Paz

   Toda la gente sonríe. Es de los más extraño que he visto. Saludan de buena manera y se nota que no lo hacen por compromiso o porque les tocará por alguna razón. Lo hacen porque de verdad parecen estar motivados a hacerlo. Suena raro decirlo y puede que los haga parecer como monstruos pero es que la mayoría de veces las cosas no son así. O al menos no era así hasta hace unos meses en los que todo dio un vuelco bastante importante y ahora parece que todo el mundo siento en lo más profundo de su ser un compromiso con la calma.

 Al salir de la tienda también me doy cuenta de ello: la calle está llena de vehículos y, en otra época, todos estarían haciendo ruido como si este sirviera para empujar a los carros de adelante y hacer que el tráfico fluya. No, eso no pasa ahora. La masa de vehículos se mueven lentamente y en pocos minutos se diluye el tráfico pesado. Nadie hizo uso de su claxon ni de gritos ni de nada por el estilo. Era como ver una película de esas de los años cincuenta en que todo el mundo trata bien al prójimo. Excepto que los cincuenta fueron hace mucho tiempo.

 Aprieto mi mano alrededor de el asa de la bolsa de la tienda. Llevo algo de pan fresco, pasta, tomates y muchos otros ingredientes porque hoy soy yo el encargado de la cena. De hecho, comí algo ligero antes de venir a la tienda porque sé que va a quedar mucho para comer en la noche. Recuerdo esos tiempos en los que me cuidaba exageradamente haciendo mucho ejercicio de mañana y de noche. Ahora lo pasé todo a la mañana o sino no me da tiempo de hacer nada. Debo decir, con orgullo, que soy un hombre de casa y ese es mi oficio.

 Cuando pienso en eso siempre me da por mirar el anillo que tengo en el dedo anular de la mano derecha, la mano que ahora sostiene los alimentos. Peo no me distraigo por mucho rato porque o sino puede que me estrelle contra alguien o que tropiece contra algo. De hecho, como si fuera psíquico, me estrello contra un hombre gordo y voy a dar directo al suelo. Algunas de las cosas se salen de la bolsa y me pongo a recogerlas. Para sorpresa mía, una manos rojas me ofrecen mis tomates. Cuando miro su cara, es el hombre contra el que me he estrellado.

 Me disculpo y creo que soy yo el que está más rojo que nadie ahora. Le recibo los tomates y me disculpo de nuevo. Pero el hombre me dice que no es nada, que es algo que suele pasar y que tenga cuidado porque puede ser peligroso. Mientras el hombre se aleja, me le quedo mirando y pienso: ¿Qué le está pasando a la gente? Se oyen todos tan distintos, como a si todos los hubieran cambiado por unos muy parecidos pero mucho más calmados. Es casi la sinopsis de una película de extraterrestres. Sonrío para mi mismo y sigo mi camino.

 La tienda a la que voy me gusta porque vende los productos más frescos. Incluso la pasta está recién hecha ahí mismo. Lo único que no hacen son las cosas que ya vienen en envases pero de todas maneras es un lugar que siempre me ha encantado. Allí también me atendieron de la mejor manera el día de hoy y eso que antes había habido ocasiones en las que incluso la cajera parecía ignorar mi presencia frente a ella. Hoy, en cambio, una joven me siguió por todos lados recomendándome productos para usar esta noche.

 La verdad no sé que pasa pero sé que no me incomoda para nada. La gente solía ser grosera y cortante, como si todo el tiempo quisiera pelear con alguien, no importa si verbal o físicamente. De hecho, no era extraño oír discusiones en la calle o incluso en el mismo edificio donde vivo. En cambio ahora no se oye nada salvo las ocasionales risas o las alegrías y tristezas de los que ven los partidos de futbol, que no han cambiado en nada. En todo caso prefiero como son las cosas ahora aunque tengo que reconocer que no me acostumbro fácil.

