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Shoot the Alien
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2024-10-29 19:42:56It was one of those gorgeous days of May, a distant sun shimmering in a bright blue sky, a soft cool breeze. And Buenos Aires pandemonium all around. All of them took a moment to deplore they were in the middle of the city, instead of a beach by the lake or camping in the woods.
“But at least we’re all together,” said Miyen, raising his beer.
They all toasted to it, and then to Juan again.
A zillion people strolled down the park lanes among the stands offering crafts, clothing, food, books. The Cultural Center had some interesting expositions they meant to check on later. A couple of bands were getting ready to play at different corners of the park.
They’d picked a nice spot on the grass to lay Mika’s tablecloth, where they set all the food they’d brought to share. They were near the secondary gates of the Cultural Center, the traffic up and down Alvear Avenue roaring only forty feet away.
Silvia sat down between
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No Return Try Me
Jim got on the bus and went to his usual seat, two rows behind the driver, by the window. He dropped his duffel bag on the seat by his and waited. Silvia got on with Jo, almost the last ones, and they stayed at the first seat. Jo held her small camera, and they looked completely absorbed in their conversation. Like they’d been since they’d gotten back from the park, talking about the best places to visit in the city.He tilted his head with a mild frown, studying her. How much longer would it take her to get over the night before? He knew it was as absurd as logical, but she was still trying to stomach that he hadn’t rejected her. So she’d retreated to some inner corner, trying to find a little balance to keep going.And in the meantime, she was being evasive to a cold extent. She’d gotten in the shower when he was still trying to get up, and had pretty much jumped out of it when he’d joined her. To leave the room without even lettin
No Return Wild
Watching the concert from the stageside was safe and comfortable. They could sing, dance, take pictures or film, even have a beer or a snack while at it. But it only made Silvia, Claudia and Jo swear that they would be back to the pit against the fence the next night, because now they knew what they were missing from that nice comfy spot.Jim seemed to be especially inspired that night, driving the audience crazy to the extent of frenzy, and letting them infect him. He hardly played his guitar on the second half of the show. He surfed the crowd, walked among them, climbed up a sound column to dive into their eager hands, best Eddie Vedder’s style. And people touched him, held him up, kissed him, snatched his jacket, took his mittens away, ripped his tee off. Yet he still asked for more. So the crowd gave him more, and soon some were fighting with the security staff at the fence, trying to reach the stage to stand by his side.“He’s fucking wild tonigh
No Return The Edge
Jim locked the trailer and pushed Silvia against the cockpit door. She could see him shaking, and the violence blazing up in his eyes. She tried to keep calm. This was not Pat. It was Jim, it was her Jay. He was just intoxicated by all he’d taken in over those hours of fevered frenzy.But while she still tried to tell herself all that, he pinned her to the door and pressed his body against hers, kissing her roughly as his hands pulled her jacket open. She didn’t reject him, and tried to kiss him back despite the instinctive fear squeezing her belly. He yanked her jacket off.“D’you love it, bitch?” he snarled, taking a hand to her throat. “The crowd, the lights, the fucking minute of glory? D’you love breathing my air, bitch?”His other hand grabbed the collar of her top and pulled to rip it open, and that was just too much for her. That wasn’t about rough sex to burn out the overdrive. That was plain violenc
No Return What If
Maybe Jim had unwillingly killed her.Sean had heard noises like wrestling and things being smashed and shattered.Maybe Jim had pushed her too rough, she’d tripped and hit her head the wrong way. And right now, his brother was shocked before the dead body, not knowing what to do.Or maybe she had unwillingly killed Jim.She wouldn’t be the first woman to throw things at Jim during a fight. Maybe she’d hit him with something harder than she’d thought. And right now, she was shocked before Jim’s dead body, trying to come up with a way to escape before they caught her.Or maybe they had hurt each other, and now they were both lying on the floor, bleeding out, too stunned or too weak to ask for help or at least unlock the damned door.Or maybe…But Sean couldn’t think of any more tragedies to explain the silence inside the trailer.Shit! He should’ve known better. He shouldn’t
No Return The Sound of Silence
They walked down a maze of secondary corridors, Ron’s red tee a blurry beacon some thirty feet ahead. Finally in the open, they felt the cold night wind, not really registering the traffic lights and noises muffled in the distance. They were numb, lost inside themselves in some place where there was no room for questions or defined ideas.All of a sudden, they had this thing deep inside, a sensation like a rock, that didn’t ask for permission to exist—it just was. They followed Ron as they tried to adjust to this thing inside, so deeply rooted, still refusing to reveal its real shape, its meaning, its intentions.They still walked shoulder to shoulder, their arms stuck to each other, and the contact between them seemed to be the only real thing in that blurry night. It was the only way to keep walking. Stepping away from each other would have been like cutting off one of their own legs. They would have crumbled down wherever they were, forced to sit t
