Zaprezs placed the toes of his unpolished shoes at the exact edge of the stage. His attire had been treated with meticulous care to suppress all light and all reflection. The only white was the collar of his shirt, which pressed the flesh of his jowl against his jaw and pushed his head back. The whole body followed: erect beneath … Read more →
A weariness came over me and cast its shadow. That was when my ordeal began. At the entrance to the company there are always volunteers who smile at you, wearing that pathetic look of people who love every living creature. In those days, such treacly displays still offered me some comfort. On the way home I could always stop at … Read more →
With the help of a small fortune and in the strictest secrecy, Dr. Julio Puertas built a time machine that ran on plutonium. Such an achievement was the culmination of a childhood dream he had never abandoned. He studied engineering, earned a doctorate in physics, and secured well-paid positions to fund his project — all of which he resigned in … Read more →
There was once a painter who wandered through places where no paths have been written, in search of the perfect light. One day, a ray broke through the clouds and spread like a fan across the distant hills. Beneath that light, everything came alive anew. The painter was enraptured by that sky, but when he tried to paint it, the … Read more →
Mrs. Enríquez was born during one of the many post-war periods. Among briars and mud, she learned hunger and resilience before she learned to speak. Her genes, programmed to produce an athlete, had instead produced a slight, wiry little woman with sinewy limbs, defiant cheekbones, and light feet. She moved with the energy and steadiness of someone who has not … Read more →
One summer night, while everyone slept, the words began to escape through the window. They were tired of being used vulgarly, offensively, or wrongly — of being used to deceive, to lie, to insult. And so a few of them, the worst-treated, broke the chains that bind them to our tongue and set out on an adventure. The first to … Read more →