Klempner

What's the obsession with potatoes?

I called her Potato Face when she was a kid.

What does she look like now?

Jenny was no looker at that age…

… But she matured. Bloomed.

Juliana... Never the same twice.

I scratch at my beard. I’ve never liked facial hair in hot climates, but I don’t have a choice right now. Even so, the flourishing colony of lice that has stowed aboard adds an extra edge of irritation.

Lice…

Where the fuck did they come from?

Can rat lice live on humans?

Having a fucking good go at it…

I catch one, squeezing the revolting thing between my fingernails. It bursts with a Pop!

Only another 999 to go…

*****

The boredom’s the worst. Endless hours. Endless days and nights. I’ve no idea how long.

The only breaks in the monotony are Juliana’s visits: just long enough to sit, eat something at me, toss a potato at me.

No, not Juliana: Solana.

Why's she so obsessed with the name?

How many names have I used over the years? Worn like a suit of clothes to be discarded when the weather changes and something different is needed.

I’ve never been defined by my name.

But she sees it differently…

Something skritches and I jerk a look sidelong

It’s a rat…

Just a rat…

faced down gunmen,

It’s just a rat…

openings, more scratching. And

into an

Who said that?

Nietzsche?

Depressing bastard…

comes equipped with teeth and whiskers. I come equipped with fists and feet. Between us, we settle an

*****

you know what Stockholm syndrome

flickers over her eyes. She takes something from her lunchbox,

kidnap or hostage

sniggers. “You saying you're

“… But there's a reverse condition. It's called Lima syndrome, where the captor comes

“So?”

your

produces a brigadeiro. A flake of chocolate cracks off the small round cake, dropping back into the napkin and she dabs

you

her chewing, mouth hanging a little open.

coming? If all you wanted was to watch me rot, you have your camera

feed you. I assume you do want me

reason, you could leave me a bag of potatoes and come once a week. Or

and swallows, not speaking, simply regarding me. I continue. “Am I your only friend, Sola? Is that

giggling. “So, you're my friend

she was a kid? That middle-aged hooker? You've not changed, Larry. I can see right through you. The same heartless bastard that shipped me

back in her seat, arches

eyes, I keep my voice mild. “Did I say otherwise? I'm not claiming to have changed. Who ever really changes?” I raise my gaze again, look into

“Solana…” she hisses.

says no more. Instead, she stands, the lunchbox tumbling from her lap. The contents spill and scatter over the rancid concrete, some of it dropping just this side

her heel,

the discarded meal from the filthy concrete, scrabbling to grab broken fragments of meat in one hand, a cake with

my eyes adjust to the green blink of the camera. It hardly matters.

delicacy is almost untouched, only a single bite taken from the corner. And I have half of a

anything like

For how long?

idea. Weeks? Months? My sense of time is out

had

empanada, then another, I ram the food

pulp goes down the wrong way and suddenly I’m

on my scavenged meal, I barf it up,

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