Fate Has Its Ways

Edward Rowan was a round man in his thirties; he was a loner who had lived at the edge of town on his own private ranch. His kin have all but died out a few years prior and he did not have any friends in particular. Being the loner he was he had never wed, however in spite of him preferring the solitude he did not mind the company of fellow men if it was temporary. The man known as Edward Rowan was quite athletic for his build and size, on first glance you could never see his straw hat and colorful Hawaii shirts wearing frame being able to hold on in a long walk without starting to gasp for air let alone being a sporty person. The first impression he gave people could not be further from the truth, the man was a US army veteran who served in Iraq and a few other locations around the globe. He had been honorably discharged after what he claims to have been a training accident that had injured both of his knees; he also claims that his knees had healed ever since and that he’s back in full physical ability. Even so, he prefers to spend most of his time sitting on his rocking chair reading one book or another, considering the fact that the US military continues to pay him a large amount of money every month as compensation.

The man known as Edward Rowan was viewed as the harmless odd ball in his town, even so, some of his neighbors thought of him as a Guru of sorts, a spiritual outcast who had segregated himself from the common people. Some even looked at the man as a genius whose smarts border on madness. He had a dark sort of charisma, getting the attention of people was not hard for the man as he was a great orator who knew what to say and when to say that. He was known for a soft and calm hoarse voice, however he had no qualms about rising or lowering his tone in order to sound convincing whenever needed, although such occasions were rare for Edward Rowan. He sported a long bushy brown beard and a long hair of the same color, both of which did not help his reputation of a spiritual outcast. He was known as a man of great advice and so it was not an uncommon occurrence when two men entered his ranch seeking his help.

Edward Rowan greeted both men and lead them to his quiet garden, He sent in front of them, on his rocking chair and requested they sit on the wooden chairs he had prepared for them to use, once the men were in their sits, Rowan proclaim, “I’m ready to hear all that you’ve to say to me, brothers”

One of the men was a young man who appeared to have not slept in weeks, his body was thin and frail, and his casual clothing appeared as if it was barely holding onto his bony body. He seemed as if he was about to fall to the ground and never rise up again if he tried getting up from his chair due to his obvious lack of sleep. The second man could not look any different, he was a man in his fifties, well groomed and well dressed, in spite of his advancing age, unless you knew the man, you could’ve never guessed he was in his fifties. His eyes radiated a certain amount of irritation – a constant one. The man placed his hands on the chairs armrests and called out, “Eddie, you know what’s been bothering me lately. You are my last bit of hope, please help me deal with this, please help me not lose what I’ve still got.”

“I know, man, I know what is plaguing your life, and it’s about the seven… seven lethal monsters that plague all of us! That includes you, young man.” responded Rowan while staring at the young man.

The older man looked at Rowan, confused, and asked cautiously, “What do you mean?”

Rowan straightened up his seat and quietly answered, “Let me tell you a story, after which you’ll understand the root of your problems, my friends. First, Larry was a talented guy, he was working at a High Tech firm and he had a loving warm family, his wife, similar in age to him, was the most beautiful of women and their children, two in number, where the closest of siblings… so close they were, it’s hard to imagine any pair of siblings closer than the children of Larry. His children both were on their way to finishing their college education. This whole family, it was special, there was no malice or any kind of bad breath around this folk. They were perfect, at least at first glance they were, you see Larry… Larry, he was in love with someone, something else other than his wife, he was in love with the green papers and the little metal objects, he kept collecting and collecting them, only to keep them for himself!”

The older man’s facial expression began to change; he was becoming more visibly irritated, towards Rowan who maintained a calm expression. It was almost emotionless, almost frozen as he kept on telling his story, “Even though Larry was a cheap and materialistic, his family did not lack anything, he took care of them… as much as he could… as much as his little Ego allowed him to.

**“**Following various attempts to convince his father to buy him a car, Larry’s son managed to get his father to spend some of his precious little green papers. Even though he could not part with those little precious green papers unless there was an existential to do so, he had gotten tired of his son’s attempt to get him to buy the car so instead of telling his son to find another source of cash; he went out and bought him a car. However, he refused to pay an extra two hundred dollars for a safety check, perhaps because he did not deem it necessary or because his precious little green papers were more important than the safety of his very own child… I do not know.