 Mi hogar está bastante cerca de la tienda, a unos quince minutos caminando casi en línea recta. Siempre me ha gustado ver a la gente caminar por ahí, ver que hacen y que dicen y que hay en las calles en general. Me detengo siempre en varios locales para mirar lo que venden o para descansar un rato. No, no es que esté físicamente cansado sino que tengo tanto tiempo por delante que no quiero llegar tan rápido al apartamento. Es un día muy hermoso, de esos que casi no hay en una ciudad tan lluviosa y nublad como esta.

 Al sentarme en una banca, me doy cuenta del brillo del sol, de cómo acaricia el pasto y las caras de la gente. Es un sol gentil, no brusco ni invasivo. No me quema la cara sino que la acaricia con una suave capa de calor que a veces es tan necesario. De repente, a mi lado, se sienta una niña pequeña que lleva a su perrito amarrado con una cuerda rosa. Le sonrío cuando me mira y ella hace lo mismo. El perrito incluso parece sonreír también, aunque puede que eso sea más porque está cansado de caminar bajo el sol con su cuerpo peludo.

 Pasados unos segundos, me doy cuenta que la niña también descansa de su paseo. Y además me doy cuenta de otra cosa: está sola. Miro alrededor y no hay ningún hombre o mujer que parezca estar con ella. No hay nadie buscándola. La miro de nuevo pero esta vez está mirando un celular. Parece que mira un mapa o algo parecido. Trato de no mirar pero la situación es tan extraña que es casi imposible resistirse. Sin embargo, la niña se pone de pie de un brinco y empieza a caminar hacia la dirección opuesta a la mía. Sola, con su perrito detrás.

 Yo me pongo de pie poco después, cuando me rindo y dejo de tratar de entender como una niña tan pequeña puede estar por ahí sola, como si nada. La gente de verdad se ha vuelto loca o… O no. Ahora soy yo el que está siendo irracional. Ya en otros lugares del mundo he visto niños de esa edad con sus amigos o solos por la calle. Pero es aquí que me da pánico por ellos porque el pasado es así, nos somete a su voluntad incluso cuando, al parecer, no hay razones para temerle.

 Todavía me faltan unas cuadras más, en las que veo más personas. Hay ancianos que salen a aprovechar el hermoso sol de la tarde y mujeres embarazadas que hablan alegres con personas que aman. Hay más niños y grupos de hombre de corbata que hablan de algún partido y grupos de mujeres que hablan de lo que han leído en una revista. El chisme, al parecer, no es algo que muera tan fácil como las ganas de pelea. Supongo que la controversia siempre será atractiva, en su extraña manera. A mi no me interesa mucho que digamos.

 Mi edificio es alto y tiene dos torres. Cuando entro tengo que cruzar la recepción y luego un patio que separa esa zona de la torre donde vivo yo. En el patio hay juegos y en el momento que paso hay niños y niñeras. Todos me saludan, sin excepción. Yo hago lo mejor para ocultar mi sorpresa y saludar de la manera más alegre de la que soy capaz. No es que no pueda hacerlo sino que auténticamente sigo sorprendido por el cambio. Supongo que así somos los seres humanos, siempre tenemos esa capacidad innata de sorprender.

 Me subo al ascensor y justo detrás entra una mujer mayor. Ella vive en el quinto piso y yo en el décimo. En el viaje al quinto se pone a hablarme y me sorprende saber que ella también está contenta por el cambio. O sea que alguien más se ha dado cuenta. Me alegra de verdad saberlo y lo comento con ella y nos reímos. Pero el viaje se termina más rápido de lo previsto y me despido con una sonrisa verdadera y esperando que nos veamos pronto, ya que se siente bien saber quienes son los vecinos para poder confiar en ellos y no lo contrario.

