Bustamante Vacaflor Federico, Murdered By Business

MURDERED BY BUSINESS

Written by Federico Bustamante Vacaflor

Bruce and Callium were close friends... They had a lot in common... They were partners, their families were close, had the same aspirations and almost all their hobbies were similar...

Bruce; a man with such an amazing personality always had a good word for everyone, he loved the orange color and he had those cheeks that dimple when he smiled, I suppose you could call them chubby, he was a father, a surrogate brother, a guardian angel. His only dream was to become financially successful and be able to provide for his lovely family. Callium on the other hand; a middle-aged man with a long beard as thick as a gardening flower, he liked to keep it so neat, as neat as the rest of his hair.

It was a sunlit day in Cali, everything was hot and people were burning inside. After an incredible weekend spent by Callium and Bruce, they had to go back to work and finish all the pending things in Bruce’s enterprise, which is called “Ecoservicios Premier.”

One day just like any other day, Bruce picks up his friend Callium at his house because Callium was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and he couldn’t drive. While both were in the car, they started talking about the outstanding weekends spent together with their families and old friends.

Callium greeted his friend and he said; “Hey Bruce, do you only have one orange t-shirt? I think you need to ask Santa Claus to give you something else on Christmas this year” They both laughed very hard and Bruce replied; “Ha Ha Ha! It’s my favorite t-shirt, you don’t know fashion!” as they both laughed amusingly, Bruce added;

“Hey, Callium, do you remember that weekend at your farm with Axel, Philip, and Will? That was an unforgettable Sunday” Bruce said emotionally.

“Yeah Bruce, just like the bible says; we spend our years as

a tale that is told,” Callium said while remembering the beautiful memories.

“You are right, man it was like 10 years since the last time we had met.”

“We should do it more often,” Callium said.

After they arrived at Bruce’s enterprise, each of them started to work on their pending stuff the whole morning. At 2:00 P.M. Bruce called Callium to ask him if he wanted to go and have lunch together. Callium agreed but told his friend that he wanted to invite him to eat seafood because he wanted to eat “Cazuela de mariscos.” They went to a place called “Doña coralina” which was near their workplace, and they both asked for the soup. While they were waiting for the food, Callium asked Bruce how was the negotiation of Buenaventura going.

“Hey, how is everything going with the business?” Callium asked firmly.

“We are waiting for them to confirm, but I think we are getting it” Bruce answered confidently.

“Holy cow, that is good news,” Callium said very happily

“Yes my friend, but not everything is good as gold,” said Bruce

“Why? Why not?” said Callium surprisingly.

“two weeks ago, a man approached me while I was having lunch somewhere around town and he told me to leave the business I was looking for, or there were going to be consequences” Bruce responded calmly, and he added; “I haven’t told you about this because I didn’t want you to be worried”

Callium was caught by surprise, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing from his friend Bruce, so he said; “I don’t get it! Please, explain well”

Bruce later explained that one of his business competitors had been threatening him, by sending different men to talk to Bruce, those men told Bruce that their boss has always

had this business, year after year and that this wasn’t going to be the exception. They also recommended him to retrieve himself from the negotiation because if not the boss was going to act, and Bruce and his whole family would suffer the consequences. Bruce also explained that he felt threatened and that he couldn’t tolerate the fact that they were threatening his family in his face, so he reacted aggressively and told those men that he was not scared of their boss and that now he was even more motivated to close that deal. And Callium responded immediately;

“Oh no! this can’t be happening Bruce, you can’t tolerate this type of threats because you are an incredible and hard-working man, that is doing the right things in the right way, If you need anything, you know you can always count on me,”

“Thanks, Callium but please don’t tell anyone about this” Bruce said firmly.

“Don’t worry I won’t tell anyone” answered Callium.

After they had lunch it was time to go back to work, so they left the restaurant and went back to Bruce’s factory until it was 5:45 p.m. the time to go back home, after a hard-working day at the office.

Callium and Bruce got into Bruce’s car, and they started their way back home but first, they had to stop at a gas station before arriving at Callium’s house. Belatedly after, they arrived at the gas station named Terpel to fuel the tank and while they were waiting they started to talk with the man that works at the station about Venezuela’s crisis because the worker was from Venezuela, and at that time the country was facing a huge social problem.

From one moment to another the three of them heard a sound like fireworks, but after they turned around to look at what was happening, they saw two men in a motorcycle

coming in front of them, shooting at the car and they left right after. Callium tried to cover himself, but Bruce didn’t have the same luck because he couldn’t react to what was happening, and sadly he received around 15 shots everywhere in his body, it all happened so fast that none of them could have done anything to defend themselves.

Suddenly after Callium recovered from this woeful incident, he turned around to check on his friend, and he noticed that Bruce’s favorite orange t-shirt had turned into a gleaming red-orange color because of the blood that had been spread all over it, he shouted his name repeatedly begging him to wake up, and that’s when he realized that his friend wasn’t responding, he started to cry for help but he was still in shock after everything that occurred. Callium tried to get out of the car to get some help from the people that were around the gas station. A few moments later, many people arrived immediately to help them out and called the emergency line 123 for them to send an ambulance.

While people arrived Callium tried to call his family to inform them what had just happened, and he told them that he was shot but not so bad and that he was worried about Bruce because he wasn’t responding. After 5 minutes two ambulances arrived at the crime scene to take them both at the nearest hospital, for them to get all the medical assistance they needed, and see if there was anything they could do to save for Bruce’s life. While Callium was in the ambulance, he couldn’t believe that his great friend was dead, as he was still crying for help, he prayed, begging for a miracle so that God could help the doctors bring Bruce back to life. He didn’t want to accept that his good friend Bruce, who was alive just a few minutes ago had gone forever in a matter of seconds, so he prayed and prayed that this was not the way Bruce’s life had to end.

When they arrived at the hospital, the doctors were

waiting for them and they had everything prepared for both of them. Callium as he only got one shot, he asked the doctors desperately to look after his friend Bruce, the doctors tried to calm him down so that they may control the wound and stop the bleeding because he had lost a lot of blood. A few moments later; the doctors told Callium that they were so sorry that there was nothing they could do to save his friend, Bruce, as he died before he was brought to the hospital, this news broke every last hope he had in his heart and as he had lost a lot of blood, he passed out, the doctors laid him down and checked his purse to make sure that he was alright.

The family from both friends arrived at the hospital and they were received by the doctors who gave them the news, that Bruce had passed away but Callium was alive but in intensive care, this news broke both families apart, everything became dark into their world, as they didn’t have any explanations on what had just happened because Bruce never told his family about the threats he was having at work.

Unfortunately, Bruce died immediately beside his good friend Callium who luckily had only received one bullet in his stomach was still alive. That day, Callium lost his beloved friend in his hands from the two hired shooters that wanted to kill them. To this day; Callium hasn’t been able to forget that day. Bruce’s life was taken by the people who believe that money comes before anything and any person in this world, and people who are capable of doing anything including hurting anyone just to get their business going.