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A Name
Silvia breathed deep when the bus huffed to a stop by the platform.
There it was.
Within minutes, she would leave behind all the wrongs she’d been through there. And all the good things as well. But since wrongs had been many more, and much more significant, she couldn’t feel down about leaving that godforsaken fold of the world to never come back.
She went back to the truck with the brothers to fetch her luggage, and busy hanging her rucksack from her shoulders, she missed Sean’s face when he learned that the four-figure guitar now belonged to his brother.
The man with the serious frown cracked a quick smile to wish her a safe trip.
“Thank you, Sean.” She hesitated. “May I ask you one last favor?”
Sean hesitated too, before replying with a curt, cautious nod. Silvia’s thumb pointed at Jay, waiting two steps away with her duffel bag and a little smile.
“His inner bastard is begging
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Sean waited for his brother to open a beer and sprawl on the passenger’s seat. “Well?” he asked then, keeping his eyes on the road. “Well what.” Sean turned off the music and smacked Jim’s cap off of his head. “Speak, dude.” “Later.” “No fucking way. We still have an hour to the ranch and I’m all ears.” Jim picked up his cap and put it back on, down to his eyes. “Fine, shoot.” “Jay? Seriously? You gotta be kidding.” “I thought she was kidding about not recognizing me. But she almost had a heart attack when I showed her my driver license just now.” “How did you meet her?” “Two days ago, when I got to the bus station.” Sean frowned. “Wait. You told me yesterday morning you’d found a fan to look after you.” He glanced at Jim and scoffed at his poker face. “You were talking about her? And she didn’t recognize you?” He let out a dry laughter. “Oh, man, this is too much!” Jim brought h
No Return More Than a Name
The bus cruised down the Interstate while Silvia struggled to untangle her earphones. Finally she was able to plug them to her phone to play some music. And she had another fit of shaky giggles when she heard the beginning of Save Your Soul, and Jim Robinson—Jay, for Christ’s sake!—sang in her ear.Good Lord, it was just too much. How come such a thing had ever happened? Was it even possible? How could she spend all that time with Jim Robinson and never realize it was him? And what on God’s green earth was he even doing there, in the middle of nowhere, in that rural area north of Fargo, North Dakota?Later on, back home, Paola would help her see that what had happened was simply impossible to expect or even imagine.“I mean, we know Brad Pitt came here to ski, and Roger Waters came for some fly-fishing, but you wouldn’t expect to find them at the groceries’, right?”Yeah, she was right. And
No Return What Later?
The brothers were welcome at the Miller ranch with a quick lunch, served by Jo and her bunch of friends, who left her to take care of her boyfriend in order to buzz around Jim like summer flies.Like they’d known Jim for years, nobody had even looked at the master bedroom of the big old house, keeping it for him. So he let the girls stalk him for at least an hour before taking possession of his room, to spend another hour in the hot tub.Sean and the others didn’t wait for him to get their rehearsal started. Jim eventually found his way to the library, where they’d set the improvised studio, and joined them. They noticed he didn’t feel like focusing on their regular routine, and spent the next hours mostly jamming.Over dinner, Jim decided he wanted a proper welcome party. The midnight bells from the old clocks all over the house got lost in the loud music and the loud voices.Jim was standing on top of a table, directing his frien
No Return Trout Gone Whale
It was like those fishers boasting about their catch. The first time they told the tale, they would put their hands one foot apart. “It was this big!” they’d say about the size of the trout they’d caught. The second time they told the tale, their hands would be two feet apart. “It was this big!” A week later, they had harpooned down Moby Dick single-handedly and even saved Captain Ahab. That was how the Jay Affair kept growing out of any proportion. Silvia wasn’t sure who she could share the story with. Yeah, Paola, sure. Especially because Paola would help her turn Moby Dick back into a regular trout. But until she could sit down with her friend, she didn’t feel like sharing the story with her little sister and her other friends. Coming home felt like a ton of rocks lifted from her shoulders. Gosh, she’d missed her siblings, her dog, her house, her town. She still had some days of her vacations left, and she f
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The video opened to Jim’s smiling face filling the screen. “Hey, there! Here I am, at the Miller ranch, and it finally stopped raining! Let me show you around.” He moved the phone away from his face to show a large rustic kitchen that was a complete mess. “Oops. Cleaning lady’s day off, I’m afraid.” He approached two women that worked at the sturdy wooden table in the middle of the room, their backs turned to him. “Hey, girls!” Both women turned to him, saw he was filming and waved hi at the phone. Jim put his arm around the older one, an African-American beauty in her forties, that shrugged Jim away when he kissed her cheek. “Meet Deborah Golan, the supreme commander of this mess of an army,” he said. “She also works as our full-time guardian angel.” Jim went to the other woman, a pretty girl in her late twenties, her dark hair very short over the back of her neck and almond dark eyes. “And this is dear Jo, my wa
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Catching up with her everyday life was easier than she expected, and that Friday she called on a ladies night to tell Pat’s tale only once. When she was done with it, she said she’d also met somebody before leaving the US. She omitted Jim’s name, and Paola had promised absolute silence, so it looked like just a casual comment on the sidelines. However, Silvia had to bear with a patient smile the well-earned dose of teases about her fixation with gringos. Seeing they were all in an excellent mood, Silvia thought she could start filming for the video Jim had requested. She made sure she didn’t look like the ultimate mess and tried an introduction. Over that week she got used to shooting here and there, a couple of minutes each time, and by the end of the week, after a little editing with the easiest software she found, she thought she was satisfied with her five-minute video. So she followed Jim’s instructions to upload it straight to the blog he had created,
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“This is something no man can witness and live to tell the tale, so keep it a secret. For this is a Sisterhood meeting at the Black Rock—which actually means girls night at my place. Let me introduce you to the council. This is Lady Claudia, our manipulation expert.” “Hi, Jay! Nice to meet you!” “This is Reverend Mother Karim with the procreation wing and my little sis Mika, I mean Acolyte Lolita, which is a pun in Spanish about her boobs.” “Hi!” “Hey there!” “And that’s Paola, who we suspect to be a spy, trying to infiltrate our ranks in order to steal our secrets.” “You didn’t say who you are!” “Oh, well, I’m Superior Mother S, always fighting for the survival of the Sisterhood.” “And now we have to leave you, Jay.” “Yes, we have some vital issues to discuss.” “Yeah! Like comparing guys’ performances, if you know what we mean.” “Yeah!” “Bye!” Jim chuckled under his breath, spraw
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Jim’s clip found her on a winter Friday night at home, with Paola and Claudia. Silvia read the Twitter DM and asked Paola to make more mate, while she breathed deep and sat down opposite Claudia, to tell her whom she’d actually met before leaving the US.Claudia laughed out loud, refusing to believe a single word she’d just said.So Silvia showed Claudia the video from the Miller ranch, and the blog Jim had designed for them to share their stuff.“Why don’t just have a Facebook private group?” asked Paola from the kitchen, while Claudia gaped at the pictures.“Jay hates any social network related in any way to Mark Zuckerberg,” Silvia replied. “He even calls him Suckerborg! And he swears he’ll never give him access to his phone and personal information.”Paola came back to the table and nodded to Claudia, chuckling. Their friend was still gawking at the one photo of
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