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A Touch Of Fate

He had really made a mess of his life. Looking back, there were things that he did that he now thought he could have done differently. But as to the overall course his life had taken, he felt more than just a touch of fate. There are circumstances in life that one could change, while with others one can do nothing but feel a sense of powerlessness. This is what experience had taught him.

Now he knew that for the most part, on a day to day basis, it’s all about problem solving. We all have them, we all have to deal with them. For him, it all came down to how he chose to deal with the situations placed before him.

For the better part of his life, if there was one character he identified with, it was Paul Newman’s Luke, in the flick “Cool Hand Luke”. He had often found himself thinking about the last scene of that movie. The one where Luke, alone in the attic in which he is hiding, talks to God.  As he remembers it, Luke is looking for answers. “You created me like this. What did you expect? How could things have possibly turned out otherwise?”. Then the warden’s famous line, “what we have here is a failure to communicate”, moments before he takes dead aim with his shotgun and blows Luke away.

Had his thinking changed over the years? He wasn’t sure, but felt that given a break, Luke would have had the ability to alter his seemingly predestined fate. And finding himself now in, if not the exact, but similar circumstances as Newman’s character, he set out to prove his point. After skipping out on bail, he had been on the run for nearly three years now. His steadfast rule was to never stay in one location for more than two months. And always, always, keep a low profile. Up until now, he had found it quite effortless and natural for him to live in this manner. He was in possession of so many false I.D.’s, and it was so easy for him to dramatically alter his appearance, he honestly believed they would never find him.

Furthermore, he had never been averse to menial labor. Short order cook, waiter, janitor, caretaker for the elderly, he felt he could always find a way to make a few bucks before he moved on. So it was in this state of mind that he first encountered Natalie.

From their initial meeting, his life has never been the same. There was something so pure, so truthful about her. The first words she had ever spoken to him were “now don’t take this the wrong way. I think your an attractive man. But you must do something about your hair, your clothes”.

Now normally, he would have taken offense, even held a grudge. But her approach was so gentle and well intentioned, he sensed that there was something special about her from the very beginning. His gift for reading people correctly had served him well throughout his life. He was not wrong about Natalie. Their relationship progressed slowly at first, mainly because he knew he would eventually have to move on to another small town. But there was something changing within, and this both scared and excited him. This hard man was beginning to soften up a bit. He began to speak of his past, truthfully, as he had never done before. Her seemingly unconditional acceptance of him just helped to spur him on. It had been five months now that he had stayed in Minnyville. As much as he loved Natalie, he felt he was taking too big of a risk, that he should leave. But he couldn’t bring himself to do that, at least without first talking it over with her.

They were sitting across from each other in their favorite diner. He told her how he had jumped bail, how he was accused of a serious crime that he hadn’t committed. Because of his past, of his many convictions on lesser counts, he didn’t think he stood a chance in hell of being victorious in court. She reached over and held his hand between hers. She told him that if he so desired, she would follow him anywhere, that she was that much in love with him. But the right thing to do was to turn himself in, and trust that justice would be served. Against his better judgment, he listened to Natalie’s advice. Not because it was the moral thing to do, but to do otherwise would mean disappointing Natalie. And that was one thing he was not willing to do.

They married a day before he started serving his sentence. They correspond on a constant basis. She visits him at every given opportunity. And although Natalie is working day and night to appeal the case, he doesn’t put much hope in this. But who knows, in ten years, if all goes well, he will be eligible for and might even be granted an early release.

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