THE FANATICAL PREACHER

In his youth, he experienced the craze of disco music and nightclubs when John Travolta was the person every young person wanted to emulate. He wasn't a brilliant student, but he was a good basketball player and later a good tennis player, which led him to found the Esmeraldas Tennis Club.

He started working at the Housing Bank while studying journalism at Vargas Torres University. Besides being considered one of the most attractive and sexy young men in the city of Esmeraldas, girls sought him out for his discretion. He was never heard talking about other people, religion, politics, or soccer; he only laughed at whatever jokes his friends had. He also took them to parties and nightclubs, paid for their outings, and even gave them gifts without expecting anything in return. He was often the groomsman at their birthday parties, or the person to whom the parents of these girls entrusted their daughters when they went to parties or nightclubs, knowing he would bring them back safe and sound. His salary as a Housing Bank employee went toward entertaining and showering the young women who used him as a chaperone, a charming and attractive figure. Because he was so charming, young people, both men and women, were drawn to him, and he opened the doors to the nightlife for them.

For the young men of the city, Jackson wasn't a womanizer; on the contrary, he was the one who brought them closer to the girls. That's why they used him or supported him by lending him their cars, even spending money on him, or entertaining the girls. NN always seemed like a single, free, and available man—attractive, extravagant, generous, discreet, fun, and extremely respectful.

When he came to study in Quito, he befriended people connected to the government of León Fiebres Cordero, who owned a newspaper, which at the time wasn't important, but it was thanks to this relationship that he decided to study journalism. When he graduated, he went to the capital to propose creating a branch in each province, and that these provincial newspapers give importance to local news more than to national and international news.

That idea was embraced. The first provincial newspaper of the future network of provincial newspapers was launched in Esmeraldas; later, branches were established in Imbabura and Tungurahua, and other provinces. NN resigned from his job at the Ecuadorian Housing Bank, where he was already president of the bank's union, which had also granted him a loan he used to buy his first house. This loan, which reduced his income since the bank debited the monthly installments, was a lifesaver because almost his entire salary went to gifts and parties for all the girls who were taking advantage of him.

The newspaper was a success from the start. It connected him with political leaders, athletes, artists, union leaders, especially from the most powerful union in the country, the oil workers' union, etc. This made him a prominent figure in the city. But he couldn't give up his libertine lifestyle of parties and dates, which now included the other shareholders of the newspaper, both from Esmeraldas and the capital, for whom NN was the best host. During those days, his mother, whom he adored, the light of his life, suffered a stroke and subsequent post-stroke dementia, which led to depression. To make matters worse, he was involved in an accident in a newspaper vehicle, due to alcohol consumption, from which he miraculously survived. As a result, the newspaper company bought his shares and then fired him.

Among the women who harassed him was a high school student, a delinquent, the orphan of a fuel and gas smuggler to Tumaco. The man owned a small boat called Go Fast, with two 120-horsepower engines. Her mother had abandoned her after the economic catastrophe of the 1999 Banking Holiday, migrating to Europe like many other Ecuadorian women, leaving her daughter in the care of a very elderly grandmother. This young woman managed to catch NN's attention and became pregnant. NN, a devout Catholic like his mother, married her and took on not only fatherhood but also the care of his mother. His father, a retiree who had been his mother's caregiver, died of cancer the year after his mother suffered a stroke.

NN, like his sister, took care of their mentally ill mother, taking turns so that sometimes she stayed in Esmeraldas and other times in Quito. But his young wife truly hated her mother, whom she kept malnourished in an attic, while he sold cell phones in his store on the first floor. NN's sister and his wife hated each other; it was an antipathy mainly because NN had abandoned his role as a good son and brother and had become a Protestant pastor, like his wife, who had God on the tip of their tongues, but in reality, he was a puppet of his young wife.