A or B, no C or D. Chapter three: The dices.

Hey, sorry it took me months to end this short story, but is is finally here.( If you don´t remember how the story goes you can scroll down and read part one and two)  Enjoy, or whatever. 

A or B, no C or D

By: Carla L. Sierra Arzuffi

Chapter three (and last one): The dices. 

Link is holding his breath, I can sense he is loving and savoring this moment.

“You don’t have a lot of options” he finally says. “There comes a moment in all humans life when they must make a decision, and to very, very, very few I can help them to know the consequences of each path before they take one”.

We are both silent for a few seconds. “What decision must I make?” I whisper.

“Oh, I’m glad you asked Rebecca”, he starts pacing in my bed. Even though he is just a small creature I am scared of the things that come out of his mouth, deep down inside of me I know he is not here to save my life or something like that, but to change it in a drastic way, and I’m fearing that the options he is talking about have an unpleasant outcome.

“You see, when last night you had intercourse with that other human, you unlaced a series of unstoppable events to come. Now, I am obligated to say this, but even though I’m about to tell you your future, no matter what path you choose, you will not be able to change it, am I being clear?”

“No, I still don’t truly understand what you are saying” I start feeling thirsty and anxious, like something is crawling inside my skin and I cant get it out no matter what.

“What I mean, my sweet girl, is that many men and woman have wasted the time that they are given to make a decision to try to change the outcome, and I must be very clear, it cant be changed, no matter what, so don’t waste your time”

“Can I have some water?” Is all that I can say, Link nods and I go to my small kitchen and pour myself some water from the tab into my favorite king size water cup. I drink eagerly. When I go back to my room Link is playing with some dices. They make him look even smaller when he holds them. The dices are, of course, like no other dices I have ever seen. Link is throwing them in the air; every time he does it they change color, instead of having numbers they seem to have letters, and apparently they also change.

“What’s that?" I ask, although I already have a feeling to where we are heading.

“We will get to that” Link says, he puts the dices inside his small pants, and its like they disappear, no trace of them for the moment. I sit on my couch and stare at the leprechaun.

“Well, continue then” I say, feeling tired.

“So, last night” Link says “you had sex, and because of that, here we are. In this very moment you are already pregnant”. He pauses expecting me to smile or cry or something.

This whole thing is so surreal to me that I don’t even manage to make a sound.

“Ok. And also, you had a casting, I’m I right’”.  He asks even though he knows I’m not going to answer.

“Rebecca, you are going to get the part, and this job will make you famous, very famous, it will push your career quickly. Like an epidemic, you will rapidly be in everyone’s conversations. You will be in magazines, more movies, red carpets and all that fame drags. But….”

Of course there is a but, I cant expect to have everything I dreamed of so easily right?. I am scared.

“But…” Link continues smiling wickedly. “You are pregnant, so you can’t do the movie that is going to send you like speedy Gonzales into Hollywood if, you are pregnant”

“So” I say putting my hands into my face “You are saying that I can be a mom, or I can be famous, but I can’t be both. What if I choose to be famous and then, later in life, I can become a mom, in the right time”

“No. Here is the tricky part. Listen well girl” Link jumps out of my bed and walks slowly to the couch where he sits right next to me. I can’t look at him. I don’t want to.

“I’m going to be very clear. Here are your two options.” Link’s voice is now very official, like he is a cop, I’m a caught burglar and he is stating my rights while he is cuffing me.   

“Option A: You choose to have this baby, by the way, its going to be a girl. If you have her, you wont be able to do the movie, you will not become famous. But you will eventually get married, be very much in love with your husband, have tree more children, including twins, you will live a long, not very wealthy life. You will get to see your children have children and your children’s children have children. You will die an old woman”.

I try to swallow the whole information, my future, but I just can’t picture it.

“Option B: You choose to not have this baby, like I said, you will do the movie, become very, very famous. And you will die, young. You will get to enjoy the fruits of your stardom well enough, and when you die, you will become even more famous, because you died. You will become and icon, everyone will know your name and story. But, you will never have children, or find love, you will not see your thirtieth birthday.”

I am stunned, I can’t even think, how can I know this stupid little dude is even saying the truth? It can’t be real; all of this must be a dream. I can’t make that sort of choice. Why can’t I have both? I want to be famous, it’s all I ever wanted, but I don’t want to die young, childless and unloved. 

My brain is working a thousand miles per hour; I don’t know how long we have been sitting here, while I say nothing.

“That’s it Rebecca. I am obligated to say, yet again, that you can’t change the future, it is what it is.” Links says softly.

“Why?” I say. Somehow my voice is nearly a scream and I am no longer sitting but standing “Why?, I mean, why did you have to tell me this?, why couldn’t you just let me choose in the  moment, without knowing the consequences.” I am crying like a big fat baby.

“It is my job” Link says “I have done this forever, you are not the first person to have to do this, I could tell you a thousand names you would probably recognize that they had to make a choice and they knew, by us, the leprechauns, the consequences”.

I sob and sob for minutes, I can’t breathe. I feel a hand on my shoulder, Link is touching me.

I stop crying and start to feel relaxed. I suddenly understand that it is indeed the truth I am hearing. And I know I have to make a choice, and I understand the why.

I open my eyes and Link is no longer there. I am alone, crumbled in my floor holding myself. I search franticly for some evidence of the leprechaun. The stain on my bed is gone, but there, where it used to be, are the dices. They are red, I take them into my hand, the first one says A, and the other one B. That’s all that is left of this magical creature.

We all have to make choices; we don’t realize how often we do. It’s a cruel gift to know the series of events that your choices bring. But it’s a gift. You would think knowing would make it harder, but in the end, even while Link was talking, I knew what my choice would be.

The hard thing is not knowing, it is letting go. We hold on to so many things because we scared to just be what we are supposed to and not what we think we have to be. Do we really think we know what we want? To do what you want, or what you think you want, or what you think someone else wants for you, or what you are expected.

That day I did not learned my future, or the truth about magical creatures, or the joke someone’s life can be, or the little we have control over things, I learned the most important lesson, I learned to finally be myself, I learned to Just. Let. Go.

I made my choice.  

THE END. 

It´s over. Can you guess what choice she made? I know, do you? 

Thanks for reading. 

Have a nice life. 

C.L.S.A.