Emiliano Mancilla

“I love rumors! Facts can be so misleading, but rumors, true or false, are often revealing.”

I remember David, we played football in the same team when we were kids, those times where nothing really matters, just the present, everything is a new adventure and the worst thing that can happen is a good scold from your dad. 

Even though I have fuzzy memories about his dad, his personality was a common topic among the team. Always arriving to our matches in his expensive formal clothes, with a good pair of sunglasses shouting at David when the ball was near him. It was no surprise that the best performances were when he wasn’t around, and we used to joke about that, even the coach told David a couple of times not to tell him about the next matches. 

D was a great guy, I only have good memories about when we played together, but as everyone’s football careers get to an end at some point, I didn’t hear anything about him since high school. 

Nevertheless we lived in a small town, and when you live in a small town, everybody kind of knows at some point everybody, so it took me by surprise when I heard about his terrible luck. 

The story tells that he and his friend Ollie were having some fun in the city, partying in the usual nightclubs where any middle-high-class guy would go. In the middle of the night, the dynamic duo decided to take a cab, and, once they were arriving to the pointed place, they noticed they were short in cash, they needed to think fast. And, being that “drunk” and “think” never mixed well together, the only idea that could get on their minds was to run. 

The problem with their perfect plan, was that they didn’t thought the driver would try to chase them, and it didn’t take much effort to reach our tipsy protagonists as their inconsistent steps played against their luck. 

The survival Instincts kept their course and, as flight was not an option anymore, the only choice they had was to fight. 

So there they were, two young fellas fighting for their lives against a middle aged cab driver. It is not hard to deduce who took the worst part. The punches that poor man received were so severe, that an ambulance had to pick him up to the hospital. Hours later he would die. 

The notice took David and Ollie by surprise soon enough, in another time, in another place, nobody would have known about the murderers, and a homeless miserable gentleman would had gone to prison. Nevertheless, the cameras, the bloody cameras did their job and recorded the scene. 

The denouement of this anecdote mixes with the beautiful rumors I talked so much about at the beginning of the text, they whisper that Ollie could escape and is now living in a first world country while David couldn’t make it, he left a daughter with her mother on their own, and his parents have to give monthly payments so he can sleep without worrying about other inmates threatening his wellbeing. 

His father seemed strict, but behind that strong personality, I think the best intentions were hidden, and now I just can’t imagine how it feels the change from seeing your son in a football pitch to seeing him in jail.