No Return Later, Honey
Breakfast didn’t come alone.Sean walked in on the heels of the guy pushing the tray into the suite. He nodded hi with his usual poker face and commented they had some interviews booked before going to the stadium.Jo came next, with the excuse of asking Sean something.Deborah was only third, to ask Jim if he wanted any particular place in the hotel for the interviews.Then it was Tom, looking for his green tennis.And Claudia to ask what plans her friend had for the day.When Walt and Liam dropped by to ask for directions to the spa, the population density in Jim’s suite made Calcutta look like the Asian branch of the Sahara.Jim and Silvia accepted the invasion like the most natural thing. He was wearing only his swimming trunks, and she wore one of his tees on her leggings, barefoot like him. They welcomed everybody with a calm smile from the table by the balcony, and the others couldn’t believe how fresh and coo
No Return Something Crazy
Silvia would’ve wished to go back to the full combo of fear and anxiety she knew so well, because the calm that filled her was somehow hard to bear. Nothing to do about it. She couldn’t help feeling contented.She had a great afternoon with Jo and Claudia, and they headed to the stadium at seven. They found the musicians hanging out around the catering tables, and Tom and Claudia were savvy enough to beat everybody to the new trailer and lock themselves up inside for a couple of hours, like they hadn’t spent the last three nights together.“Fuck. I wanted to take a nap!” Sean grumbled.“The dressing rooms, dude,” replied Jim.His brother shook his head, huffing. “No bunks, can’t you fucking believe it? And you know I hate sleeping on a couch.”“Hush, love,” whispered Jo in his ear. “They won’t take long and you’re lucky next.”Sean turned to her with one of his scary frowns, setting his jaw to keep himself from grinning and ruining his tough-guy persona.Jim and Silvia took a walk aro
No Return A Whole Lotta Broken Glass
Nobody would ever know what they did on their last night together.Those closer to them could only guess how many roofs they’d climbed, how many howls they’d cried to the moon, how many fences they’d jumped to make out and make love in how many public places. How many little bars they’d dropped by to ease their thirst. How many avenues they’d sprinted across with the green light, how many narrow cobblestone streets they’d run down.Side by side, hand in hand. Laughing, crying, singing.Jim and Silvia didn’t know for sure either.The last bar they visited closed and daylight seemed to set their eyes on fire when they went back out to the street. So they got a taxi and hurried back to Jim’s suite, to crash on the bed right as they were.When Silvia was able to squint around, about noon, she thought she should’ve kept track of the drinks they’d had, to keep from mixing so many.She pushed Jim’s arm aside, a dead weight across her chest, and the inertia made him roll over to lay flat on h
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Silvia woke up to Depeche Mode’s Personal Jesus.The sun was setting and she was alone in bed, tucked in soft sheets that smelled of lemon and the fat white comforter. Jim had left a few hours ago to let her rest, because after those weeks apart, it was plain to see she wouldn’t get any rest with him around.She’d fallen sound asleep, exhausted, and now she had the persistent feeling of being still lost in a dream. But she wasn’t. This was not the Black Rock. It was the Ashtray, her new home, and that music had to be a phone ringing.But not hers. She’d never used that song as a ringtone.She followed the music to the other nightstand, where she found a new phone still inside its open box with a red ribbon. And she laughed out loud when she grabbed it and saw the caller was My Personal J.“Hey, you awake?” Jim asked when she picked up, still chuckling.“Hey, you just woke me u
No Return Yours
They staggered into the bedroom and fell on the bed as they kissed, their hands struggling to get rid of their clothes.Silvia pulled Jim to bring him on top of her, yearning to feel his weight. There was no other body to hers, no other hands to touch her, no other lips to drive her crazy, no other skin to stroke hers. She wrapped a leg around his waist, pushing him down, and moaned when she felt him inside of her, his fire sweeping it all away, and she gave in to his need and his exasperated anxiety.Because that was exactly how he was feeling. He’d never missed her body, he’d never needed her like this. Yet there he was, fighting himself back to keep from going off like a frigging teen, growing crazier with every moan he pushed out of her mouth, every move of her hips, every touch of her fingers, every brush of her lips. Like he would never have enough of her.Why was he feeling this way? Why nothing seemed enough? When had all bodies lost their ap
No Return The Ashtray
Silvia exited the Customs Office feeling stunned and a little dizzy. After such an emotional last week in Bariloche, she’d had to go through the long flight that had taken her to another time zone, another season, another country, another culture, another language. She looked around, feeling she was running on fumes and she was about to pass out any moment now.Jim threw the sign she hadn’t seen into a bin to come stand before her, hands in his pockets and a smile under his black cap.“Looking for somebody?”Silvia just dropped everything to fall into his arms. He held her tight, kissing her hair, and felt her shiver nonstop. She needed a whole minute to fight back her tears and get a little grip on herself. When he assessed she would be able to walk, he took her hand, grabbed the luggage cart with his other hand, and took both to the parking lot without a word.Silvia just let him lead the way. She was there, with him, finally. Sh
