From The Tales of Happiness Santiago: An Excerpt
By Victorio Reyes Asili
...
...
He locked up the pigeon coop
and climbed over to his favorite perch
on the adjacent building.
Peeling paint from his fingernails
he thought about his conversation
with his old friend, how he fell
apart, surprised to be still now.
His legs straddled the parapet as he looked
up to the stars
counting them
a custom from his younger years
he began to focus on one
as was also his custom
staring intently
bringing into focus
letting it drop out
only to bring it back again.
He imagined
spinning
the object
like a globe
sketching a picture of its opposite surface
on his brain
that correlated
to the visible
side.
The star was
pulsating
but this was really his heartbeat
ba-boom ba-boom
distracting his perception
Thinking
about Carmelita
wondering how she was doing
wondering if she could
recover.
Picturing the color
and texture of her vomit
the consistency of the bile
and the density of her stomach lining.
Trying to coerce his vision
into an image
of recovery
he felt
the urge
to curse
the occupation
in her gut
but
he could feel
tension
from the applied
force
then
he
let
go
his eyes started to
lose focus
the stars
gathered
and began fluidly
to move
all
comet-like
yet
imperfect
they
painted swirls
glittery silver
ghost white
cobalt blue
dizzy
he feared that he might slide
off the worn side
of the parapet
even though
he knew the exact
composition
of every brick
brushing
against his legs.
He slid off
onto the roof
his back pulled into the rubbery tar beneath him eyes focused upward
the swirls started
to turn
a clearer image
a horse a rider
the stallion picked up each foot
in four beat measures
its gait methodical
yet silky smooth
boom boom bap bap boom boom bap bap
the sweat
building up
below the rider’s hairline
a countryside
wet and lush
fruit trees in the distance
he suddenly heard
a waterfall and rode
straight for it
the same four beats
in faster succession
boom boom bap bap boom boom bap bap
as the speed increased
he implored
the steed
to go even faster
it obliged
boomboombapbap boomboombapbap
as they came up alongside the water
he gently patted the horse on
the right side of its neck
without slowing down
kicked up his right leg
and in one
motion
was
airborne
floating
to a soft
landing
at the
water’s
edge
he dove in the shallow pool
and drank and drank
the bright blue