 Cuando saco las llaves de mi bolsillo, oigo voces dentro del apartamento. Se supone que no hay nadie. Apenas entro, Andrés se me lanza encima y lo alzo en mis brazos, a pesar de que tengo la bolsa en la mano. Mientras nos abrazamos y él me cuenta algo de una película que estaba viendo, una mano toma la bolsa y me la quita. A él le doy un beso en los labios, más largo  que nunca. Me pregunta porqué estoy tan sonriente. Le digo que es un día muy hermoso y que no esperaba verlos tan pronto en casa. Anuncio la preparación de la cena. Antes de poner manos a la obra, los beso una vez más a cada uno, porque lo

Rejection

   Jean grabbed her purse and the bag where she kept her laptop. She walked very fast but tried not to look angry, disappointed or anything else. She just wanted to leave that place as fast as she could. It was very uncomfortable to stay there after she had been so insulted. As she arrived to the elevator, the door closed as someone was going down just before her. She whispered a course word, frustrated that she had to wait like an idiot in order to leave a please she definitely didn’t wanted to stay in or return ever again. She felt too humiliated.

 Out of nowhere, one of the guys that had been there during her interview walked up to her. He told her that they had been looking for her. A tiny shimmer of light appeared in her heart only to be crushed moments later when she realized the man had come to find her because she had left her pen in the table. What was even more annoying, was that he started talking about the results of the interview and telling her, once again, about all the flaws she had as a writer and so on. She wanted the Earth to swallow her, as his voice was very loud and everyone around seemed to be listening.

 She had to close her eyes and just try to relax by breathing slowly, feeling the air through her body. Ignoring the man was not easy but she could at least think of something else as he talked and talked and talked. The lady that managed the reception on that floor looked at them with surprise and obvious disgust. When Jean opened her eyes, the lady looked at her straight in the eye and shook her head, then looking at the guy. Jean only smiled, thankful that at least one person realized in what an uncomfortable situation she was.

 Finally, the elevator opened up and she stepped in without even acknowledging the man. For a moment, it seemed as though he was going to follow her into the elevator but fortunately he didn’t. He was even able to say anything else to Jean as she pressed hard the button that made the elevator close faster. She then pressed the number for the ground floor and started breathing normally again. She felt seriously awful and couldn’t believe she had to go home now in a bus that would take at least forty-five minutes. She didn’t felt good at all.

 Luckily, the bus didn’t take long to pass and she was able to find a free seat next to the window. She really wasn’t feeling ok and even though she was going to fall asleep, her brain wouldn’t let her. Not only because it may not be the best idea to fall asleep on a bus, but also because she had their words in her head. She could hear them once and again, trashing every single part of the work that she had done for them. Saying that they destroyed her isn’t enough to describe what went on in that conference room. A few tears rolled down her face.

 She had to clean herself with her hand because she had no tissues or anything like that. But it was clear to her that she had no intention to be the crazy woman in the bus that cries “for no reason”. So she tried to clean her tears off and attempted to think about something else. For example, the fact that she had left her family cat by herself. It wasn’t something that she did for the first time but it was something to think about. The cat was obviously ok but she had to create a problem in her mind in order to be able to resist the urge to cry.

 The bus took less time to her stop than it usually did. She hadn’t realized but she had left that office so early that there wasn’t even the normal traffic jam of peak time out in the streets. When she came down of the bus, she checked she had everything with her, including the pen she had forgotten in her pocket. Walking home took only five minutes. Her house had a cute garden that was brimming with light and color as she entered. It was as if nature was trying to cheer her up.

 And it did make her smile at least. When she entered the house, she called for her parents. Fortunately, no one answered back. They were normally there but she didn’t care where and why they had left, she only wanted to go to her run and be able to fall asleep and nap for while, all afternoon was possible. She dropped her purse and laptop bag on the ground and took off her shoes before lying down in bed. She faced upwards, towards the ceiling and, again, she could her all the criticism and the things all those men had said.

 She began to cry again but, this time, Jean didn’t clean her face or attempted to appear tougher than she looked. She didn’t need to do that, as that was her bedroom, her place in the world. There, she could do whatever she wanted and in that moment she wanted feel miserable for her. The words those men had said had been like daggers and they had stabbed her with them once and again and again. It was almost as if they had enjoyed themselves by doing so. To her, it was a very sick thing to do but she only reflected on that many days later.

 It had been really unnecessary to tell her all those things. They didn’t have to sink every single fiber of her soul by saying a lot of things that, even if part of the truth, weren’t as important in real life as they might have portrayed them. They essentially told her she had no idea how to write, that she couldn’t put three words together and that she made no sense whatsoever in what she had written for them. It was an essay about internal practices in very big companies.

