Catastasis
Tentorea, her hands now mute but her face speaking clearly, takes a few steps backward. Mefito steps toward her in a vain attempt to embrace her and sees that a venomous resentment now fills her eyes.
Mefito, despondent, stoops his way toward the door and, as he places his trembling hand on the tragic doorknob, he hears a window open, a body tumble and a scream quickly snuffed.
He tries to convince her, persuade her, make her understand that it would be a mistake to have the child, but Tentorea, bewildered, can only point at the door and shout at him with her hands that she never wants to see him again. Mefito, despondent, stoops his way toward the door and, as he places his trembling hand on the tragic doorknob, he hears a window open, a body tumble and a scream quickly snuffed. And that’s when he realizes: her scream was not unbearable to him. He runs downstairs, out into the street and finds her on the ground, drenched in blood. Weeping, he takes her into his arms, and she still has time to hear him say I love you, and to realize that his breath smells just fine.
Pablo MartÃn Sánchez (Reus, Spain, b. 1977) has received various short story awards, published a book of short fiction, ‘Fricciones’ (E.D.A. Libros, 2011) and is the author of the novel ‘El anarquista que se llamaba como yo’ (Acantilado, 2012), selected by El Cultural as the best debut novel of 2012. He was co-opted by the Oulipo Group in 2014.
Jeff Diteman (Idaho, 1980) is a writer and a translator working from French and Spanish into English. His original work and translations have appeared in Nailed Magazine and Drunken Boat. His new book is Dnghu Kantos: the Poems of Popakos in Pseudo-Proto-Indo-European (Red Square Press, 2015).
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