“The boy drove the car once and everything was fine

“The boy drove the card a second time and everything was fine

“The boy drove the card a third time, and nothing was fine, it turned out that the breaks were broken. He was about to drive straight into another car during a nightly drive on his own. Both drivers were young and careful; however, they were driving in a poorly lit area and had hard time making out each other’s cars. By the time, they had noticed one another, the road they were on turned into a collision course. Larry’s child tried to steer his car away, but it was too late…”

The older man’s face became red at this point and he was obviously uncomfortable as he kept moving his body from side to side in his chair.

“The car that Larry’s son was driving was hit on the side as he was trying to steer himself away from collision, his car was throw into a deadly spiral that ended up throwing Larry’s child out of the vehicle. The boy found himself hanging on a nearby tree – a large branch of that tree had been lodged into his chest, all the while; a piece of the safety belt was hanging on the boy’s shoulder. The price of this boy’s life was a mere two hundred bucks, can you believe it?!” yelled out Rowan.

The older man rose angrily from his chair, clenched his hands into fists and was about to lunge at Rowan while he shouted, “You son of a bitch, I will kill you right now!”

Rowan rose to his feet as well and shouted in response, “Sit down Lawrence, I did not cause this, you did! So don’t you dare blaming me!”

Lawrence who was about to smack Rowan across the face lowered his fists; He lowered his head in shame and set down on his chair. The man began sobbing quietly, trying to conceal his sorrow while Rowan proclaimed, “This is monster number one, we call her Greed!”

Rowan continued, “Thank you Larry, for reminding me of the proudest man to ever walk the surface of this earth. Thank you for reminding me of Daedalus. Do you, dear men, know why he was the proudest man to ever walk the earth? It’s because he believed he could out do nature. He thought he could out do not only his monarch, not even, only his gods, Daedalus thought he could out do nature itself!

“Daedalus was a bright engineer who worked for king Minos of Crete. Minos was the adoptive father of the vile Minotaur. After Daedalus had built, a labyrinth so complex to house the Minotaur that the man himself could barely escape, Minos had him locked away along with only son, Icarus on a barren island in the Aegean, so that no one would be ever able to find out a way out of the labyrinth.

“Years had passed and Daedalus could not keep on baring the idea that his son would spend his whole life on a barren isle, and thus he began thinking of ways to escape his prison. His thoughts eventually caused him to conclude that the only way out of the island was for him to overcome the limitations nature had bestowed upon us humans.

Daedalus had decided to become a bird!

“He and his son Icarus began collecting feathers that had fallen off birds and slowly, using the feathers they had collected, Icarus and his father ended up constructing wings that they thought would bring them back to mainland Greece. Upon the completion of the wings, Daedalus had warned his son that he cannot climb up too high or else the sun will burn down his wings and he will plunge into the sea with no ability to swim back to its surface. Daedalus was sure his son had understood the warning, and most of their flight was fine, until Daedalus noticed his son had gone higher and higher, he began calling out to his son to lower the height of his flight however, the strong winds prevented his voice from reaching the ears of his child.

“Icarus had inherited the pride of his father and had decided to see the line between limits and lies, he climbed so high into the sky that the suns heat caused the wax holding up his wings to catch fire and his wings fell apart. The proud boy sank into the Aegean Sea.

“Without the ability to swim, all Icarus could do was to wait for his impending doom to arrive. He kept sinking deeper and deeper, and all that his attempts to reach the surface had done was to rob him of his oxygen. Soon enough the contents of his lungs were filled with salty seawater.

“Daedalus was broken by the loss of his child. The second monster, whose name is Pride, took everything from this great man, Lawrence, do not fall pray in its enticing jaws.” said Rowan. He then looked at the younger man who remained quiet so far and pointed his finger at him, “You are of Greek descent aren’t you?”

The young man nodded in agreement