 Jean had no idea of that. She had not been to business school or anything like it. She was just a normal girl trying to make her way into the world. She had thought that her English level was good enough for them but apparently it wasn’t. And of course it wasn’t because they had told her that she didn’t need to correct her essay for them and she didn’t. They lied to her because she would always do corrections but they had assured her they weren’t necessary. Besides, she had no idea of any business practices. She had a degree in creative writing, for God’s sakes!

 They had also told her that her way of portraying the business world was not very professional. And when she attempted to explain that she had no experience in the actual business world, as she had told the woman she had applied for the job too, they wouldn’t let her speak. They would only raise her voice and just keep talking. The guy that gave back her pen had been particularly nasty when saying that she shouldn’t have told them that she was actually good in English. At that moment she felt so enraged, she stood up and decided to leave.

After all, three men in one small conference room were attacking her. And it was all because of one miserable test they had set up in order to chose the perfect person for the freelance job they were looking for. They weren’t even going to take her into the company; they only wanted to see if she was available to do some texts for them once in a while. And, later that week, Jean realized the pay for one piece of writing was extremely mediocre compared to what people with no big company attached to them could pay her.

 It wasn’t the fact that they hadn’t hired her but the fact that they had been deceitful in a way and that they had been so rude in explaining to her why she hadn’t been selected. After all, it made no sense that they had invited her to their offices only to insult her. It would have been better to receive an email with two phrases: one thanking her for applying and the other rejecting her application. It would be more direct and less surrounded with bullshit. She realized those guys only wanted to feel superior somehow and they had found their guinea pig in her.

 Jean fell asleep as she was thinking all of this. She woke up to the voice of her mom telling her it was dinnertime. When her parents asked how it had all went down, she told her everything that had happened and that she was planning to move along. It was hard for her to be her age, living with her parents and she did wanted to earn some money for herself but she wasn’t going to stop looking for a perfect fit to her talents. That company wasn’t the only one in the world and she was certain that, sooner or later, someone would be interested in what she could do.

Una vez y otra más

   Mientras me ponía los pantalones y apretaba el cinturón, escuché ruidos que venían de afuera de la habitación. Me di cuenta entonces que él no había salido al baño sino que se había ido a otra parte del apartamento. Seguí mirando el sitio con curiosidad ya que me gustaba bastante por donde estaba ubicado, como estaba arreglado y por la espectacular vista de la ciudad que había por la ventana. A pesar de ser tan temprano en la mañana, no había nada de la usual neblina. En cambio se alcanzaba a ver por varios kilómetros y era algo hermoso.

 Terminé de vestirme, revisé tener la billetera y mi celular y salí de la habitación con cierta rapidez. Normalmente nunca me quedaba en la casa de nadie hasta tan tarde y tenía que llegar a la mía, en la que no vivía solo. No es que a mi compañera de apartamento le importara mucho a que hora llegara o cuando pero a mi cerebro le gustaba pretender que era algo importante. Creo que me hacía creer que estaba siendo responsable de alguna manera aunque eso no tenía el más mínimo sentido. Me detuvo un momento frente a un espejo de cuerpo entero en el pasillo.

 Me peiné como pude, aunque mi cabello no parecía tener muchas ganas de hacer lo que yo quisiera. Para eso debería haberme duchado, algo que él había ofrecido pero, de nuevo, yo solo quería irme. Me arreglé la ropa un poco y seguí caminando hacia lo que era la salita del apartamento. Me gustaba mucho esa zona porque el techo era en bajada por ser en el último piso. Había una viga de madera que le daba cierta personalidad al espacio. La vista desde allí era igual de increíble. Por un momento me pregunté cuanto dinero ganaría él en su trabajo.

 Me asustó al aparecer de la nada. O bueno, por aparecer del lado al que yo no estaba mirando. La cocina estaba de ese lado y no debía haberme sorprendido tanto pero pegué un salto bastante exagerado y le hice caer al suelo un vaso de jugo de naranja que llevaba. El liquido se expandió por todo el suelo, manchando también una pared y una linda alfombra de estilo persa que tenía debajo de la mesa de centro de la sala. Mi reacción inmediata fue de vergüenza. Me agaché a recoger los vidrios y el me dijo que no me preocupara por ello.