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Silvia left before her friends and siblings even registered what she was doing. One minute they were all toasting to her for the hundredth time in the bar, and the next minute she was hugging every one of them, telling them how much she loved them. And then she was gone, all alone.She walked down the street, gazing up at the sky, admiring the colors in those minutes before the early sunrise. Her feet didn’t need to consult with her brain to head straight to the downtown beach, walk down the stone steps and take her right up to the lake shore.She sat down on the cold pebbles and lit a cigarette, face to the east. It was her last sunrise of the only life she’d ever known. The last sunrise with her lake and her mountains. Like so many times before, she wished she could capture every little detail as far as her eyes could see, carve it all in her memory and keep it inside of her, true and unchanged, forever unfading.She watched the sun come up behind
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Tobias and Leandro had done their best to clean up the Black Rock before Silvia came back home. And the outcome made her smile, because the house was squeaky-clean and smelling of flowers. They were surprised to see Mika there too, but Silvia’s look kept them from asking any questions.Knowing the siblings needed time alone for their reunion, Leandro left for Beltane, to have dinner with Claudia. At the Black Rock, Mika went to the supermarket, to restock the fridge with something that wasn’t trash food and make dinner for the three of them.The moment she walked out, Tobias asked Silvia what had happened to their sister to make her lower that proud head of hers, admit her fail and come back home. It was just natural he would take mortal offense when he learned why Mika was actually back. But Silvia would have none of it.“I’m telling you the same I told your sister,” she said. “You don’t want me to keep treating you guy
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It’d been six months since Silvia had last seen Mika, and one look was enough to tell her all her little sister had been keeping from her.Rob and Juan had planned a Saturday night out after dinner, but Silvia resorted to the such-a-long-flight excuse to stay behind.“Would you lend me a hand with the dishes?” she asked Mika.The others understood and took off, leaving the sisters alone.“I thought Lorena was coming too,” Silvia said as they picked up everything from the table.Mika hesitated, found her sister’s eyes and shrugged. “We broke up.”“Oh. You never mentioned it.”“It happened three days ago. I didn’t wanna write to you about it. It was your last days with Jim, and I knew we were meeting today.”They took everything to the kitchen and Silvia asked Mika to make mate while she did the dishes. The girl knew better than trying to beat
No Return The Thing
Silvia almost missed her flight, too absorbed staring at the tiny thing on the table before her.What on God’s green earth was that thing doing there, and in her keep?That white-gold band with a little, discreet diamond.An engagement ring.That frigging coward! Throwing it at her from ten feet away!But no matter the delivery method, Jim had given it to her.His mother’s, he’d said.Bring it back, he’d said.She felt lucky her brain was able to register the last boarding call. She looked up, startled, and jumped to her feet. She was about to hurry away when she remembered the ring. Actually, it was more like feeling a leash tugging at her neck, stopping her from walking away from the table.She spun around on her heels and scowled down at the damned thing.“You…” she growled.The moment she had it in her hand again, she realized how small and light it wa
No Return Catch
It was sort of weird. Being with Jim usually involved having people around, but now they were all alone, making their way through the usual crowd in LAX. Come to think about it, both of them loved having an active social life. Maybe that was why she hadn’t needed any major adjusting over the last ten days in LA.…?Silvia would’ve punched herself best Fight Club style. She had only minutes left with him and she was pondering about their social habits? Really?She checked in for her flight and they headed to the boarding area in no hurry.“So you think you can be back by January ten.”“Yup. I gotta report to work with Jo on the fifteenth, but I want a couple of free days before that.”They walked a whole minute in silence.Silvia wondered why all of a sudden they didn’t seem to have anything left to say. Why were they avoiding eye contact? Why did she feel like getting into the boarding
No Return Jam
“Hurry up or I’m calling a cab!”“Bet you’re dying to do it, you chicken.”“Please, Jay!”Silvia finished raiding the master bedroom one last time, to make sure she wasn’t forgetting anything.“Jay!”“Coming.”She snorted and went to canvass the ground floor. She was just done when Jim came down the stairs in no hurry.“Can we go before I have a heart attack, milord?”“Cool down, woman, we have plenty of time,” he said, grabbing her duffel bag on his way to the front door, where she waited with her rucksack. He paused at the doorway to poke her nose. “Really, such a rush to leave me.”Silvia wasn’t about to explain she was always that upset whenever she had a bus or a plane to catch, so she just scowled at him and followed him out.“Got everything? Tickets, passport?”Silvia ch
