Cesar Aira - Shantytown

“And you never said anything?”

“Well, we’ve never talked much. Once he gets going on the machines, it’s like other people don’t exist. Today was the first time we really talked, and only because I had an accident.”

“So did you tell him?”

Jessica hesitated for a moment:

“Listen, this is going to sound crazy, but it was only thinking about it later that I realized it myself. And I don’t know if I would have told him anyway: it would spoil the fun, don’t you think? It’s like having a secret identity, without all the bother of having to lie.”

They took a few steps in silence. Maxi’s cart had turned the corner; they crossed to the opposite sidewalk to keep their distance and avoid running into him in case he hadn’t gone far. But no: he was thirty yards away, standing still, while a bunch of ragged children rushed around opening up bags of trash as quickly as they could. The girls pretended to be looking in the window of a hairdressing salon. Something had been bothering Vanessa:

“Why do you say you don’t come to my place very often? We’re together all day long!”

“Because it’s true. Haven’t you noticed how we hardly ever go to each other’s places? I think it’s because we live so close.”

“And what about when you sleep over?”

“Well, OK, yeah. . it is kind of hard to believe, but that’s what he’s like, your brother.”

“And what about when you went into his room?”

Jessica laughed. The incident, caused by a combination of sleepwalking and hallucination, had kept them up laughing all night at the time.

“He was asleep, and he didn’t wake up.”

“Just as well!”

They laughed again. Jessica had forgotten that episode, and remembering it now only added to the magic of the whole misapprehension. It made her realize how close she had been to Maxi, how they had shared a kind of intimacy, and yet she had remained a stranger to him. Vanessa’s thoughts had gone in another direction:

“Maybe he was pulling your leg?”

“No, because we didn’t talk about that. I’m sure, Vanessa.”

“Are you going to say something?”

“Huh?”

“Are you going to say something, tomorrow, or the day after, at the gym?”

It took Jessica a moment to understand, and when she did, she was still surprised.

“Say something? Tell him that it’s me? I don’t know. . I don’t know if there’s anything to say. . And anyway, we’re going to confront him tonight, aren’t we? Isn’t that what we agreed?”

“Yeah, that’s right. He’ll realize, when he sees you. Or maybe not.”

Jessica remembered something and gave a start:

“But the gym’s finished, Vanessa! Didn’t I tell you? Chin Fu is closed, for good.”

“Really?” said her friend, with a show of indifference, which was also largely genuine. She regarded going to the gym as ridiculous and unhealthy, a waste of time. It was a reaction against her brother, but also, perhaps, a sincere conviction on her part. Months back, when Jessica had joined up, Vanessa had explained exactly why it was a dumb idea, and there had even been a brief cooling of their friendship as a result. After that, Vanessa had made a point of never asking about the exercise program, and if Jessica brought it up, she pretended not to have heard or talked about something else. Now, watching Maxi, who had set off again, she said absently: “Good. Maybe they’ll find something better to do with their time.”

“But it’s not like every gym in Buenos Aires is going to close, Vanessa! There are millions. .”

“Ugh.”

“Though actually. . it’s not the only one that’s closing. That’s something else we have to talk about with Maxi tonight.”

“Why? What’s he got to do with it?”

“I don’t really know how this happened, but it’s another indirect result of Cynthia’s death. You remember her father was involved with those evangelical sects and their business deals? Well, after the crime, which they exploited to the hilt, their financial backer started kicking out all the gyms that used to rent spaces from him, and turning them into churches. And now he’s gone and done it to Chin Fu, one of the last ones left in the neighborhood.”

“How did they exploit Cynthia’s death? I had no idea.”

“They turned her into a saint! They pray to her, they ask her for help. . Didn’t you know?”

“Are you serious? Like with Gilda?”

“Exactly!”

“They’re crazy!”

They laughed. But something was still bothering Vanessa. They had walked on, following Maxi, and now they were in the middle of a dark block. Because of the stopping and starting and their fluctuating attention, it was one of those erratic conversations: they kept leaving loose ends and then, all of a sudden, going back to pick them up.

“What accident?”

“Huh?”

“You said you talked to Maxi in the gym today because of an accident? Did you twist your wrist, or get a weight caught on your nipple or something?” Vanessa inquired venomously.

But the sarcasm was lost on Jessica, who, as soon as she remembered the morning’s events, launched enthusiastically into the story:

“You’ll never guess what happened to me. I almost died! What a dickhead! You know I’ve been buying proxidine from Saturno, the guy who works at the bar. With the gym closing down it was getting complicated, so he asked me to go there first thing, before anyone else turned up. So I go there really early this morning, and would you believe it, the son of a bitch gives me bad proxidine. .”

Vanessa reacted with a horrified grimace.

“How do you mean bad? Fake?”

“How do I know? I wish it had just been fake. It had the opposite effect. . I don’t know. . I began to feel like everything was getting further away instead of coming closer. . It was like the end of the world, or falling down a well. I fainted and when I came to, your brother was there.”

“What a fuck-up! What did you say to him?”

“Nothing. That my blood pressure had dropped. But it’s not Saturno’s fault; they sold him bad stuff. I know because he took some, and it had the same effect on him, or worse: it messed with his heart. It must have something to do with all these changes: he buys from that guy they call the Pastor, who works as an informer for the sect that’s going to take over the place. Later on he swapped what he’d sold me for some good stuff that he had from before.”

Vanessa’s interest, which had been flagging over the previous minutes, picked up suddenly.

“Have you got some here?”

“Of course.” She put her hand in her pocket.

“Are you sure it’s the good stuff?”

“Don’t worry. I’ve tried it.”

They looked in Maxi’s direction to check that he wasn’t going to get away from them, saw that he was standing still, and ducked into a doorway.

“Now they’re getting high, the little whores,” said Cabezas to himself in the darkness of his car, from which he had been observing their every move. Not to be outdone, he reached into his pocket and took out his own supply of proxidine. He kept it in a small red crystal flask, the size of an egg, which felt very hot. And it wasn’t just a feeling: inside the crystal, the drug was in a gel solution, which, so he had been told, increased the proximity of the atoms, generating real heat. On the underside of the flask was a gold-plated spring-release mechanism, as on a lighter, which flicked out a needle a quarter-inch long. He pressed the needle into the lobe of his ear, frowning slightly as he felt the prick, and left it there for a few seconds, allowing the drug to penetrate. By a strange coincidence, just at that moment a wild bolt of lightning ripped across the sky, from one side of the windshield to the other, like a camera flash lighting up the policeman’s bloated face, his dazed expression, and the crystal attached to his ear like a carnation of phosphorescent fire.