un cliffhanger | 2002-03-11 - 7:47 p.m.


Dios mio, que fin de semana m�s horrible. Saturday morning, I'm all ready to go shopping with Concha and her cousin Alicia -- we're literalmente halfway out the door of mi apartamento -- when el tel�fono starts ringing. "Hold on," I tell the girls. "It may be alguien importante." Alicia, just like a character from Dynasty, sighs with exasperation and hurls her bolso de cuero artificial against the couch. Concha crosses her arms, rolls her eyes, and flops down into my beanbag chair with un aire de resignaci�n. Not an easy thing to do gracefully, but the flexibilidad of Concha's limbs is by now, I think, the stuff of legends.

As soon as I hear my brother Jes�s' squeaky voice on the other end of the tel�fono, I inmediatamente start wishing I'd let la m�quina pick it up. I don't know who I'd been expecting to call, but it definitely wasn't my fucked-up hermano. Me cuesta confesarlo, but I'd kinda forgotten all about him and his problemas. Which is understandable, realmente, since I hadn't seen him for over un a�o y medio, since his last visit�n.

It may have been a year and a half since our last meeting, but Jes�s is tan predictable como siempre. Before he finishes saying "hola" I know he's calling me for un favor. �Qu� cara! The muy pendejo has the nerve to call me on a Saturday ma�ana when he knows I'm probablemente helplessly nursing a hangover. Does he really believe I will be more susceptible to his entreaties on a bleary-eyed Saturday morning than on a Friday night during a tequila binge?

He does.

Ay, sant�sima virgen, he knows me even better than you!

Anymodo. I ask Jes�s what he's doing here and it turns out he's passing through town on a misterioso trip he won't -- or can't -- discuss en detalle. But never mind that; lo importante is that he wants to take the time to "catch up on shit" with me. Ya sabes, have a chat about the good old days over a cup of General Foods International Coffee, repasando those happy, distant d�as when mam� y pap� were still on speaking terms and neither of us kids had yet experimentado with liquid paper. Oh yeah, and he only needs to crash at my place for two nights this time.

"No way," I tell him. "You must be out of your fucking mind! Last time you stayed here, cada uno de mis Shakira CDs disappeared. No fucking way are you staying here conmigo."

A pause on the other end while here in mi apartamento, Alicia theatrically stifles a laugh and Concha rolls her eyes again. "Well, that's too bad, because I'm right outside your place right now..."

"Y qu�?"

"... and I'm bleeding. I think I hit my head on the windshield when the car went into the side of the building."

--To be continued

anterior - siguiente

pride and prejudice - 2004-09-07
wherein I become a Yahoo! Search Result - 2004-06-23
like 9-11 all over again - 2004-06-20
enough said - 2003-02-05
tirar por la calle de en medio - 2003-01-28

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