The Price of Forgiveness

Attorney Peter Farawell has just won an acquittal in a first degree murder case, a victory that should be the great achievement of his career, but his success feels empty. His client, the infamous El Maligno Gemelo, really did commit murder and Peter knows it. A gnawing dissatisfaction moves Peter to enlist his girlfriend, the exotic Belinda Villegas, to join him in a quest for a higher and truer way of life. Like many young American professionals, Peter and Belinda use sex and drugs as their vehicle and they miserably fail, but the attempt uncovers the movement of deeper forces in their lives; they learn that they are actors in an ancient drama. Belinda is the reincarnated victim of human sacrifice, Peter the conquistador who failed to save her; and El Maligno is their nemesis, hounding them through the centuries. Once Peter and Belinda learn the truth about their lives, mystic phenomena become commonplace, exposing the young lovers to both peril and miracles. When Gemelo attacks Belinda, the lovers seek respite in the remote reaches of a New Mexico wilderness where they come under the helpful influence of a witch who has her own role to play in their drama. Peter and Belinda return to the city with a fresh view of the world as well as a new power, that of forgiveness, which they rely upon in bringing peaceful change to their lives. To this extent Peter's quest has succeeded. But El Maligno Gemelo lurks in the city's shadows and he gradually insinuates himself into their lives. When the lovers finally face their nemesis, the reader will find not just a spectacular resolution of this classical conflict, but a metaphor of the human mind's entry into enlightenment. To some, forgiveness seems ethereal, a mere concept or ideal, impotent in this world of toil, disease and death. Peter and Belinda learn otherwise. It is in everyday life that forgiveness is needed, here that it works its transformations, and here that its price must be paid.