16:20

Por aquel entonces vivía en el barrio ateniense de Pagkráti con mi amigo más íntimo y su pareja. El piso que habitábamos era espaciosísimo y luminoso y casi siempre olía a café griego recién hecho, debido al insomnio crónico que aquejaba a Pános. Recuerdo que me costó años aprender a hacerme una taza decente de aquel café, que los griegos proclaman griego y los turcos reclaman turco, pero que, en...

The lexicalization process of my paranoia

1. The others Even before that movie came out and the term was coined, I always felt my life had something Truman show-esque about it. Every time a stranger would address themselves to me in an awkward manner, I would get that feeling. As if my own social awkwardness was mirroring their own, they would look at me with an undefined expression, not having yet decided quite what to make of me, or exactly...

Muere, repelente

Suele ocurrirme tras alguno de mis escarceos amorosos. Me convierto en Nadie. Pierdo rostro, alma, extremidades, voluntad. La energía que normalmente me impulsa decide estancarse y transformarse también, pero ella se transforma en Algo, en Algo Totalmente Horroroso. Básicamente, mi pecho (el templo de mi alma o mi caja torácica, si preferimos contemplarlo en términos meramente corpóreos)...

Foolhardy

There is competition in every endevour. Even murder, they say. No reason why love should be any different. As Cara's face comes up for air from her Sunday special brunch menu, she catches sight of Jen, her little blonde ponytail lively swinging from side to side as she hurries out of the kitchen and right up to serve the way too happy-looking little family in table seven. Her gaze turns into a straight...

Gulping it down

Holy crap, that phone was on fire. He kept staring at the picnic-like kitchen table, which was, now that he'd finished his early supper, covered by tiny breadcrumbs, and not knowing what to do. The generous dish of spaghetti putanesca he had just wolfed down had left the corners of his lips stained by a soft shade of carmine that made him look even a little bit more pathetic. Fortunately though,...

Metáfora desubicada

La vida adulta es como una piscina vacía: saltas, emocionada y tras coger carrerilla, desde el trampolín, y aterrizas en el frío hormigón con una soberana hostia que dejará secuelas. Como una futura tendencia sistemática a la precaución en todo lo concerniente a lugares al aire libre con extensos volúmenes de agua, cloro, césped, crema solar o salvavidas. A mi sobrina no pareció gustarle demasiado...

Damp

It's a tiny room with one of those cream-coloured telephones that once were a common element in every household but are nowadays socially classified as 'vintage'. I remember how my deceased grandfather used to take what I, even at the age of 7, considered to be a disproportionate amount of pride in having fixed a small lock in the dialling wheel in order to prevent any of his children (but mainly...

A bloody ride

So the people were not really used to her strange way of hitch-hiking ("bitch-hiking" as she preferred to call it). Fuck those losers. As far as she was concerned they could all go and get a life. After all, she would gladly take it from them when the opportunity arose. On the road, on those four wheels that constituted the scenario where she was best at for murdering someone. It was amusing and...

De los huecos del lenguaje

Ocurrió en un fin de semana bello y con luna llena. Se enamoró de sí misma con mayor intensidad de la que conocía hasta entonces y a base de reflejarse y mantener conversaciones de cierta profundidad sustentadas en los tres pilares de toda incipiente madurez: emociones, psicología colectiva y realismo. Aquel refugio, regalo divino, la ayudó a contemplarse tanto como a mostrarse y a acoger serenamente...

Somos luz

Me habla suavecito, con ese acento suyo andaluz, ya no sé ni de donde, con esas eses... Y a mi se me va la cabeza, viajo a esas tierras lejanas a las que no había vuelto desde adolescente. Y ya no puedo, hasta me sale el francés, del que no entiende ni palabra ni media, y le digo, casi susurrando: - Non, mais il va falloir que tu t'arrêtes avec cet accent charmant a toi...-hago una pausa,...

Wolfgang

The kettle had just finished boiling. He got up from the corner couch and walked to the kitchen to make his tea. A milisecond before the cup touched his lips, which had been smiling in anticipation of this small pleasure, a massive explosion erupted from the other side of the living room, destroying half the kitchen as well. The second-degree burns from the boiling hot tea all over his face began...

De amor y agua fresca

- Sí, reciente. Hace un mes y medio - ofrece Margaux, con ojos vidriosos. - ...y dieciocho días, casi dos - añade Éric, pasteloso. Traducción: follamos como conejos. Estupendo, piensas, viva el pudor. Te preguntas si serán conscientes de que están invitando a todos sus amigos a imaginárselos en pleno chimpampún. Arreando. Durante un mili-segundo, una parte de ti se avergüenza un poco de tu cinismo....

A pesar de

Y porque parece ser que no puedo obviarte, este pseudosalto al vacío, que creo haber perpetrado a mi propia cuenta y riesgo, se carcajea recurrentemente en mi cara cada vez que se le antoja resaltar tu juventud. Que lo que he topado en ti me desborda, que me ha acabado vendando los ojos para hacerme ver tonterías con todo lujo de detalles. Que el sabio Heráclito se regocijaría con nuestra relación,...

Blank and full

Let me say I just feel blank. Only a piercing headache seems to be persistent enough to persuade me of the fact that I still got some sort of life inside of me. The quality of fluffy, and simultaneously blunt, of everything around me, has skyrocketed to a point that I’ve settled to think of as bittersweet aloofness for the time being. Detachment has won me over without much resistance on my...