A year later
Right now, beautiful. At peace. An hour ago I was getting off the subway and, sweating, I was meditating on the word "overwhelmed." I find it hard not to let myself go lately. Tonight, I lied to everyone. (…)
Morning violence
‘You're nothing but a coward’, I hear myself saying. A stillborn thing, hidden, all alone, curled up inside. I laugh when I talk about things that don't interest me (…)
The blue balloon (the story)
It’s hard to be small because people get mean. ‘You see, son’, said a father to his boy the other day, as the three of us were waiting for the lift. ‘Work hard at school, otherwise you'll end up like her.’ Oscar Wilde said (…)
‘Historias del gas’
This morning, as I started on the rooftops, I didn't have anything to write with, and it was really itching me. So I started ringing doorbells, and in barely an hour, I had already collected a nice haul (…)
La chica del gas
Barcelona isn't what I imagined. Crowded, noisy, and relentless. No matter what, it never takes a break. Going out in the morning during rush hour feels like being swallowed by the beast. (…)
The aftermath
Stars are born out of their own collapse. We shall remember this phrase. We’ll make a good use of it later. So it happens. One day, just like that. Either by choice, or because life has decided so. Suddenly, everything we've ever known disappears/has disappeared, the boundary isn’t clear and (…)
The memory of water
On the day of the event (i.e. the trauma), it's as if a part of the soul escapes from the body. The one that must be kept intact. The one that still smiles in childhood pictures. The event can take any form: an accident, a fateful phone call (…)
29 Langthorne Street
Sitting at the airport, I decided that there would be no more Evas. All versions of me that had ever existed had been stolen, broken or corrupted. So I was looking for a new identity. I had time on my hands and, since I no longer existed, it seemed like the perfect moment (…)
The next day
The horror of it all was that I had prepared everything in advance. Backpack, passport, essentials. A few days later, they’d be waiting for me at the airport. At that moment, I’d imagined only two possible endings to that story (…)
What women talk about amongst themselves
I remember. It was this book that started it all. The paranoia, the escape, the wandering from one end of the city to the other... It was the book. (…) Out of curiosity, I opened it. I thought it wouldn't hurt to flip through it. Well I was wrong.
The wandering
It's my fault. I had established a long time ago that when things would go wrong, I’d simply cut myself off from the rest of the world. Remember when I was little? I used to call it “the extinction”. (…) But I'm scared. I think I'm stuck, Lidy. I can't get out of it. (…)
