Eartheater

by Dolores Reyes

Then, I started eating earth for others who wanted to speak. Others, already gone.

I listened to him talk but had nothing to say. It bugged me that it was blood that pushed him to look for her, not the girl. Any girl. He was the law, that was his job.

I knew the next few days would be crazy. I wanted to remember my face as it was now, in case it somehow got lost in the coming madness and changed altogether.

The only way I could sleep through the night was with music.

I felt sad. I didn’t know if for her or for what had been done to María, or for my mamá, for Florensia, for Walter’s girlfriend, or for me. I felt sad for all of them at once. Enormously sad.

I went with her to the gate and gave her a stiff kiss. She left along the sidewalk by my house, like so many others, never to return.