Could it be possible?"

An amazing event

John was a very methodical and disciplined man, but kinda slow of thinking. A faithfully husband and a loving father of two daughters, responsible for the family housework, due to the scheduling he had as a textile worker at night shift and availability of time during the day. However, how did he do it possible? Very easy, he leaves the factory every morning at 6.00 am. At 7.00 am, he was arriving home to make the breakfast to serve their daughters, and then take them to the private school, which his entire salary could not cover. Back at home, 8:30 am, his wife, Mary, already left to work, in an important construction company in town. So he used to have breakfast alone. He would sleep on from 10 am. to 4 pm. and gets up just to go to pick up his  children from school. Once back home, he helped them with their homework while in the meantime was cooking the dinner. At 7 pm, the supper was served, usually just for the three of them... At 9 pm, the girls go bed and he to work.  

His wife was the opposite of John. Mary was a very intelligent woman, modern, liberal and feminist, who had assumed as main responsibility in her life: her professions of engineer, in addition to achieving the highest seat in this divided and unjust society, whose rules play were against her just because she was a woman. She loved her daughters, no doubt, but had no time to give them: "the love you deserve, my dear daughters... -She used to say to them, sometime during the weekend-... because I work hard to pay everything you have," as it was the only opportunity she had of seeing them, without the daily rush she was involved.    

"Miss Nora, could you watch my children? My wife hasn't arrived yet, and I gotta go work," said John. He had to look for help once again, of the next door young neighbor of the condominium where they lived.

One of those nights on his way to work, he had to detour from its usual route and take a long detour because of a traffic accident, and once on his new and unexpected way, when he drove near a discreet motel, he saw the Maria's car in the parking lot of it. A shiver ran through his body at the instant that the fatal idea, "she's cheating me” came to his mind. He really did not know how he arrived at the gates of the factory where he worked. However, he got out of the car like an automaton, entered the lobby, scanned his digital working timecard through the clock gap and, overwhelmed by his thoughts and without answering the greetings of his colleagues, he walked to the textile machine, which he worked with for more than 10 years and started his routine.

That night, when he was cutting the fabric, he lost two fingers by the distraction he had. Therefore, his working day ended at the hospital. Nevertheless, not even the hand pain made to diminish the one he had in his heart.

Two days later, when he was discharged, he got home and spent hours sitting on the sofa of the living room, alone, doing absolutely nothing, thinking about how unfair was life for him, holding with the good hand the note of Mary, the one she left on the coffee-table, that had already been read by him. The strong pain due to the lost fingers no longer mattered to him. Now, his mind was trapped in the deep hole of suffering, because Mary had gone from home carrying their daughters away too.

John always kept a hidden fear in the pits of his soul. From the day they finished high school and exchanged vows, he knew that Mary was too much woman for him.

Despite time had passed, from the day he met her at the high school and then, months later, when they exchanged vows, John had kept a hidden fear depths of his soul.  He knew that Mary was too much woman for him.

"We are too poor to make a profession career. Our parents couldn't afford the expenses, not even in the State one," Mary said at the time she received the notice letter that brought the news that she'd got the granted admission to the university, due to her high score obtained, just when she was turning out 17 years old, so sure that she wanted to go to university .

"Me neither. I don't think I go, if I barely ended the school... -John said ironically smiling, adding then- ... Actually, I don't even have the intention of being professional."

"But, I want to be engineer, I want to study civil engineering," said Mary as a prayer, looking up to heaven.

"My father will retire this summer and I think he is gonna let me his place in the textile company where he works... I think I already have defined my future," said John, watching and admiring the beauty of Mary.

Mary was more than a pretty face girl, because nature had given her, besides a lush body, a mind lively and acute, that anyone who had treated her it could realize of it. But, men over the neighborhood looked at her with lustful desires, ignoring the intelligence shine in her eyes... and John, at his side... did not exist.

"John, I love you, I love you with all my heart. Why don’t we get married?" Mary asked, snuggling it in his arms.

"Your parents, and also mine, wouldn't permit it, darling. We do not have a place, not in yours and neither in mine. "

The conversation of the young lovers continued in bed. Mary gave him her virginity, and John had the experience of having reached the heaven for a moment. After a brief silence, John spoke... solemnly.

"Mary, I will accept to work in the factory and you... you're going to the State university... I promise!"

John's eyes shed tears, provoked by the memories from his youth, rolling down on his cheeks, flowing through the wrinkles that life had marked on his face. However, in silence, he looked at his hands for a moment. One was neatly bandaged, while the other showed the hard calluses, won it in his 8-hour working day battles, with dirty fingernails for the grease used in the machine, the same one that hadn't forgiving him for his distraction.

A few days later, the calling to go back to work arrived. The company wanted him back at the factory, to have it him sitting eight hours in the rest area of the workshop, instead of extend the resting medical at home. Therefore, John, as he couldn't drive his car, took the Metrolink. It would take only four stops to get him to the street near to his job.

That night, confused as he was, caused by the painkillers and the messy state he felt in his soul, he came down at the third stop as a sleepwalker, leaving forgotten his lunch box. Realizing his error and unable to return to the same wagon, because the doors already were closed and the train had started its run, he had to wait for the next train. In the midst of waiting, he heard a distant rumble, but it didn't mind it. Then, he jumped on the wagon that was already in front of him with open doors. As soon as the train started its run, it had to stop for an emergency warning call... A bomb had exploded and destroyed the fourth stop, exactly where they were heading.

John arrived to his working place anyway and went to the reserved area for the leisure time, to spend 8 hours sitting there. In that room, he saw on TV the details of the news, until the sleepiness overcame him.

A few hours later, John was suddenly wakened up when heavily armed men in uniform fell on him, without regard to his condition of convalescence, and bound him hand and foot. Then, blinded by a hooded, he was taken to the police station. John was accused of leaving a bomb in the wagon where he was traveling and having got out at the previous stop, along with a woman... and the police had videos of the security cameras in the place to prove it.

All of this, plus the psychological profile of the state he was going through, made him the primary suspect in the attack.

John did not sleep for 24 hours, “entertaining” by endless interviews, slapping, transfers, more questioning and slapping, and coffee cups, until he was released free of charges.

He never admitted the charges, but his sanity was under doubt due to the given answers about the person who was accompanying him in the videos. Fortunately, for him, the police had identified and arrested the real perpetrators.

John, back to the couch in his living room, was sitting alone, meditating in silence and looking at the photo of the video that one of the officers who questioned him allowed him to keep it, as an apology for the wrong arrest and the unusual case.

"Could it be possible?" John asked himself, sad and confused, staring at the figure that appeared in the photo.

And he couldn't restrain any longer to shed tears. "Mom... I know you always are by my side... and that night you saved my life when you got me out of the wagon. Tomorrow, I'm gonna get you some flowers to your graveyard, I love you mom."