 Fue cuando vino con la escoba, el recogedor y un trapo, cuando me di cuenta de algo: él seguía sin ropa, tal como había salido de la habitación. Por alguna tonta razón, eso me hizo sentir incomodo, a pesar de que ya lo había visto desnudo por un buen rato. Me sentí infantil al rato, cuando me di cuenta de cómo me había sentido. Fue una sucesión de sentimientos y pensamientos que ocurrieron en un espacio de tiempo muy pequeño. Y él, sin decir nada, se puso a limpiar el jugo regado y a recorred los vidrios con gran habilidad.

 Como yo no podía o no quería hablar, no pude decirle que no se molestara con el jugo. Por eso volvió y me sirvió un vaso y me invitó a tomarlo en la sala. Hice algo un poco grosero que fue tomar todo el contenido del vaso, sin respirar, en unos pocos segundos. Estiré la mano para darle el vaso y él me lo recibió un poco impresionado. Me dirigí hacia la puerta con cuidado, tratando de no pisar las partes pegajosas del piso o cualquier partícula que brillara. Cuando llegué a la puerta principal, fui a decir algo para despedirme pero un trueno en el exterior me calló.

 De repente, sin previo aviso, una lluvia torrencial empezó a caer afuera. Me quedé mirando la ventana con la boca abierta y luego, sin pensarlo mucho, mis ojos pasaron a la silueta de su cuerpo contra la poca luz que entraba por la ventana. De verdad que era un tipo muy lindo, su cuerpo me gustaba mucho y, había que decirlo, era muy cariñoso. Moví los ojos hacia otro punto y entonces dije, casi gritando, que ya me iba y que pediría un taxi en la recepción del edificio.

 Él me miró y me dijo, con total tranquilidad, que podía quedarme el tiempo que quisiera. Y como por lanzar un pequeño dardo, agregó que nadie me estaba echando. Eso me hizo sentir muy mal porque él tenía razón al decirlo. Me estaba comportando como un jovencito y no como un hombre adulto. Así que por eso, por la culpa, caminé hacia él y le pregunté si lo podía ayudar a limpiar. Él me dijo que quedaría un poco pegajoso por un tiempo pero que no tenía ganas de limpiar en ese momento, que lo haría más tarde con productos de limpieza como tal.

 Caminó entonces a la cocina para botar los pedazos de vidrio y me dejó solo mirando la lluvia que caía como si el cielo se hubiese roto. Me quedé allí de pie por un buen rato hasta que me di cuenta que me estaba comportando de manera rara de nuevo. Así que me senté en el sofá que había allí y me quité la chaqueta. De alguna manera hacía más calor en el apartamento que el que seguramente hacia fuera. Entre la lluvia podía ver árboles y eso me hizo pensar en mis decisiones, en mi vida, en lo que hacía y en lo que no.

 Rompió mi pensamiento el ruido de vidrio. Esta vez él había puesto dos vasos de jugo sobre portavasos en la mesita de centro, así como un plato con lo que parecían croissants pequeñitos. Me dijo que algunos tenían queso y otros chocolates. Se sentó desnudo a mi lado y tomó uno de los croissants y un vaso de jugo. Empezó a comer sin decir nada, solo mirando por la ventana y nada más. Yo decidí hacer lo mismo, a ver si eso rompía el hielo que yo había formado con mi mala actitud. Me di cuenta que no quería irme sin dejar las cosas bien. No tengo ni idea porqué.

 Le pregunté cuanto pagaba de arriendo. Era una pregunta un poco rara para hacerle a alguien que casi no conocía. Al fin y al cabo nos habíamos visto en contadas ocasiones. Sin embargo, el sonrió y me hizo recordar que esa era otra cosa que me gustaba mucho de él. Me contó que el apartamento era de su padre y que, al morir, se lo había heredado directamente a él. Es decir, solo pagaba servicios y nada más. No sabía si decir algo positivo o decir que sentía lo de su padre. Opté por lo segundo.

