A NOVEL IN THE TRUTH PUBLICATION

While our publisher recovers his health, The Truth Publication Online will publish a novel based on realities of life and personal episodes of the characters, including the story of a touching romance. The whole drama ended in the City of Riverside.

THE NIGHT WAS LEFT BEHIND
by El Vate.

Charter 1


Tony was 24 years old when he met for the first time a beautiful girl by name Amparo, 19. The encounter took place at a modest party in the neighborhood of Tony. She was dancing with another man and he with another young woman.

But, at the rhythm of tropical musical notes, they were not concentrating on their partners. Their eyes were crossing the air looking at each other like the moon watches the earth intensively.

Eventually, they will see each other again because she was taking classes close to Tony's home. The mutual attraction was evident. She was tall, with a pretty green eyes and a curvaceous body. He was also tall, elegant, with a gorgeous black hair.

A romance between the two was just a matter of time. They could not imagine the marvels of love, the happiness and the tragedies that were waiting for them, as the moon waits every night to caresses the flowers of our garden.

But black clouds were appearing in the horizon, threatening love and freedom. Who could have imagined the whole drama will end up in the political arena of Riverside, California?

Chapter II

Tony and Amparo were very happy. She was a teacher at an elementary school and he was a reporter for an important newspaper. But something was interfering with the couple lives: Amparo's mom.

Amparo's mom was a very possessive person. She kept treating her daughter as a child. Every day she was showing up at the home of the couple, even making many calls during the honeymoon. It was a selfish and destructive intrusion, affecting the lives of Tony and his wife.

Making the story short, Amparo's mom moved to the couple's home, and a few months later her husband too, Amparo's father. Tony and Amparo's privacy was history. Nevertheless, they loved each other very much and tried to deal with the situation.

Unfortunately, politics affects the lives of people for good or for bad. A terrible thing happened in the country: Communism took over power, erasing freedom, happiness and well being. Democracy became tyranny. Happiness transform to sadness. Life translated to death.

Then, what happened to Amparo and Tony's marriage?

Chapter III

This story has several messages, one of them is about the damage that parents make on their grown sons and daughters when they treat them as if they still were infants. There have been thousands of jokes about "mothers-in-law," but in this case the joke is not funny at all because what happened to the marriage of Tony and Amparo.

Yes, some times jokes become reality. Just read the following "jokes":

I haven't spoken to my mother-in-law for two years. We haven't quarreled. I just don't like to interrupt her.

What is the worst thing an emergency doctor can tell you after admitting your mother-in-law?

"Sir, we were able to save her."

The clock fell off the wall. If it was a minute sooner, it would have hit my mother-in-law. The clock was always slow.

Well, being honest, Tony and Amparo's marriage troubles cannot be credited to her parents intrusion per say. Actually, it was the change in the political structure of the country the main cause of the end of a great romance

Tony became an activist against the dictatorship. His life was reduced to zero and had no choice but to leave the country. Amparo's mother threatened her to commit suicide if she decided to come to the U.S. with her husband.  Tony's life was in danger, and one day he could managed to escape the country in an American ship that was ankled in a harbor.

Amparo opted to stay in the country with her parents, afraid of her mother's threats to kill herself. What a selfish behavior of the young woman's mother!

(Chapter IV)

Imagine for a second what is to be in a foreign country not knowing its language, being broke, and having no connections at all. Only a very strong character could survive those circumstances.

The ship where Tony escaped from his country arrived at a Florida harbor. Tony and about two hundred more refugees were taken to Miami, where the Police and Jewish people rejected the new arrivals. Police were totally biased and abusive, and Jewish were telling them, "Go back to your country."

Tony saw public bathrooms with signs, "For white people only." It was the year 1962. As always, it is just to mention exceptions. Of course, the Miami of today is not the one of the past. The refugees has made of the city a properous one, thanks to their hard work and wisdom.

Not a pretty sight, anyhow.

So, Tony went to New York, a crazy town with very tall buildings, where people are always in a hurry and nobody trust anybody. A very dangerous and liberal town. At that time, Tony was having breakfast, lunch and dinner around three o'clock in the afternoon: a hot dog and coffee with milk. In winter, temperature goes below 30 degrees.

But New York is an amazing city. No matter its millions of residents and tourists, a job could be found to provide food and shelter to a person in need, washing dishes, paling snow, cleaning buildings, whatever. Tony's heart was broken to pieces.

Huge surprises were waiting for Tony in the Big Apple, some good, some bad.

(Chapter V.)

The International Rescue Committee helped refugees who were concentrating in Miami, a town with a very poor economic situation in the 1960s. So, the IRC started to allocate refugees in other cities.

"I cannot believe this is
happening to me."

Being in Manhattan, the IRC provided to Tony a week paid in a hotel and found a job for him. A heavy used coat was given to him, for protection from the very cold winter in the Big Apple. The hotel had a common bath, and neighbors with blue eyes were amazed that Tony took a shower every day, instead once a week as them.

Tony was recommended to a small factory in Queens, and there he went not without falling several times on the iced streets because he didn't have the special rubber shoes to walk on ice. Finally, Tony had a job. The factory made envelopes out of disposal papers.

A worker was assigned to train Tony in one machine. He was learning fast, but three hours after starting he was called to the office by the owner, who told him, "I'm very sorry but I have to let you go. I cannot explain why."  All the workers at the factory were "Puertorricans," and they didn't want to have a co-worker from another origin.

There was Tony, with a 3-hour check in his pocket, about $17.00, having two days left to live in the hotel. A very tough situation. The IRC committed to find just one job to the refugees. After that, they were on their own in the middle of a huge and cold monster.

What happened to Tony next, who was missing his wife, his relatives and friends, his career,? The fact to be young give you stamina to overcome the great challenges of life. And that's exactly was what Tony did.

(To be continued.)

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