Life's Road

(Krishna narrating)

"Dude, calm down...We did this for your own good." said Pythagoras getting closer to Beethoven.

"For my own good?!" screamed Beethoven trying to punch Pythagoras.

"What's with all this yelling?" said the driver walking down the stairs.

"Nothing, it's none of your business..." I said.

"Excuse me? I think you don't know who is the adult here" said the driver looking directly at Beethoven's hand.

"You idiots! What did you do?" yelled the driver walking towards Beethoven.

"Ah... Get away from me!" complained Beethoven.

"Stay still... What the hell happened to you?" asked the driver covering Beethoven's hand.

"They did this to me..." said Beethoven pointing at Pythagoras and me.

"This is no good...Th-the infection was not eliminated, we have to cut your the hanging skin off." said the driver looking confused.

"Oh, hell no. No one, listen to me, no one will cut me anything off." said Beethoven.

"But, we have too, it does not look good." I said trying to convince him.

"It's your fault my arm is like this, if only you listened to me... But you did not, I hate all of you." screamed Beethoven with tears coming out of his eyes.

"I'm sorry, I thought I was doing the right thing." I said with tears coming out of my eyes too.

"Well, you did not do the right thing." said Beethoven before the driver knocked him down.

"You, get me some water...Now!" yelled the driver at Pythagoras.

The driver told us to get blankets, whisky and a knife. We spend the entire morning removing Beethoven's hanging skin of his arm, our hands were sweaty. We had to hold Beethoven still in case he woke up, which he did. He screamed as hard as he could, but no one stopped what we were doing... Minutes later Beethoven passed out, we had to drop the whisky on his hand wishing he didn't woke up. We got him to the driver's bed, I don't want him to hate me.

"I'm sorry, Beethoven." I said covering my eyes.

"Me too, I'm nothing without you." said Pythagoras laying his head in Beethoven's shoulder.

"I know you are..." said Beethoven weakly.

"I'm sorry. I will compensate this to you, I swear with my life." I said to Beethoven, but he was ignoring my presence there.

"You have to cut down your right hand to compensate this to me" said Beethoven.

"What?!" I said hiding my hand from his sight.

"When you decided to become a thief you didn't asked me what I thought about it, you never listened to me. If you want me to forgive you have cut off your right hand." responded Beethoven looking at me.

And so we did, Pythagoras did it first. We heard his screams asking for mercy, I saw him begging to the Great Machine to please stop this, but it didn't stop until his hand fell off. When he got up, he went to Beethoven showing him his arm.

"I did it, I did this to my body for your forgiveness, forgive me Beethoven please" he said to Beethoven.

"I forgive you, Pythagoras. You went through the same pain I went, you felt what I felt. You are now my brother..." said Beethoven hugging him.

"Krishna is your turn, you have to do it." said Pythagoras.

"I don't want to do it." I responded.

"Then I will never forgive you, you have to go through the same pain I did or you will never know how it feels" said Beethoven.

I didn't wanted to do it, but I knew I needed his forgiveness. So I did it, I felt the cold knife cutting me. I screamed for help, but no one helped me. I wished I would just die in that moment... But it didn't happened, when it was all done I felt if a part off me died in the process.

"I did it too, now forgive me Beethoven." I said walking towards him.

"I told you that I would take what you loved most, you didn't loose a hand... You lost your pride, that is what you wanted more. As for Pythagoras he lost his bravery, his more appreciated thing." responded Beethoven with a smile in his face.

This was the start of what we call our life's road... Can't this life get any crazier.