1.
In his last days, my maternal grandfather lived in one of the poorest areas of the city. Until shortly before his death he worked very punctual, got up at 5 am to deliver newspapers to several newspaper vendors from the center. He did it for fun, I had no need to work, because in the small neighborhood in which occupied a tiny room with no door was not only respected and loved, but was also much admired for the way he related the latest news to those could not read, spinning stories of the previous days, ranging months ago, even years.
Grandpa was very high, even for his tenth decade of life nearly six feet measured. Sometimes came to visit us on Sunday, almost always gave us candy, and then sit on the couch to suck a lemon and take a tequila that lasted what seemed like hours and fall asleep peacefully. They made no sound, not so much discipline, but because this huge presence imposed silence. I was not able to look at him, and really wanted to have, the more I listened to mutter endlessly reciting names of streets, avenues, concerning household. A time had been watchman in a factory and much earlier courier. For him, the streets were everything, the only constant in a world changing.
probably walked in his dreams again and again that city to which otter information, knocked on doors and ate in a market or where it reached the hour. Perhaps half of the people and places that haunted no longer exist.
Now, every time the insomnia left me awake until 5 am, I think of him in the midst of that silence in the morning that he should ever be as familiar.
2.
walk down the street where I live, is a cloudy day, almost monochromatic, time is undetermined but looks more like an afternoon when the sun sets without flashes. I am alone, there are no pedestrians, or even see people in their homes, no birds, no insects, the windows are closed. Nor is there present, neither parked or in motion. In short, no sign of life. All the while a soft rain falls, so thin that it is almost a mist, is a type of rain we've only seen in the mountains. An icy dew soaks my face and hands, look up at the end of the street ... I see a long blue figure levitating slowly coming from behind an apartment building, floating about six feet off the ground. Approaches, I see a huge snake is a very special dark blue, electric and breathing, about twenty feet long by eighty feet wide, thin and abysmal. Coat over me and I see from below as cuts off the rain with her body. Regardless, turns the corner, and goes ...
3.
not remember the time of day, nor the exact time, but a few days after having gone to Grandpa's house to celebrate her birthday, my mother announced the inevitable:
- Your grandfather just die.
puzzled look to the chair once occupied, with the words resonate my mind just four years old.
- What does that mean? - I asked my grandfather.
"It means that from now on we can not see or speak," I said, still seated, dry mouth and vacant stare, but impeccably dressed, as was usual, long before I have met.
4.
The last time I looked systematically where I moved, I found a huge house in the same area where my grandfather lived. It was actually more like an interconnected group of rooms forming a letter U, around to an entry and a common courtyard. It was a very vulnerable house, surrounded by a wall easily scalable. However, the area was very quiet, maybe too much. It was very difficult to get there because the transportation was very poor and remote, I walked at least twenty streets to get there. Had all the services, although the electric light was more brilliant and the water rising from the pipe fell to a trickle at certain hours of the day.
I left there in the afternoon, to discover that he had no neighbors. I walked the streets to sample the area, closed businesses and abandoned houses abounded, while the few that did looked inhabited some elderly were watching television, almost without interest. I came very close to a park that runs along an avenue to approach more or less traveled. All games were chipped and broken, the grass growing where I could open, where no, mud puddles and flourished through the cracks of asphalt. A carousel horse with spring base oxidized before the last light of sun, moisture dripping from under their bellies and formed a puddle between the liquid and metal.
I thought living there, but not now but in years. Every evening I was involved in that twilight that seemed to be disturbed by anything or anyone.
was not the last time I found a place, my city is so huge that supports these dead zones, such as vacuum bubbles that are slowly expanding, absorbing his surroundings with a stunning neglect and silence. At that moment, I had the clear vision that someday the city will be exactly the case.
5.
My mother was washing dishes, and every evening: "Today I thought of your grandfather, what I dreamed the night he died."
"I dreamed I was on the roof of this edificio, el cielo lucía muy azul y soleado, yo estaba tendiendo unas sábanas. Miré hacia arriba y vi que entre las nubes había varias figuras entrando y saliendo de ellas: eran delfines. Todos los delfines comenzaron a dispersarse, excepto uno, que comenzó a dar de piruetas y silbar, justo encima mío. Por un momento se quedó quieto y me miró fijamente, hasta que de pronto comenzó a chasquear y silbar de nuevo. Entonces se alejó con los demás, se hundió entre las nubes. Ya no volví a verlo".
0 comments:
Post a Comment