WILD BOAR EYE
A novel in twelve episodes
By Luís Carmelo
(transl. Bernardo Palmeirim)

THIRD EPISODE
(Was it hunger, coincidence, a mirage?)

Chasing the same bright yellow line engraved on the floor, Rui and Maya carry on as if united in a single fate, a single impetus, a single chance. Step by step. And in that tap-dance one could hear a sort of tune spreading out into the air, screeching out of some tollbooth speaker: was it raucous Ravel, an orchestra from Cadiz or Algiers?.. Piano, a flute, booming percussion and agitated strings, permanently hovering overhead. It was like a circus, with the asphalt undulating and rippling, pleasure imminent; as if Broadway were waxing and waning into a new musical, combined with the sharp acrobatics of an unusual noon. Was it hunger, coincidence, a mirage? Rui broke off to his left, nearing on the car door. Maya squinted for the first time.
“What?” she muttered. “What! I can’t believe this!” she thought out in a tight thin voice. She ran past the man, clinging to the door that, after all, was the door to her car.
Rui and Maya, came out of nowhere, holding different keys - or the same -, trying to open the very same door. And each demanding, swearing, heart crossed to high heaven, “But… This is my car!”
“It’s mine, look!” Both produced the same documents, the same papers, and both names matched the license plate.
“This can’t be! Look here, I’m a serious person and I hate squabbles!”
“Listen, I don’t like games and least of all at this time of day. I’m tired, overworked!..”
“Wouldn’t it be better to call the police?”

From that moment on, it was impossible to hear another word that went on between Rui and Maya. Each held his key by the Midnight Blue Mobilin 2000; their expressions contorting, transfiguring into slow motion close-ups, while the tedium of explanations faded out. Fudged out. Everything is now, seen from afar. Panoramic. And tension tightens in, only to subside. But why?

(Next episode of Wild Boar Eye: “His candid posture rose up slowly, pulling a handkerchief across his forehead, looking Maya in the eyes...”)

Continues