Felicio

The Importance of Being Felicio

Ariel Blake

The Importance of Being Felicio

by Ariel Blake

The city has been cast in disarray with recent events. The death of the young girl, Emma Shaw, has been on everyone's minds. There has been a lot of coverage in the Daily Bulletin about the events but still there has been no news about the person that killed her. The prime suspect seems to be Felicio but there has not been an arrest. I'm writing to the city today to please come forward with any information you have. As you all know I have been following Felicio since he came into this city. There is little we know about him, and I wish we knew more, but what I do know is that he helps people. I have tracked his movements and I have spoken to many people he has saved. He stalks the night and protects the city. I don't know about all of you but that thought gives me peace of mind, and I think it makes criminals think twice about attacking helpless citizens.

I implore you all to not jump to conclusions, but I am not just writing this article for you. This also goes out to you too Felicio, wherever you are. Nobody knows your face. Nobody knows your real name but everyone knows that you have made a difference to this city already. There are many of us who are grateful for all you have done. I want to use these pages to say thank you but I also need to plead with you to come forward. The death of Emma Shaw has shaken this city. All of us want her soul to be at rest and to know why she died. You are the only one who can shed any light on this. Please come forward, not just for our sake but for Emma's as well.

The case is a strange one. I have pored over all the available information and the most surprising thing to me is the silence from the Shaw corporation. Her parents have remained eerily quiet in this whole affair, which is not surprising given the clandestine nature of their lives. I'm not one to throw idle speculation around but I do wonder if Emma saw something that she did not want to see.

I also have to take issue with the way the police have handled this entire affair. From the first moment Felicio appeared they have sought to push him away and denigrate him. They have tarred him with the same brush as other criminals when all he's trying to do is help his fellow citizens and do the right thing. They have marked him as a criminal and as such he is afraid to come forward when he's needed most. I for one do not blame him because the police would not hesitate to rob him of his privacy and his dignity. That is why I want to offer Felicio the opportunity to come in for an unbiased interview where he can talk to me and tell people what is really on his mind.

I think he is good for the city and can offer us something that the people of this city have needed for a long time; hope. We have all lived in the shadow of the Shaw corporation for too long. The building looms over us and reminds us that we are in thrall to secrecy and privacy. In the face of globalization and the rise of faceless corporate behemoths Felicio shows us that one man can make a difference, and I for one think that is a wonderful thing.

Felicio, please come and talk to me.

Your friend,

Ariel Blake.

I sighed when I emailed the draft to Jordan, hoping that he would actually approve this article. I was getting tired of putting so much work into things that were only going to be scrapped. The entire city had been gripped by Emma's death. Sometimes this happened. I don't know if it was her age or the nature of the death or the fact that Felicio was even partially involved but it had swept like a fervor across the city and everyone had a theory about what happened. It wasn't clear that there was anyone other than Felicio involved and that wasn't good for people like me who thought he was a positive force in the city. I couldn't believe that some people actually thought he was a villain. But that was the way of the world. Good people often get misrepresented. I was doing all I could to fight the good fight for him but I was hamstrung by Jordan.

Five minutes after I submitted the article I was summoned into Jordan's office. From the look on his face I could tell that he wasn't pleased with me.

“What is this?” he said. I flung my dark hair back and leaned over his desk, pressing my palms against the edge.

“Can we just forego the same argument we have all the time and just run the article?”

Jordan rubbed his forehead. “Ariel, you're a great reporter but sometimes you let your own opinions cloud your judgment. I've told you before that you can't write stuff that criticizes the police or the Shaw corporation.”

“Why, just because they could by the company if they wanted to?”

“Yes, for exactly that reason. Their child is dead. I get that you want to know why she killed herself, or why Felicio killed her, but you can't keep chasing this. Eventually they're going to get tired of hearing about their dead daughter. Maybe it's best that we respect them and let Emma die in peace. She was evidently a troubled girl and what happened to her was a tragedy but there's not always a grand conspiracy in place. I think you need to move onto something else.”

