Short Stories

Una breve ausencia, algunos contratiempos en el camino, un regreso sino triunfal, espero que decente. Aquí vamos, Usted que tiene a bien leer y yo, que cuando tengo tiempo libre, lo ocupo escribiendo.

“Not today” she though, while was brushing her blond hair facing a lighted mirror. “You won´t get anything from this doll today, you asshole”. She put the brush in the shelf and sighted. She left her pretty home in the suburbs, with a golden retriever playing in the grass and the neighbors driving their polished cars.

Where the hell could it be? Last night he had let one can of beer hidden away from his roommate. The disgusting bastard never wanted to buy his own beer. Now, where is it? Chips wrinkled bags, soda cans, dirty disposable dishes, half-smoked cigarettes… and the cough always comes along in the mornings, ripping his chest, watering his eyes. Weed, at least, gave him no cough.

“Got any coins?” asked the bus driver once she´d step in. The driver was a black woman with the biggest ass in all Phoenix. She searched her pocket. Both smiled. Once she could sit aside to a WW-II veteran with a USS Mississippi cap that snorted softly, she blanked her mind.

Outside the building he walked on sun. A sun so bright that makes every reflex to seem white. Lighted a cigarette and put on his sunglasses, letting his long red hair run free around his ears. Calmly he began to walk down the street. The temperature in the sidewalk was not under ninety. By the moment he reached the corner he wanted he´d saved two beers.

Down from the bus she walked through the campus trying to be invisible, holding her backpack thigh, her sigh on the floor, the steps regular and calm.

Finally, he arrived to college campus, black circles of sweat under his shirt arms.

In the corridor, surrounded by chat noises and soft music coming from the speakers, she moved her hand down her jacket. “It´s over, you punk”, she´d think. “Not even a kiss, not even a dime”.

He came to the bulletin board to see the cafeteria menu. In his pocket he felt some coins and two one-dollar bills. “Damn weed…it´s a bankruptcy maker”. Today it will change. He positively knew that. He positively knew he’ll get enough money today. A glance to his watches and waited.

She saw him down the corridor and made a fist around her pistol.

“There she is”. She was coming down the corridor. “Do you have it?”

“Of course I have it” she tough and smiled when saw the eyes of the Latino guy open wide facing the black and long barrel, folding his body to the wall.

“Better yet, I have this” the Asian girl told him showing a San Francisco PD badge.

The world continued spinning slowly, at a regular rhythm as done by millions of years.

Mexico City

April 2^nd 2010