“Get her out of my house,” My father exclaimed. “Or Gabriel’s going to kick you both out.”

I got devastated on hearing this. To this day, I’m surprised as to why tears weren’t coming out of my eyes; perhaps the shock on my mind overtook the grief inside my heart.

I heard my brother saying:

“You are such a shame!”

“Is this what you call peace loving?” I asked my father sadly.

“Yes!” Gabriel interrupted. “Now, before I tear you into two pieces, get out of our house within five minutes.”

“No!” my father spoke in between. “Not like this. You Aaron, you have ten minutes to make your final decision. Either you’re going to divorce her and stay here or in other case, you and your wife will vacant this house today.”

I had no words to respond with.

“So, it’s up to you” he continued. “Go to your room, make your decision. And then let us know after ten minutes.”

I looked at every family member standing in the room.

“But remember,” my father spoke each word clearly now, “that once you make your decision. There is no turning back. Once you break your relationship with this family, then the doors of this house are closed for you… Forever!”

Now tears started to fall off my eyes. I remember that this was my final breakdown as long as I was standing in front of them. But what I did next was not something I am ashamed of.

Only five minutes later, as I appeared before my father I stated very clearly:

“I’m leaving this house today. But I promise you that someday I’m going to return and teach this family the true meaning of the word… Peace!”

I spoke nothing else and went back to Lindsay. I held her hand in front of my father and brother, and prepared to leave the house.

*************

Two Months Later

My name is Aaron Tribiani and I am being manipulated by history. I lived in the same city as I lived before at some apartment with my wife Lindsay. The two of us weren’t living a happy life as before. There was an uneasy silence between the two of us. I had to fill this silence by finding out the truth. The truth about the Octaland tragedy. Yes, this was my life’s objective now but I wasn’t quite working on it.

My quest of finding out the truth was not going to be an easy one. I always knew that. But I was obsessed to find out about who was the hero and who was the villain of this tragic history. There were two roles: a hero and a villain. And there were two characters: Gabriel and Hector. Either one of them was a hero or the other one was definitely meant to be a villain.

Let me stop here for a minute and tell you about why I think like this. Why I’m considering the possibility that my ancestor Gabriel could also be the villain? It’s because of Lindsay. She was raised quite like I was, listening to violent tales of her family history. In her world, unlike my case Hector was the hero and Gabriel was the villain. And I also remember her words:

“I was never really interested in history as a child, so I don’t know the exact tale of Octaland.”

Understanding this, I considered the fact that her family’s stories could have also been unauthentic as mine. Now the question was, where could I find the authentic tale? Where could I find those books or notes on which the true events of Octaland were stated? This was the actual task that was meant to be taken care of.

One Sunday afternoon while Lindsay and I were having lunch, she began the conversation:

“Aaron, there’s something I need to know…”

“Okay, what is it?”

“Have you ever heard of Vernon Leaf?”

“No, I don’t think so. Who is he?”

“Well, he is someone among my relatives and for all I know he talks a lot about this Octaland tragedy.”

“Really? What does he usually talk?”

“Well, you know that 28th of September was his birthday.”

“Whose?” I asked getting a bit confused.

“Landlord Hector’s…”

“Oh, okay. So what about it?”

“On the 28th September every year, our family members gather together. It is usually a special occasion on which we remember Mr. Hector. People celebrate it as his day and give speeches on his life and character. And some also deliver poetry.”

“I see!”

“So, this guy Vernon Leaf invites people to his house and he gives a speech about the Octaland event. He curses Gabriel constantly and the listeners cheer up.”

“Oh,” I replied. “So you’re suggesting that we should go and attend this occasion?”

“No, I’m not saying that. I’m suggesting that we should meet him personally. And then ask him to reveal the sources and references of his knowledge.”

“I don’t know. How about we approach someone more authentic?”

“Well, I don’t know any other person more knowledgeable than him. But he has other bad habits due to which people don’t really like him.”

“I’ll think about it,” I answered just to end the conversation.

Later that night, while I was lying on my bed still awake, I felt my cell phone vibrating. As I got up and checked it, I found that it was a Whatsapp message from my brother Gabriel. I got to admit that I was shaken. I remember that my heart started to beat faster. It took a little courage to check his message. But the message was nothing but a five minutes video. I clicked on the icon and watched the video.

In the video, some aged man with black dyed beard was standing behind the rostrum delivering a speech. His speech in the video clip began as:

“They ask me who Hector was. And they ask me what your opinion about the landlord Hector is? Do you know what I answer? I tell them that one billion Hectors… One billion Hectors are not equal to only one single Gabriel.”

The crowd was cheered up and everyone started clapping. He continued:

“Hector can never understand the meaning of virtue. He never really understood what is meant by piousness. This is why we all believe that Hector’s million good deeds can never be equal to Gabriel’s single good deed.”

The crowd again got cheered up and everybody stood up while clapping.

