Chapter-1: The Old Business of Men
“He’s two hours late,” said Diego as his silver pocket watch cradled him in minimal comfort. The man he waited for had massive wealth. Amado Aguilar owned too many profitable businesses to ignore or reprimand. Especially since the bank lusted over each gold and silver piece he gained.
The heat and the wait gave Diego a poking headache. In his discomfort, he considered his troubling dreams again, the scorch of the day and even the child. In the end, he couldn’t decide on which one to blame for his current plight.
The slaps from the sun’s rays boiled his memories loose. Diego remembered his meeting in the church with Father Philippe. In their brief talk, he neglected to mention an accurate time frame of his personal matter. His confusing and persistent dreams extended back at least five months, not one or two, like he had approximated to the priest.
There was another detail Diego neglected to mention: a heavy memory from eight years ago. It squeezed at his heart at the worst possible moments.
He shook his personal thoughts away, and stepped back, and entered the bank. All safe, he walked back to his office. Business procedures repeated in Diego’s mind. He thought:
The bank’s policy for regular clients indicates rescheduling on the next available business day. No exceptions. Once fifteen minutes have passed over the allotted time, the bank must move on with the money.
Diego slowed his pace. He stopped in front of his office and stared at his leather chair and oak desk. He stood in a rigid stance and ignored his headache, the growing sickness in his stomach and his cold flustered face. He continued to think,
But, for big-money clients, such as Amado Aguilar, there is a modified policy. In this case, I must send a courtesy messenger to his point of contact location after business hours at 5:00p.m. In Amado’s case, that’s ten kilometers away. Meaning, I wait for him to show; or, I wait for his word to return by messenger.
A cold shudder ran up Diego’s spine as he entered his office and placed his attention on other bank business matters. First, he approved a request from a struggling farmer; and then he rejected two other loan requests. On occasion, he looked up at his grandfather clock and thought, any minute, now, any minute.
Guiding questions for Comments: (What do you see?)
For those interested in leaving a comment, here is a list of questions to help guide your critique.
Within these two pages of the story, from my perspective, I think I have provided enough information to answer the following questions. But what do you see?
1. Why is Diego troubled so much by waiting for his client?
2. What is Diego’s main conflict that keeps repeating in the story?
Thank you
I appreciate your time in reading this blog post. Next Saturday I will upload the next part of Chapter One: The Old Business of Men, from my first novel: Guerrero of Passions.
Total Consciousness 