 Él negó con la cabeza, todavía sonriendo, y me dijo que siempre había tenido una relación bastante especial con su padre y que había sido su manera de decir que confiaba en él. No insistí en el tema pero ciertamente me pareció muy interesante. Le dije que me gustaba mucho la vista y él respondió que lo sabía. Eso me hizo sonrojar y pensar en que había hecho yo para que él se diera cuenta de ello. Tal vez en la habitación me había quedado mirando hacia el exterior en algunas ocasiones. Me dio mucha vergüenza pensarlo.

 Entonces el me tocó la cara y me dijo que le gustaba como me veía con la luz que había en la habitación. Seguí rojo porque no esperaba que dijera algo así. No le agradecí porque sentí que eso no hubiese tenido sentido. La lluvia siguió cayendo mientras terminamos la comida y la bebida. No se detenía por nada y yo me resigné a que simplemente no iba a tener una mañana de domingo como las de siempre, en la que permanecía metido en la cama hasta bien tarde, cuando me daban ganas de pedir algún domicilio de una comida no muy sana.

 Él entonces me dijo que se disculpaba si me parecía un poco raro que no se vistiera pero es que así se la pasaba todos los domingos. Me confesó que no se bañaba en esos días y que por nada del mundo salía a la calle. Le gustaba usar el domingo para adelantarse en series de televisión o películas que no hubiera podido ver antes. Yo le dije que hacía lo mismo y empezamos hablar de las series que nos gustaban y porqué. Resultó que estábamos viendo la misma y que teníamos las mismas ideas respecto a los personajes y sus intrigas.

 Cuando la conversación se detuvo, me invitó a ver un capitulo en el televisor de su habitación. Acepté y nos pusimos de pie para caminar hacia allí. Casi cuando llegamos, me detuve frente a la puerta del baño y le pregunté, de la nada, si podía bañarme ahora, ya que lo había ofrecido antes. Me dijo que sí y yo, sin decir nada, lo tomé de la mano y terminamos juntos bajo el agua caliente de la ducha. Hicimos de nuevo el amor y luego vimos televisión. Y hoy puedo decir que he estado viniendo a este apartamento por los últimos dos años. Las cosas pasan como tienen que pasar.

The swamp

   Everyone and everything had been thrown into the swamp. The plane crashed violently in the middle of the night and all the safety and security services had been dispatched to help. The bad thing was that the area was very remote with no roads and nor real ways to access except by foot, which would take several days for any person, even the most knowledgeable as the swamp was concerned. They also send helicopters and drones, which could see the fire, caused by the fuel, but could do nothing else than watch, as there were no spots to land.

 The families of the victims traveled from their homes to the nearest town but they were soon frustrated to now that the area was difficult in every sense of the word. Besides, the imagery registered by many cameras showed that the fire had already caused explosions and most of the actual plane was now destroyed. The likelihood of anyone been able to survive that was very remote but most families stayed in town, trying to join the rescue teams or at least attempting to be useful somehow before the pain and the tragedy hit them hard in their hearts.

 With machetes, firemen and policemen tried to cut down some of the swamp trees. That wasn’t very well received by the many people whose job was to protect that green area. They realized the destruction caused by the plane could not be prevented but they thought that cutting more trees to be able to only access a couple of more meters of swamp was just stupid. Not only because the trees got thicker and less likely to be cut the more they advanced, but also because of the legends surrounding the place, which people from the nearby town knew so well too.

 The lady that ran the only decent diner in town was the one who told the families of the victims about the legend of the swamp. It was said that in ancient times prehistoric men started to come in the area and that when they tried to travel further the swamp didn’t let them. Some of the people in the tribe wanted to go through it, others around it. So they divided into two groups but only one remained. The one that penetrated the forest never came out. It is said that they remained in there and that they evolved differently than the rest of humanity.

