Waiting for karma

EZRA is a middle aged recluse living in a forest who observes a curious unfolding of events at his neighbour’s property. He decides not to go and help with the fire that is burning in the neighbour’s greenhouse even when he witnesses a terrified young girl shouting for help as the fire rages. BRONWYN is a bright, soulful teenager being raised by her enigmatic German Father, VINCENT, in the coastal English town of ADDINGTON during the 1990’s. She is bullied at school and has many unanswered questions about the Mother she lost as a baby, her family history during World War II and the constant feeling of tragedy haunting her young existence. Bronwyn has a deep need to prove that karma is affecting her life in a negative way. Bronwyn has a best friend in ABIGAIL who is a rebellious and strong teenager. Abigail has also suffered bullying from Bridget and her two accomplices. Bronwyn challenges the mystical force of karma by dabbling in her own alchemy, in the form of Herbology, to mete out revenge on her nemesis, BRIDGET. Bronwyn’s revenge, using her alchemical Herbology, seems to mysteriously work on Bridget. Bridget appears to undergo a drastic personality change. Her attitude and behaviour towards Bronwyn and Abigail evolves to the opposite extreme. Bridget becomes fascinated with Bronwyn, to the point of obsession, stalking her on the way home after school one day, not long after her consciousness is altered by unknowingly ingesting Bronwyn’s herbal potion. Bridget stalking Bronwyn after school turns out to be an event of synchronicity. By some alchemical twist of fate, Bridget helps Bronwyn put out a mysterious fire that almost completely destroys her greenhouse. At this time, charming ADAM arrives in their lives, seemingly to the rescue, when the fire is finally put out. He instantly falls in love with Bronwyn and she falls for him too, much to the dismay of Bridget. Despite her jealousy over the blossoming romance between Bronwyn and Adam, Bridget feels a compulsion to become a friend to Bronwyn. Bridget is seemingly driven by an unseen force to repent herself for all the cruel bullying she perpetrated against Bronwyn and Abigail. Bronwyn seems nonchalant to Bridget’s attempt at repenting herself and instead focuses on her newfound young romance with her first love, Adam. Through Adam, Bronwyn meets the mysterious Ezra, who lives alone in the neighbouring woods. Bronwyn believes that Ezra is the arsonist who caused the fire in her greenhouse. She has no proof or justification for the suspicion that she feels. Adam believes that Bronwyn is behaving in a similar bullying way towards Ezra, with no justifiable reason, much the same way that Bridget and her cronies behaved towards Bronwyn. Adam sets out to prove that Ezra is simply a lonely, innocent man and that the fire in the greenhouse was just a random accident. When Adam and Bronwyn meet Ezra at his cabin in the woods, they learn that he is a Holocaust survivor. Bronwyn feels an unexpected sympathy for Ezra when he shares his traumatic experiences of surviving Auschwitz. Bronwyn’s deep empathy for Ezra overwhelms her through his sincere revelations about Auschwitz. His ordeal during the Holocaust is the reason why he lives as a recluse in the woods. Bronwyn becomes intrigued by the strange synchronicity taking place in her life since meeting Adam and Ezra. She believes more than ever that karma is influencing her life in both negative and positive ways because of events in her family history, particularly World War II. She cannot be sure of what misdeeds or heroic events her ancestors partook in, as she has very little information about her family, most of whom are deceased. The idea of inherited bad karma echoes through the protagonist’s life. She lost her Mother when she was a baby, has suffered bullying as a teenager, has a single parent family and is experiencing constant bad luck in her life because of her personal epigenetic aftermath. For Bronwyn, the only comforts in her life are the steadfast devotion of her Father, Vincent and the new love she shares with the charismatic Adam. The bad karma that Bronwyn believes is haunting her, reveals its raw brutality when Vincent is attacked in the woods by the traumatised Ezra. The two men, opposite but similar in many ways, almost kill each other after Ezra stalks Vincent on his journey home. Out of desperation to stay alive for the sake of his daughter, Vincent manages to convince Ezra to calm down and not follow through with his murderous impulse. They part ways, with Vincent still fearful and sensing seething hatred from Ezra. Vincent chooses not to reveal to Bronwyn what happened between Ezra and himself in the woods. Bronwyn feels a sense of urgency about finding out the truth of what happened between her Father and Ezra; she storms off determinedly to Ezra’s cabin in the woods. She abruptly trips over a small log in the woods, falls and injures herself. Bronwyn’s quest for the truth is brutally interrupted as she is forced, by her injury, to stay put on the ground. Here Bronwyn experiences bizarre, metaphysical sensations around her that remind her of the terrifying Auschwitz experience that Ezra spoke of. She feels the frightening and omnipotent force of karma over her life again. Bronwyn feels