TRIPTYCH: THE CURSE
RECOGNIZING THE PLACE
Behold the man; pale and thin. He is dressed in a corduroy coat. He fully reclines the seat. The cold of the air conditioning is overcoming him. Outside, the fields remain dark; forests where the last wild species of the country dwell.
The movement of the car does not let him deep sleep, so he travels in a kind of reverie, as if his soul was detached from his body and looked at it. As the soul splits up and travels in the air, he looks at himself blurring and sees the child that always has been: innocent and insecure; clumsy and somewhat slow.
The images of the child become perceptible and clear: Is squatting in front of the fire and smoke coming from some dry wood sticks. He also sees the father in front of him, tying up of the animal, who names and calls him like a distant whisper. “Come Luis”, he says, “learn to kill, be a man”. He gives him a club and urges him to hold it firmly. Now he listens more clearly to the voices. "Hit hard”, insists the father and points to the pig's head. The boy refuses. He gets scared and runs to the mother's arms, busy in the kitchen grinding the corn. The father becomes infuriated. The woman intervenes to avoid the fury of the man on Luis. "All this is your fault", says the man and hits her on the face with the back of his hand. The boy wants to run away, but also to save the mother. He looks at the father hatefully. The father runs and approaches the child. He is about to catch him. The child cries and brings his hands to his face to cover it. He shrinks his body and throws himself to the ground. He closes his eyes. He imagine far away from there. His thoughts reach the abyss, his body breaks down. Then wakes up and breathes in deeply.
He gets off the bus. He stretches his legs and turns his body. He has arrived at a provincial city whose streets provoke a melancholy just like the darkest crossings or the most arid moors. The man doesn't take any transportation but walks directly to one of the streets that intercept the main road of the city.
Some dark areas remain in some of the streets, but most of them stand out for the sound of their small pebble stones, the narrowness of their winding roads, and the peace of their houses.
The man enters a street where most housesit enormous beams in carved in the ends with strange figures that form a black low relief going all the way to the floor; and the stores do not have shop windows or signs; instead, they are rather hidden, shady, and unadorned.
The man enters a store whose door is divided into two compact, equipped with some bells that ring noisily as soon as it is crossed. Is a where the air and the light enter through the space between the ceiling and a small wall at the height of the sill, in which some shutters are embedded held with bolted iron bars.
As he walks through the door, he sees a young cleaning some tables. He sits down at the bar, lights a cigarette and orders a beer. He looks around, trying to remember the details of the place that he might have considered his school. A drunk man tries to keep up with a woman dancing a vallenato. Several men occupy a table while drinking beer and chatting happily. Another group, a little further away, they play billiards.
–Is Rogelio around? –he asks the bartender.
–Who's asking?
–Tell him that Luis, the pig farmer.
The waiter walks down a corridor, goes through a curtain made of wicker yarn and disappears for a moment. After a couple of minutes he appears and signals the man to follow him. Man does it. As he crosses a door, he sees a couple of men on the side packing some brown bags. Marijuana, he thought. In the center of the place a table, around which four men sit, classifying bills in pesos, dollars, and bolivars. One of the men stops counting and notices him, then another does the same and stands up. He opens his arms and welcomes him into his arms like a father welcomes a long lost son, takes him by the hand and sits him down in front of him on a somewhat rudimentary chair.
Luis says he is in trouble. Rogelio makes it clear, otherwise he would be screwing with his people in the government. Luis asks him to forget his mistakes, he needs to cross the border ASAP. The other man is now surprised, but he maintains that everything is in due course. So Luis offers to pay. Rogelio pretends to be offended and Luis justifies his past actions on higher motives, but he’s always been grateful.
–And superior things have brought you back... –Rogelio insinuates.
Luis tries to make him see some difference, but the other man can’t stand speeches. So he asks him to speak his mind, period!
–I need to cross the border now, –replies Luis.
Rogelio specifies that quid pro quo is better. He needs to get a car across the border. So they will take advantage of the trip and Luis will have to run that errand. It is a suv that has already been sold and must be delivered to its owner; while at it, he can also carry a pending package. Luis is a little reluctant, saying that he can't look for more problems. And Rogelio clarifies that it is nothing illegal; the illegal stuff is actually brought from there.
THE MODEL
Helen is not yet a woman; just a little girl who imagines her own greatness on the catwalks, in the movies, or on television. Maybe even on the covers of a music album. Superficiality makes her bet the success of her future in the attributes of her body and in the almost perfect beauty of her face.
