That Nobel Prize Winner

He’d been awarded a Nobel Prize. Everybody wanted his presence as a guest in meetings and television shows. Some schools had been named after him. Nevertheless his close relatives and the scarce friends he had knew he was an abject person, an apparent winner who enjoyed hurting people around him.

Motorway to heaven

He’d spent the whole night in a mixture of fear and freedom. Early in the morning he decided to cross the motorway. After a few meters he tried to avoid a grey car, but its bumper hit his head. A second car crashed into his body. My dog passed away.

Those dark eyes...

Eyes are a mystery. I’ll always remember those big dark eyes looking at me wide open. I was fascinated by them. I couldn’t see anything apart from them. Though not close to me, they transmitted loneliness and sad acceptance. The image of that old gorilla has never left my mind.

Mushrooms

They'd been invited to pick up mushrooms. They thought it was plain sailing. The reality was different. The mount was steep and at 1600 meters altitude. Then they had to spot them and next they had to decide if they were edible or poisonous. They'd spent tiring long hours there.

98,181818

One day the racist biased guy disembarked on the Norwegian Utoya island and shot seventy-seven teenagers on summer holidays. After months trying to decide if he was sane or insane, the court sentenced him to serve twenty-one years in prison. Ninety-eight days, eighteen hours, eighteen minutes, eighteen seconds per life.

The sitting man

I never saw him on foot. He ran a souvenirs and inflatable beach mattresses shop near  the beach. Every year he was there, in his striped beach armchair, wearing his white and blue sailor cap. He was older and older but fatter and fatter, just as his inflatable beach mattresses.

I called him "budgie"

I had always known him being there, opposite my bedroom window. Now I was thirty and he was probably forty. Always behind his balcony bars. His parents had never taken him to the street. Having a mentally handicapped child had been a curse for them for who knows which sin.

Honorable People

The Bank had asked for the help of the Government. Eventually public money rescued the bank. Meanwhile, the Bank CEOs had corporate Visa Cards they could use freely. With them they paid for alcoholic drinks, night clubs, lingerie, Thai massages and high standing restaurants. They also used ATMs every day.

Daydreaming

He everyday got up relaxed and ready for work. He liked it and everybody counted on him. His bosses promoted him and regularly raised his salary. In the evening, when he arrived at his island of peace, his wife was already there looking forward to him. Maybe he was dreaming.

Memories

It was the biggest one and always swimming in front of them. After it, there were four others. They were almost motionless, floating in the same place and moving gently their bodies. All of them staring obsessively one of the glass walls of the oblong fishbowl. Do piranhas have memories? 

Onnagata

People had gathered for the opening of the exhibition about Kabuki and Noh  theatre. They noticed the colorful scenes on the pictures. People commented on the garments, the swords and the colours. Others got shocked by how big and manly those women looked. They didn’t know those “women” were “onnagata”.

A happy beach day

They arrived silently at the sunny Mediterranean beach. She laid the towels on the sand while her husband took his sandals off and folded carefully everybody’s  t-shirts. Their two children started building a rudimentary sand castle. The Japanese family sunbathed for three hours and they silently got up and left.

Politicians don't die of Ebola

Both of them left their villages in Spain and decided to relieve people’s physical pain. In Africa they lived twenty-five years giving their lives for nothing but a smile. They caught Ebola, just as their patients had done. Some politicians objected to their coming back to Spain. It was expensive.

Idling

That day nothing special had happened. When he got up the sun was shining. He had talked to the usual people, had followed his daily routine, had been alone when he had wanted to. Sometimes he looked without seeing and he listened without hearing. Next month he would turn ninety.

Happiness behind the bars

He was running hectically to and fro. Suddenly he would stop, look down at the passers-by and sing loudly small fragments. Behind the four year old boy, a greenish neglected open door. He smiled at people as they noticed him and grabbed the rusty balcony bars with his tiny hands.

The girl on the bench

The old city square was full of life. People were walking or talking lively in front of a drink at cafeteria terrace tables. There were some wrought iron benches. Among that crowd there was a beautiful sad young Asian girl sitting alone at the end of one of the benches.

Unbalance

He’d been preparing for long for that testing. The last month had been intense in training. Mind and body responded coordinately. The Iaido testing day arrived. He knew how and what to do. In the test a slight mistake unbalanced his confidence. When he heard the verdict he breathed gratefully.

Bolivian Hell

They call it a prison. Policemen are only at the check in and check out. Inside you have to pay other inmates if you want to eat, to have a place to sleep or just to live. The guardians are convicts belonging to mafias and sharing money with the police.

The value of a life

It was going to be another happy day in her life. She was in the playground with other teenagers when gunmen entered the school. They kidnapped her and other 275 Christian girls. Their future? After living hidden in the jungle, being raped  and sold as sex slaves to cruel Muslims.

SDS (Stupid Dog Syndrome)

At the shop entrance there was a gigantic brown teddy bear standing up. Everybody stopped for a moment there and some used to get into the shop. A dog saw the large teddy bear and started to bark at it full of fear and anger. Maybe it suffered from SDS.

Zero Gravity

Silvia showed her parents -future grandparents- the video of her one kilo future daughter. You could see her peaceful expression, the way she waved her arms and sucked her small thumbs. Sometimes she yawned and stretched her arms and legs. She moved as freely as an astronaut in amniotic weightlessness.

Love is stronger than death

She started to burst into tears on the bus home with no reason. When she saw a body on the sidewalk, she already knew whose hand that was. He heard voices ordering him to kill her. He committed suicide from their eleventh floor as he didn’t want to hurt her.

The white feather

The car front coming from nowhere provoked a sudden clumsy fluttering. Next car’s tyres rolled on the bird. Part of its smashed body and feathers got stuck on the tyre. A second and a third car turned the dove into minced meat, leaving a white feather on the road asphalt.

The interview

I’d been selected for a job interview. I’ve always been among the best experts in my job. After the introduction, the employer asked me five questions I was unable to respond. I was desolated. The employer told me “O.K., you are hired. You’ve passed the exam. Who can’t answer passes”

Obsession

Peter always used to do the same things at the same time. He always dressed the same way, too. He was obsessed with times. However, on a Monday afternoon he seemed disoriented, sitting on a bench in the park of another city. He had lost his wristwatch some days ago.

The Housewife

As every Sunday she had got up early to cook their favorite dishes: lasagna stuffed with vegetables and chocolate cakes. After a hard long morning preparing the meal, all family sat at the large table. Everybody ate silently. When they finished, they stood up quickly and left. Nobody thanked her. 

The Believer

He was leaning on his crutch, standing in the sunshine, begging some coins. His teeth shone white in his North-African tanned face. A Jehovah’s witness handled him a biblical pamphlet. The one-legged man smiled openly and looked at the sky, raising his palms giving Allah thanks for his precious life.