|
Chapter 1
…he unfolds and looks at himself.
The camera captures the city at a height of one thousand feet; the buildings from the city of Guadalajara stand out over the urban spot. At three o’clock in the morning, they are few the lights in its interior, Manuel walks around over them looking at the view, as real as if he were awake, he locates Minerva arbor and Lázaro Cárdenas Avenue, the González Gallo, a slow turn and silently over the West side of the city passing through Tlaquepaque, many of the lights in the city twinkle like stars, others keep their constant glow, the sound of the wind is the only thing that can be heard in the back. It doesn’t produce any collision when it flies, what he hears is the natural sound of the wind at those heights, only accompanied by the sound of the trucks that would seem to be produced with anonymous harmonic purposes. He can go up, go down, he could even pass through the buildings if he wanted to, he has been able to make these flights for several years now. To travel in that bizarre anonymity gives him a special pleasure and at the same time a constant fear. He can see with intense and shiny colors the simple life of those who work at that time in the morning, he appreciates the esthetic of a working person, of drinking a cup of coffee on the corner eating a tamale, the pleasure of existing, of being able to be somewhere, that he could not have imagined if he hadn’t been in those circumstances in which in a certain way, he didn’t exist.
Softly turning towards the sky he sees the stars, Orion and the other constellations he barely knew. Now, the stars seemed to be glued to an immense sealing, when traveling among them, it would seem as if they surrounded him. The moon seemed lonely to him, after seeing planets with many satellites that kept each other company in their daily orbit.
He starts to feel the strange cold, he knows he has to go back, he only takes an additional walk through his favorite places and returns home, this time without an effort, he went inside of him once again. Once asleep, inside his unconscious, he decides not to wake up; it wasn’t like the first times when he got anxious, now he waited for the sound of his iphone.
He gets up the next morning, the camera captures a spacious room, a take from Bit, Manuel’s wife sleeping on her left side. He puts on his hearing device, prepares a light breakfast, goes downstairs to the garage through a snail staircase with a modern design. He gets in his car and goes to the office. We can see his wife watching him from the window.
He moves forward on the avenue with a traffic island that takes him to Vallarta Avenue, he stops without knowing why and two seconds later a little kid appears from between the cars, after stopping the car roughly Manuel looks on the rear―view mirror, there are two cars behind him that can barely stop. The mother runs after the child very scared, she looks at Manuel with an expression that goes from shock to gratitude. A soft honk makes Manuel react and move forward slowly, he keeps the image of the little boy suddenly crossing the street, running as fast as his short age allowed him to, a mechanical premonition had saved him. Other times he could see flashes of what was about to happen, but this time the premonition was automatic, he stopped the car without being aware of what was going to happen, he kept the image of the mother that even scared and a little mad, held the child in her arms. Manuel moves forward and continues on his way to work.
He reaches a corner on Mexico Avenue, he sees the juice stand next to the newsstand and in front of the bus stop; he had been there a few hours earlier. The oranges, the atole and the tamales for the stand were taken by taxi to doña Mari, who carried all the stuff from the old little Nissan truck; the strength of doña Mari and her skills to unload the same things for so many years made her thin nice look like a useless weakling, stepping aside continuously so she wouldn’t get on the way.
Manuel arrives to his office, he sees some papers on his desk. They are some large offices,
―Lupita, please contact the accountant ―, she arrives two minutes later when she’s already taking a cup of coffee
― Yolanda, has the income statement been checked already?
― Yes, it has –
― They are not OK, go through them again―, he says looking the other way and giving her the documents. Yolanda walks away a little confused and a few moments later Manuel calls her on the phone, makes a comment on an income account that hasn’t been affected. Suddenly we can see how she picks up a thick folder with a bill of exchange that was outside of it and in which we can read “account number 505―001―002 Sales Refunds”. The camera captures the accountant as she examines the documents and corrects them.
Manuel laid down on his armchair contemplating the city of Guadalajara, we can see the images of the boy passing by when he had already stopped the car, the face of the mother, then the face of the nephew recently fired. The phone rings, it’s the secretary. We can hear how she asks permission to leave, he says:
―Yes, Lupita. Please congratulate your parents for me…―.
―I’m sorry Sr. Thank you very much but how did you know about my parents? Today it’s their 40th wedding anniversary…―,
―You must have told me, otherwise how would I know? ―, he laid down on his armchair again and fell asleep.
After a few minutes, he unfolds and looks at himself turning towards the window, he can’t take the feeling and decides to go out flying. He feels cold and continues flying, he does it slowly and just let himself go. Not knowing how he arrives to a clean house on Americas Avenue, he stops; the camera makes close up, we can tell how with a conformist attitude, without knowing why, he was going down into the house.
The house has the façade just one meter away from the sidewalk, only one floor and dimensions much more extensive than usual, even for that neighborhood. We can see how a huge door opens and a 38 year―old guy comes out from it dressed in a dark gray suit and a red tie. The guy greets Manuel calling him by his name and invites him in; Manuel accepts. The house is order, clean, with a spacious lobby. He goes into a living room which more than a living room seems like a dining room, very appropriate for drinking coffee.
Chema, who opened the door, shows him part of the house. Manuel walks around fascinated observing the good taste reflected on open spaces and more than enough for the furniture that were inside. Slowly, Chema shows him the whole house answering to Manuel’s questions. When he finishes, he looks at him calmly as if he didn’t have anything to do in the years to come. In a polite way he points at the door ending the visit. With the feeling that there are things that haven’t been cleared out, Manuel says goodbye. When he walks out, he stares at the building, he sees the number, the street, some statues of pointer dogs that serve as ornament for the cornices; he wakes up in his armchair. Everything has happened in an instant despite his flight had lasted over an hour in conventional time.
|