“You don't even want me writing about Felicio anymore?”

“Quite frankly, no. He was good to sell papers when he first arrived but now you're just saying the same thing over and over again. There's nothing new here. This isn't the first request you've made for him to talk to you. If you could actually manage to get an interview then I'd be interested but until then I need something else. Something more. I know you have it in you.”

“Okay Jordan, okay, I'll give this entire thing a rest as long as you print this article. I have a good idea for a story anyway, one that I've been wanting to work on for a long time.”

“I'm going to regret asking what this is aren't I?” Jordan groaned.

“No, you're not, because I'm going to expose what's going on in that building once and for all. I'm going to get to the bottom of their secrets.”

“Ariel, what are you talking about? Why are you so self-destructive. It's better to leave the Shaw corporation alone. You can't take them on by yourself.”

“Yes I can. Felicio has shown me that one person can make a difference. With all due respect Jordan this paper has become a joke. I wanted to become a journalist because when I was younger I was captured by all the hard-hitting stories this paper produced but I don't feel like any of that is happening anymore. We're just going through the motions and we're not reporting on any of the important stories. Everyone in this city has become so scared of speaking out about the Shaw corporation it's like we're imprisoned by them and I'm sick of it. Something needs to change around here and I feel that Emma's death is a catalyst for it. I'm going to write this article, or you can fire me, but we both know that you're going to regret it if you let me go.”

Jordan looked as though he had aged about five years in the span of this conversation.

“You're going to be the death of me. Christ. Maybe you have a point though. You know, I look at these four walls a lot and I'm reminded of all the great stories this paper broke in the past and I do get depressed when I think about how the glory days are over. Maybe with Felicio and Emma's death there is a sea of change sweeping through the city.”

“And we need to be a part of it!” I said passionately.

“Fine. I'll run the article and you can do this story but for the love of God be careful. There is a reason why people are afraid of them. At the first sign of danger I'm going to scrap the entire thing.”

“You're the best Jordan!” I squealed.

“Don't you forget it,” he said. I strode out of his office feeling invigorated. Finally it felt like I was getting to be a real journalist. All I had to figure out now was how to get into the Shaw corporation. It wasn't as though it was easily done. I had to find Felicio as well. Jordan was right, this was getting into dangerous territory and I would have to get all the help I could get. Something told me that if anyone was going to be able to stand up to the Shaw's it was going to be him. And at the heart of it was Emma. I was sure there was a reason for her death that went beyond the anguish of a young girl. I don't know if it was my women's intuition or my journalistic instinct but there was definitely something there and I had to know what.

I had tried to write stories about the Shaw's before but I had never gotten very far so I knew there was no point in trying to reach them for an interview. It had been hard enough for anyone to get a comment from them about Emma's death. But still, the first thing to do was to find a way in to that fortress. Or maybe there was another way...after a good long while researching the Shaw corporation I discovered that they had recently started an internship program offering a short position to some of the most gifted students in the area. Sometimes it was funny how the information you were looking for was hidden in plain sight. I jotted down the names of the students involved. The Shaw corporation was very good at trumpeting the community work it did, probably because it hoped to fool people into thinking that the Shaw corporation had everyone's best interests at heart.

Years ago I had a hot lead from an ex-employee who was going to reveal the inner working of the corporation. It was going to be the biggest story this city had ever seen. He'd told me some things off the record and they made my blood boil with anger. I couldn't believe that they were getting away with such atrocities and he promised me that it was only the tip of the iceberg. Of course, before we could ever actually meet face to face and record the interview he was found dead. The victim of a car accident. I always found the timing of that to be too convenient to be a coincidence and it made me even more determined to bring the Shaw's down. They had killed a man to stop him from blowing the whistle on them. I could never prove it was them but now I was going to find another way to bring them down, and it would be glorious.

The first thing to do was find which one of these girls was willing to talk.