The video clip ended. The first words that came out from my mouth were:

“No references, no proofs to back one’s point of views. Just emotions and words to cheer up the audience. In fact, not cheer them up, but fool them.”

This video clip was something pathetic for me and the listeners who were applauding in the video were nothing but fools if you ask me. I kept my phone aside and went back to sleep.

*************

Next afternoon, while I was returning home, I got an instant idea as I remembered someone. I remembered that there was a relative of mine who used to collect all CDs and DVDs. So I thought of approaching him and asking him for the speeches on Octaland history with authentic references.

So, without any hesitation I went to the bus stop and waited for the bus that I knew would head for my particular relative’s location.

Anyways, within next one hour I reached at the location and headed inside the apartment’s building. I finally reached the house and knocked at the door. As my relative who lived alone came to answer the gate, I greeted him:

“Hi, I need your help!”

“Oh hi, you’re Shawn’s boy right?”

“Yes, my name is Aaron. I’m here for a little trade.”

“Trade?”

“Yeah!”

“Alright, come inside,” he spoke making way for me to enter inside.

I rushed inside getting my wallet outside and dropping it on purpose. He picked it up for me seeing the Euro notes.

Next minute, while the two of us were seated together face to face, I spoke:

“I remember that you had a collection of DVDs.”

“Yes.”

“So, I just need to buy some DVDs from you.”

“I’m sorry,” he simply refused, “but I can’t. Those DVDs are not for sale. Those are my personal collections.”

“Look, you need to understand. I’m willing to lend a huge amount of money for them. What I need is a speech that must be authentic. An authentic tale of Octaland tragedy.”

“Oh, I see!”

“Well, there’s one thing I can do for you. Do you happen to have a USB?”

“Yes, I do,” I replied taking out the USB from my pocket.

“Okay, well, what I can do for you is that I can lend you my entire data of debates, speeches and books through my laptop.”

“In the USB right?”

“Yes, in this device of yours.”

“Okay, that would be really great. How much should I pay you?”

“Well, you don’t have to pay me. But if you really want to then…”

He stopped speaking feeling kind of embarrassed.

“Don’t worry,” I broke the silence. “I will pay you.”

He smiled casually. After a moment, he stood up and went to get his laptop. While he was gone I whispered:

Thank God, I brought this USB.

To be very honest, I still believed by then that all these relatives of mine who cry over this family history and waste their energy and potential on these matters were completely stupid. But unfortunately, I don’t think like this anymore. My perspective changed with passage of time once I got involved in these issues. I wish I could undo my decision of getting involved. But my purpose was to bring an end to this dispute, and in order to do that I had to get involved at some point.

After a few minutes, my relative returned with his laptop. I handed over my USB to him. Within a couple of minutes, he inserted my USB inside his laptop and copy pasted the entire data that seemed relevant.

“So, what exactly are you going to share with me?”

“Well, I’m sending videos of debates and speeches. Now, if you want me to send the pdf books, I can…”

I remained silent thinking for a moment. But he anyway copy pasted the books as well. I had no idea that our ancestors had written so many books on this Octaland tragedy as well.

“So how’s your father?” he asked me courteously.

“He’s fine,” I replied trying to avoid the awkward conversation.

He kept on working on his laptop for a while and then asked:

“Are you interested in the books written on Zion César?”

That name did ring a bell but I wasn’t really interested in those books so I said:

“Uh, not really!”

Zion Cesar was the most important character in this story but I didn’t seem to find him interesting. Zion Cesar was probably the cause of this entire tragedy but I guess no one really realised this.

He finally handed over the USB to me and said:

“Here… Here you have whatever you need.”

“Thanks!” I replied taking the device from him.

“I hope this would be helpful.”

“Yes, thanks again.”

“And one more thing… If you really want to listen to an honest and educated person, then you must listen to Dr Joshua.”

“Joshua?”

“Yes, Dr Joshua Tribiani. He is the only one who has read plenty of books and doesn’t let emotions overpower him. He never exaggerates and most important of all, he is a very honest person. He never lies in his speeches. As far as I know…”

“Really? Alright, thanks! That was really important for me to know.”

“Yes, best of luck!”

I didn’t stay any further. I just handed over the money to him and left his house immediately.

*************

Next morning, before leaving for work, I picked up that USB so I could watch it at work. However, just to check I played one of the videos on my laptop. The video of some debate began. Now, I watched that video for a while seeing that both teams were having books and they were debating like totally illiterate people not listening to each other and fighting verbally. I wondered:

Now these kind of video clips will not enhance my knowledge about the past and I will never find the truth this way.

Anyways, I left for work.

After four hours of working as I got a break, I looked at the titles of the videos and fortunately found the icon named:

‘Event of Octaland explained by Dr Joshua Tribiani.”

I then remembered my relative’s words:

He is the only one who has read plenty of books... He never exaggerates and most important of all, he is a very honest person.

I think this was it. This was the video I needed to find out the truth. So, I clicked on the icon and the video began:

to be continued...