When studying high school she also took some classes at a modeling academy. She dropped out of college, self-assured by incipient success in beauty pageants and the occasional hiring for made TV commercials. The breakthrough of her acting career was the indecent and direct proposal of a well-known TV channel producer. She turned him down flat, feeling offended and relying on her talents to land herself such jobs. However, the upcoming offers were equally indecent. One day she decided to take notice of one and slept with a famous actor who swore to support her dream of getting an acting job in a soap opera, something that never happened; although unexpectedly she got the option to play a small role in a very popular soap opera. That was the end of her acting career.
She loses hope in the world of show business, but she does not stop thinking about how kind nature has been to her and continues to bet on her future trusting her beauty. She believes she will succeed with her first marriage, loving the man of her dreams, have the house she longs for, and her first and only child. But when routine becomes boredom for an idealist and adventurous woman, and her husband's faults become obsessions and paranoia, the conditions for failure are served.
The reason for her ruin is naive, unexpected, and unintended. Seduced by a man, the husband’s friend, when she feels confused and abandoned to domestic tasks. Without proof of her infidelity, the jealous husband gets a divorce without her consent, leaves her homeless as he takes custody of the firstborn. The woman swears revenge; later, when time has partly healed the wounds, she coldly calculates not to go through with such a situation and bets on hooking a sugar daddy, looking power and status.
She marries again and she believes she is destined to be happy and loved forever. She has an attentive and loving husband who strives to make her happy. She spends a couple of months on her honeymoon between Curaçao, Aruba, and Los Roques. Then they buy an apartment in a newly built building in Concresa, an area that has been populated by the nouveau riche. And they start their dream marital life. They plan a lot of things but the situation in the country turns wild. Then they subject the issue of children and most other marriage things to a new planning: emigration.
Initially, they bet on moving out of the country together, but then, they choose to wait for a job offer he would get from Spain. When it arrives, they both agree that it would be appropriate for him to travel first to try his luck and map out the conditions for both of them in Europe.
The plan goes well until she discovers that he has other plans: to travel with his mistress, a former work colleague. Then she changes plans. Although initially she didn't have the proper resources, she soon discovered how easy it is to contact gangster and how cheap their services are.
THE FLIGHT
The man walks slowly, dragging his feet. He is holding on to the walls. The street is dark and silent. He feels that he is shutting down with each step. At the end of the street he spots a light that seems to be his destiny. He accelerates his walks inspired by its proximity. He is losing blood. The pain in his leg make it impossible for him to walk. He hides his weapon. He approaches the door. He tries to hit fast and hard but only manages to give small and soft blows. After a short moment, one of Rogelio’s boys sees him; he goes out, looks around and puts his shoulder for the man to lean. They go inside and take him to a chair where all men are gathered. Rogelio inquires about the situation. Luis calls for a doctor urgently. First he must explain, Rogelio says.
Luis insists that he not be left to die and begins to talk. Everything started according to plan. They arrived at the building, each on their own. Skinny arrived in the car and left it in the parking lot. They all went up to the guy’s floor, but Guillermo went up the elevator and not the stairs. Probably, when the guy in the suv saw him he suspicious some. When Skinny gets to the floor he meets Guillermo and the guy runs out and locks himself in his apartment. There was no way to get him out. So they decided to rob the apartment next door. They noticed that the guy they were robbing also had a Toyota, so they decided to kidnap him, but when they were in the car, Guillermo starts insinuating that there was a snitch and that it was probably him, Luis, since he was a cop. Guillermo was driving but Luis senses that he is going to shoot him at any moment, so before he does, Luis shoots Guillermo in the head. The car crashes and everyone looks for a way out. When they do, he hears them start shooting. He thinks it's one of his buddies, but no, it turns out that the guy they had kidnapped was armed and no one frisked him. Next thing he knows, the guy had already dispatched Skinny and Perez; he shoots him, but the guy has a chance to fire a few shots and hit him in the leg.
Rogelio curses. He turns the table over in anger. He can't believe that such an easy job, proposed by the guy's own wife, would turn out that way and he blames it on the curse that Luis brings. He walks to a place far from the group. He takes his phone, dials the number of a certain sheriff and says hello.
Declaration
I certify that my entry to the The Ink Well Writing Prize is my own original work and has been published exclusively to The Ink Well and my Hive profile. I understand that my entry may be excluded from the Writing Prize if I have not met the Rules of Entry and the Community Rules. The Ink Well and the Writing Prize is supported by the @ocd Communities Incubation Programme and the @curie curation initiative.