SHORT STORY PRINCIPLES
PRINCIPLES
Automatic traslation from the original story in Spanish. Not checked manually
Jon had been born decades earlier in Spalic, a country where diverse cultures and languages had blended —fraternally? —for centuries. From a very young age, he possessed an innate ability to understand and execute tasks with great speed.
This ability had earned him appreciation in his first jobs, allowing him to earn a comfortable living. However, he soon felt that the limits of other people’s work didn’t satisfy his ambitions, and in his early twenties, he had already founded his own business.
After several long but fruitless relationships, he met the person with whom he would eventually share his life. She was, at the same time, very different and surprisingly similar to him, especially in her principles and her unwavering honesty.
Both pursued their professions with efficiency and empathy for those who required their services. This allowed them to live without financial hardship and also to pursue creative hobbies. They had dabbled in radio and television, written books, designed mental gym apps, and countless other projects.
Anyone else with their accomplishments would probably be swimming in plenty. They, on the other hand, lived modestly. This was due, paradoxically, to Jon and Mart’s firm principles. Their incorruptibility made them uncomfortable figures in certain circles.
In radio, they worked at a good local station, where they wrote, designed, and hosted their own show. The quality of their content, both in outline and subject matter, was undeniable; proof of this is that more than one station had tried to replicate almost identical formats. In fact, major networks like Onda Cauce plagiarized their ideas but couldn’t make them work. The charm lay in the spontaneity and rebelliousness that Mart and Jon, or Jon and Mart, brought to the show. One might wonder why they weren’t hired directly. The reason was simple: they were too disruptive for a rigid system.
On one occasion, for example, on their program, they harshly criticized Judge Punzón, then a media sensation, for bringing to trial, merely symbolically, a bloodthirsty dictator named Cenicientochet, who had oppressed his country for decades. This would have been useful if the dictator were still active, but he did so when—to put it bluntly—his power was already null and void. While they discredited him, the rest of the media praised the judge’s supposed courage, who, incidentally, later fell into disgrace and became, according to those same media outlets, a true pariah.
When they did television on a local station, they experienced similar situations. National networks like Monitor 3, on its program “Escritos Venusianos,” also plagiarized their segments. However, probably because of their unwavering honesty and principles, they were never offered the opportunity to appear on any of their programs.
When they wrote their first novel, they contacted a literary agent. After analysing the work, he assured them that there was a good chance of publishing it with a good publisher. A year later, the agent gave up. He said, with a mixture of frustration and bewilderment: “I don’t understand anything. I submit the work to the editor of a publishing house, they find it very interesting, and finally, the management declines to publish it. This has happened to me with several, and I haven’t been able to figure out where the problem lies. Write a different one and we’ll try again.”
Not long after, the literary agent had a new work in his hands. Upon finishing reading it, he exclaimed with renewed enthusiasm: “This time for sure! I’m sure they’ll take it off my hands.”
However, the outcome was identical. The agent then suggested they look for a smaller publisher for a co-publication. The official presentation took place at the bookstore “Un Libro en Casa,” a store in which the publishing house “El Cometa” held a significant stake.
Thanks to Jon and Mart’s promotion, the presentation was attended by about 100 people, a number few writers manage to gather. Perhaps for this reason, the editor of one of the imprints of “El Cometa” became interested in the possible second part of the novel.
Faced with the editor’s proposal, both were extremely excited and a few months later they delivered the sequel, titled “They Shoot Camels, Don’t They?” The editor read it and was delighted. They signed a contract and the first edition was published. Surprisingly, the work never received any publicity. On the publisher’s website, the purchase link was inoperative.
Faced with this situation, Jon and Mart complained to the editor. The editor, who had already lost her cordiality, seemed to receive the news with immense relief when they suggested the possibility of terminating the contract due to the publisher’s breach of contract, and she immediately agreed.
–/–
At the moment, Jon, aware that he will probably leave before Mart, who is considerably younger, and that his absence will reduce the family income, he wonders if maintaining his principles, his honesty and his incorruptibility has really been worth it.
Principles – Short stories series – Copyright ©Montserrat Valls and Juan Genovés