alone in the world as she sits with her injury, helpless and vulnerable in the woods, sensing the bad vibrations around her. Vincent intuitively senses that something is wrong and that Bronwyn has actually gone to approach Ezra. Out of desperation, Vincent phones Adam to come and help him retrieve Bronwyn from the danger lurking in the woods, remembering the frightening attack he experienced at the hands of Ezra. When Vincent tracks down Bronwyn in the woods, he observes that she is seemingly disorientated, her ankle is injured and she seems semi-conscious. He envisions Ezra having done something diabolical to his only child, out of vengeance. He becomes fearful of what might happen next. Vincent feels relief when Bronwyn reveals that she got injured by accident but still feeling a sense of urgency for them to escape the woods, driven by the fear of what Ezra may still be capable of doing. The climax takes place when Adam finally reaches them, driven by an invisible force of nature. But tragedy destroys their brief, collective relief, in a diabolical and unexpected way. Adam sprints towards Bronwyn and Vincent, through the dense vegetation, and then abruptly trips over a branch, falling down face forward and hard, the impact of the fall killing him instantly. Adam’s death is catastrophic and a great shock to Bronwyn. She feels that losing her first love is the final Karmic blow against her soul. She is more convinced than ever that she is being dealt revenge for the sins of her forefathers. Her life seems jinxed by bad luck or so it seems. A few weeks after Adam’s tragic death, Vincent is compelled to contact Adam’s Mother, MARGARET, to explain to her fully what happened in the woods. He learns from her that Adam had taken a vial filled with a strange herbal mixture which he had drunk on the last day he was alive, before receiving the phone call from Vincent and venturing off to the woods. Vincent realises that Adam might have taken the vial from the burnt down greenhouse, after helping put the fire out, on the day that he first met Bronwyn. His heart sinks at the realisation that Bronwyn would have made the herbal mixture that Adam had ingested and which may have contributed to his fatal fall. Bronwyn is confronted by her Father about the vial bottles in the greenhouse and she reluctantly admits that she used her knowledge of Herbology to create a mixture that would affect Bridget, who at that time was bullying her. It is the same mixture that would make Adam drowsy and cause him to trip and fall to his death. Vincent expresses anger at Bronwyn for dabbling in dangerous Herbology, possibly causing Adam to become fatally drowsy. He comes to the disturbing realisation that Bronwyn needs guidance in her troubled life. He finally gives her a box filled with letters that her deceased Mother had written to Bronwyn, years before. The treasured box of letters offers Bronwyn a vital connection to the Mother she has never known, as well as a connection to her familial past. The communications from her Mother offer Bronwyn much needed reassurance and direction in her vulnerable teenage life, an emotional support that Vincent has not been fully capable of providing Bronwyn. Bronwyn experiences a revelation after reading her emotionally enlightening letters across time, from her deceased Mother. The messages in the letters resonate with the circumstances of her life at that moment. Bronwyn learns that karma is not haunting her young life, that her life is not predestined to be afflicted by constant bad luck and suffering. Bronwyn decides that she no longer needs to hide from the world because of her loss. Bridget and Abigail visit her at home, weeks after Adam’s tragic death and offer Bronwyn their support as friends, coaxing Bronwyn to come out of her house, return to school and normality despite Adam being gone from her life. Bronwyn assures Abigail and Bridget that she will no longer put her life on hold because of her losses and fear of karma. Bronwyn decides to take control of her life and do something positive to bring about balance in her life and the lives of others around her including Ezra. Bronwyn elects to help Ezra in her own way, to put the karmic wrongs right despite the fact that Ezra almost murdered her only living family. Bronwyn realises that the anger Ezra felt towards her German Father, was fuelled by his hatred of Germany and Germans because of what he had endured as a Jewish-German child, during The Holocaust. Bronwyn is accepting of the anger and hatred that Ezra feels because of the horrors that he witnessed when he was her age. At the same time, she accepts the tragedies of her own young life, remembering that Ezra survived and endured more severe tragedies. She wants to offer Ezra her understanding and sympathy in the form of a letter she writes to him. Ezra finds the letter from Bronwyn, outside his front door. He sits on the top step of his porch and reads the letter, immediately feeling a sense of peace and relief in his soul. He acknowledges the selflessness of Bronwyn’s attempt at reconciling the bad events that took place. He feels enormous emotional relief as he has been waiting for this new sense of inner peace his whole life. Their souls are finally in balance and they are no longer waiting for karma.