probably all parents say similar things about their children when they see that they manage to gather all the blocks with their respective colors in kindergarten; but, without the impulse to say that they were visionaries, these parents were not mistaken; Daniel really had the potential to be one of the brightest minds of all time.

Daniel had been sad for many days, but he did not dare to say it, even if everyone noticed. He really believed himself to be the smartest man in the house, and he was convinced that this intelligence made him a role model, even though he was only 12 years old. He could not let his parents or his grandfather or sister fall because of him. He knew how to wear that mask of a strong child he had worked so hard on, or so he believed; but when he entered his room, he cried heartbrokenly, he cried like no 12-year-old should cry. He never played with toys, nor did he desire to do it, but since he knew the alarming warning that now made him wake up at 3 a. m. on an August morning, he began to see them with a certain air of nostalgia. He wondered if he had wasted the little time he had lived, wondered if he would have had more friends had he been a normal child, but it was too late. Even if he were allowed to live his life completely, there were certain aspects about himself that he would never change. Certainly he felt nostalgic thinking about things that never happened, but he couldn't deny that he loved his life even though it was lonely, or that’s what he wanted to convince himself of.

That night of August 13, unlike the previous days, he remained calm. He didn't cry all day. Although he did constantly think that going to bed to wake up a few hours later was a waste of time. He preferred to spend the little time they had left together with his family, but his mother said that wouldn't happen.

Everyone in the house agreed that Laura wasn’t thinking clearly. She constantly said that nothing had changed, that everything was the same as before, but it wasn't like that. Daniel wanted to convince his other relatives to rebel against his mother, to demand their moment of unity, even if it was to sit quietly in the room, as it used to be, but then he saw his mother's face swollen with tears and decided that granting her her last wish was the right thing to do, although he also found it a little selfish. The other members of the house, who outnumbered her, also had last wishes that were not being taken care of, like him, for example, who wanted to be with his family. Either way, wishes granted or not, what was going to happen could not be stopped. He decided to listen. If his mother said that everything should be done the same as before, everything should be done the same as before. So at 9:00 p. m., as usual, he went to try and sleep.

He closed the curtains and threw himself into his bed without changing his clothes because he thought it didn't make sense. He wanted to listen to his mother, he wanted everything to remain normal, but wearing his pajamas did seem silly. He started to roll around in bed, forcing himself to sleep, but he couldn't make it. He tried everything from the oldest tricks, such as counting sheep, to the most uncommon in a 12-year-old boy, like playing jazz music to induce sleep. He spent two hours trying to sleep, but it was useless. At 11:15 at night he surrendered, got up and decided to go around the house.

He admired, perhaps for the first time in his life, the greatness of his home, his mansion. A part of him wanted to brag, even if it was for himself, the effort of years of his parents who led them to get a place like that, but he could not do it, since such an effort had never existed. His parents had never been the smartest. That was not the image they showed to society, but he knew they were not. Sometimes he saw in his father glimpses of intelligence, and thought that it had been a great loss of life not to have taken advantage of it. About his mother, he simply saw a normal woman who had the good fortune of having married a poor man who many years later discovered that he was a multimillionaire.

The story, as they had told Daniel, was as follows. His father's great-great-grandfather, Manuel, had been a great banker in his day, but before becoming one, he had also been an ordinary man of great intelligence; however, this intelligence was not enough to prevent his wife from abandoning him with his son, Roberto. His wife left him for another banker whose luck had led him to an earlier fortune than Manuel's, and since then, he knew nothing more about his son. His wife had taken Roberto from him before his ninth birthday, leaving Manuel with a great emptiness. Manuel had loved his son with all his heart, as only a father knows how to love, and the lack of communication with him led him to a emptiness from which it was difficult for him to escape. He was depressed for a long time, felt he was a bad father for not being able to provide for his family properly, blamed himself many times for what happened and even thought his wife had done the right thing. After blaming himself for a long time, he blamed himself a little more. Over time, after having lived through his depression in depth, he began to fill himself with courage again and decided not to let that experience, though tragic, make him fall ever again in his life. Little by little, he became that great banker, and his discipline and effort eventually gave him a fortune.

In his last days, Manuel kept thinking about Roberto and how happy they could have been together with all the money he had managed to make. Manuel was one of those beings whose happiness lay in money, and unlike many other people, did not realize otherwise when dying. When he remembered his life with Roberto before his great financial success, he only saw sadness, he had never known how to take advantage of the simplicity of the moments; and when he imagined what could have been, he saw himself happy with his son, but it was a happiness that depended on the economic value. However, something could not be denied: with or without money, Manuel loved Roberto. So he decided, as a final will, to leave all his fortune to him. The problem was that, although he tried, he did not manage to contact his son, and he had to leave the task of delivering the inheritance to his lawyer.

Manuel finally died, after a life of little happiness and much work; and his lawyer began the journey of looking for Roberto, but no matter how hard he tried, and he really tried, he didn't succeed. He contacted all the people who shared Manuel's surname, looked for men of almost middle age who had not been raised by a father and who were called Roberto, but as soon as these candidates discovered the reason for the search, they began to exaggerate the way they treated him, lied about adventures they had lived with their father, pretended to weep disconsolately, said they felt empty since their father had abandoned them; the search had become an audition for a movie.

Generations passed by and Manuel's great legacy had not yet been handed over, even the lawyer had died. But, after much doubt and investigation, it became apparent that Raúl, Daniel's father, was Manuel's great-great-grandson. Raúl could not help falling into the desperate act of those other men, which, in other circumstances, could have been a sign that he was an impostor, but, acting or not, the truth had been proven, and by law, he was entitled to all his fortune.

Daniel did not admire his parents for what they had accomplished as human beings because, truthfully, they had accomplished nothing. They were new rich. They didn't know how to manage their fortune, let alone invest it. He considered them contemporary aristocrats, and even thought they were waiting for him and his sister to grow up to invest the wealth.

Above all, Daniel loved them and suffered from the thought that he would not spend any more time with them. He felt sad that a tragic news had been the impulse to learn to love the mistakes of his relatives, but he tried not to let himself be bathed by that feeling and simply enjoyed what he hated before: quarrels, wastage, egocentrism, lack of humility, etc.... He also learned to give more value to those things that he always loved about them: closeness, sincerity, quality time lived with them, etc.

He wondered if it really had been a great gift from the universe that his father had received a great fortune just to be taken away with his life and that of all his relatives, but what was the value of asking questions that would never be answered? The reality of what was to happen overwhelmed him and repeated that it was no longer worth the trouble to regret anything.

Although sadness was the most prevalent feeling in Daniel, since he had resigned himself to the unstoppable, while walking around his home, he remembered all those days when he lived in fear, especially the first day; the day when his family suffered the misfortune of being selected to pay for other people's mistakes.

To be continued...

Thank you for reading, I look forward to your comments and votes. See you next Thursday.

Peace.