 Someone else explained that it was a legend similar to the one of Big Foot but in a swamp. Many people had seen the creature or at least that’s what they said. Fifty years ago, the place was not a wildlife reserve so people would go in to fish and hunt. There were many stories from that time about the green gigantic men that roamed all over the swamp. Some said they helped stranded people; others portrayed them as savage beasts capable of eating human flesh. Either way, the families of the victims were not really thrilled about the idea of a beast attempting to eat their people.

 The fire caused by the jet fuel lasted for two days until a storm helped and extinguished it for good. Drones and helicopters were used again but at a lower altitude now that they didn’t have to handle smoke or flames. Their fly-by’s only showed the few pieces left of the planes and the black water below those pieces. They even detected pieces of clothing and some objects that any passenger would have like a suitcase or a doll. But there were no bodies or parts of bodies. They could not detect any victim, dead or alive, and that was tragic.

 The general thought was that the fire had burned the bodies to a crisp, especially after having been alive for two days. The force of the impact also had to be accounted for. The most possible outcome was for every single person to have died because of the fire and not even because of the violent crash. Those news were very hard on the families who started leaving the small town right after the announcement. Most of them felt everything was done for them there.

 However, some family members stayed. They insisted on having at least some bones to bury, some of their objects or anything they could mourn with. They needed something, anything really, to start the long and painful process of mourning. Some had lost children, some others fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters. The plane had been at full capacity on a very popular route. The tragedy was just too big to ignore. The remaining family members decided to help police and firemen with the look for the black boxes.

 Those were essential to understanding how everything had happened. It would help bring some closure to the people touched by the accident and it would also bring much needed answers to the investigators because the causes of why the planned had crashed were not at all clear. The aircraft had passed its last revision only a few months ago and had flown that exact route thousands of times. The night it went down, there was no storm or atmospheric phenomena that would explain the crash.

 The small town saw a surge of people coming in and out: reporters, investigators and even curious people that knew everything about the swamp and were dying to know what the crash meant for the alleged creatures that lived in there. All of those people came and went for weeks, doing different things to find answers, not always looking for the same ones. But as they did what they felt they had to do, they had neglected to check other areas of the swamp. Areas that were even more remotely located than the crash landing site.

The swamp was a very large natural entity. It was such a big part of the region that many roads had to do go around it, making travel very difficult around that corner of the Earth. The plane had crashed in the area where smaller trees grew. The area was almost always flooded because of the nearby rivers the swamp helped in regulating. The importance of the ecosystem was so high that the people of the region had been the ones to ask the government to protect the swamp, thus guaranteeing a good flow of the rivers, which would give them fish and energy.

 That was the reason why people didn’t really care about the swamp, as long as it was there to do its natural job. However some occasionally tried to get it in order to find the alleged creature that lived there. The interest arose briefly after the plane crash. However, weeks later, there was no one very interested in creatures no one had seen in years. They were more concerned with the swamp turning into a graveyard and the consequences of the fuel that had been poured into the water. They were more concerned with that than anything else.

 So worried that they ignored the signs coming fro mother parts of the swamps. Unusual movements of the plants, incipient fires and large creatures swimming that were not alligators. People had ultimately survived from the crash but no one was watching in their direction. They were just three people: two adults and a child. They didn’t have any connection among them except that they were seating on the same row of the plane. That row was expelled far from the plane and that was the reason why they had survived.

 However, that was to be seen as they had no food, the water they were swimming was probably polluted by the jet fuel and there were animals all around, trying to have something to eat. They had tried going from tree to tree but that was hard and one of the adults was very injured. Swimming was the alternative but they had to do it during the day, in order to know if alligators or similar were around the area. They moved away from the crash site, thinking they would be seen more easily if they did so but that proved to be false.

 The adult who was injured died three days after the crash, as he slept on a tree. The kid and the other adult tried to move onwards but it was practically impossible, as the swamp seemed to be less “open” as they advanced with the river. On the fifth day, they saw a helicopter. When they tried to wave to it, the branch of the tree they were holding on broke and they both fell to the water, near a group of reptiles. As the animals got closer to attack, another creature appeared out of nowhere, knocked out the flesh eaters and helped the kid and the adult out of the water. It was a big, greenish creature. And it seemed to smile.