Travels With Charley - Blogpost

A flashback of my life passed on my head. My good childhood years, my life on the farm, my mom and sister. I was so sorry deprived of our last talk and last hug. I needed my mom by my side to protect me. But I left her alone, and now I am alone. No. God was there. He was the only one I could resort to in those endless moments of agony. I had been faithful to Him and I believed he would not abandon me. Confined in that dark closet, I started praying. I cried and prayed and repeated to myself Bible verses that I knew by heart. The man who was holding me hostage was yelling at himself and at someone that was with him. The stronger he yelled, the more fervent I prayed to my Lord. He would not abandon me.  Then I heard shots followed by screams and curses and noises I could identify. I bow to protect myself.

Suddenly it was quiet. “Did I die?”, I thought. At least it was painless. But I heard steps coming somewhere in the house, and realized that maybe I was not dead after all. I hear a different man’s voice, searching for others in the room, “Is anybody there”. I yell in response so he can hear me. He rushes to the close and opens the door. I hesitate to leave for a moment. I was still shocked by all that had just happened and could not stop crying, a mixture of angst and relief. He gets closer to comfort me, reassuring me the situation was safe. Without looking at him, I feel something cold on my neck. Looking up, I see the cutest poodle that at the moment, due to stress, did look like an angel to me. “I beg your pardon, sir”, he says, “Charley just wants to make sure his new friend is safe”. I do not mind that at all. That was the most relieving event that could have happened to me and it did not even come from a human.

Explaining what happened, this man, whose name I forgot to ask for since I was the most stunned I had ever been in my life, told me that he was in the region to hunt quails. Getting closer to the farmer’s house without noticing it, he shot three or four times a fleeting quail he had been trying to capture for the past hours. After hearing the shots, the criminal who had confined me comes out of the house and starts shooting at him. At first, the benevolent man thought the person shooting at him thought he was trying to trespass his property, but the shooter strangely left the house, running away with a young woman to their car and fled. Later, it was found those two were criminals on the run, hunted all over the country. He told me I should be grateful because the farmer who owned this land did not have the same luck as I did. The criminals had shot him down. That’s when it hit me that God had not abandoned me indeed. I could not risk being in that place anymore, so I decided to leave Jefferson immediately. I thanked the old man, who I now consider part of my family even though I don’t know his name. In fact, he seemed very familiar. He reminded of someone famous. I just did not know who it was. At least, from that moment on, he and his angelic poodle were forever registered in my mind.