Israel Centeno

We would need to see in another context just how mischievous you would have been. I only have a few manipulated references and that little life exposed in a sweetened three-month comic strip. It wasn’t many years; if you add up the real time, it comes to just that—a few days, a sum of something. Let’s not talk about it anymore.

I had a strange dream. I was in a tavern, drinking and singing with emphasis. I had a vague relationship with an Asian woman and another woman with more benevolent features. There were no two ways about it—we would leave there covered in explosives. Then I saw it: the city was filled with screams, and people were shouting in tongues as the frantic wave or the lash of fate spread. I was going to die; that was the thing. You never die in a dream. I looked into the Asian woman’s black eyes, her shiny hair, and the darkness of her laughter revealing the secret. I was caught in an unexpected situation and couldn’t disentangle myself, so I raised my glass and drank. Then my friend appeared with his chubby, pale face, very little hair gathered in a ponytail. He was cheerful, an impertinent coincidence, an intrusion of chance. He raised his hand, waved from the other side of the window, and walked away with that gesture. The city was Madrid, Athens, or Rome, corresponding with the vicissitudes of an island to the east and south, in the Pacific. How the hell would I wake up? I didn’t want to die that way, imploding the guts of a beloved city.

My grandmother dreamed years ago about the end of the world in Agadir and recounted it, terrified, before it all happened. Upon waking, while making coffee, hours later, Agadir was ravaged by water and buried by sand. It happens often; I haven’t been able to shake the feeling of imminence. Something always happens in the world; no one should abuse the boldness of an oracle or a nightmare. But there are signs, and they invert. The day will pass, and the sensation will fade.

No. It was never that many, nor was your freedom that great. I can’t infer anything.