The cockroach

The roach was running in the kitchen. It felt a dark shadow covering its body. Then it understood what it was going to happen. It ran and ran. The shoe sole fell on it. A whitish substance mixed with broken pieces of  the cockroach’s black armor stayed on the floor.

Ramón

Ramón was fourteen. He was proud of being Gypsy. He didn’t like studying, though he was very clever. He heard his teacher had got over a skin cancer. He approached the teacher when the lesson was over and said:

-“Do you pray?” “You should thank God everyday for being alive”

Resistance

She’d been working for the same school for thirty years. Getting up in the morning was a hard trial. Another day of laughter and endless humiliations in the classrooms. And her bosses making her feel useless and stupid. She could barely stand such an aggressive background. Barely..., but she could.

The flower box

At school, Spanish and foreign language teachers shared the office. Three walls were wrapped with books and papers. Beyond the windows there were ten tall trees with twisted branches covered of thick green leaves. The light purple orchid beside the computer looked contemptuously at the trees from behind the windows.

The cigarette

After trying sleeping pills and acupuncture he decided to switch to a cigarette of marihuana. He was not a smoker. He smoked his marihuana cigarette very quickly. Five minutes later he was about to lose his consciousness, sweating and cursing. He felt bad, alone, paralyzed and regretting that bloody cigarette.

Stained mirrors

She had always been obsessed by cleaning. Whenever she looked at herself in a mirror she discovered small stains on it. The older she grew the more stains she could find on mirrors. She had a handkerchief ready to rub mirrors. She never admitted the aging spots of her skin.  

Alvarito

The children in the village were as cruel as all children in the world. In that place, as in all hamlets, there was a village idiot. The children were in the street, laughing at him. One of them took some horseshit from the ground and invited Alvarito to eat it.