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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

It’s just a rat…

more scratching. And a

if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze

Who said that?

Nietzsche?

Depressing bastard…

whiskers. I come equipped with

*****

do you know what Stockholm

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

a kidnap or hostage situation, the prisoner

saying you're getting attached

head tilts. She pretending mockery, but I have her attention. “… But there's a reverse condition. It's called

“So?”

your

lips. “Friend? You think you’re my friend?” The napkin produces a brigadeiro. A flake of chocolate cracks off the small round cake, dropping back into the

do you keep

chewing, mouth hanging a little open.

keep coming? If all you wanted was to watch me rot, you have your camera there.” I jerk my chin up to the blinking

do want me to feed you? We can always

and come once a week.

chews and swallows, not speaking, simply regarding me. I continue. “Am I your only friend,

giggling. “So, you're my friend

she was a kid? That middle-aged hooker? You've not changed, Larry. I

crosses her arms, sits back in her seat, arches

“Did I say otherwise? I'm not claiming to have changed. Who ever really changes?” I raise my

“Solana…” she hisses.

contents spill and scatter over the rancid concrete, some of it dropping just this side

on her heel, she

at the fallen food, ignoring the jab of pain in my ankle as the chain snaps taut, I snatch up the discarded meal from the filthy concrete, scrabbling to grab broken fragments of meat in one hand, a cake with the other before, with a click, the light winks out and I'm left

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

only a single bite taken from the corner. And I have

not eaten anything like this for…

For how long?

no idea. Weeks? Months? My sense of time

had

of empanada, then another, I ram the

way and

I barf it up, where it plops in a saliva-coated mess onto

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