Author Information
Flash Fiction
A warm day at Mexico City, perfect for a walk in beautiful Coyoacan. A family, consisting on a girl, a boy, their parents and their grandparents, are enjoying the day. They walk down the street full of food tents deciding what to eat. This man, Bobby, from across the street is watching their every move, he is curious about them. By the way he looks, you can tell he doesn’t care much about his appearance, in fact, you can tell he doesn’t care much about anything. He has lost his way, everyone in his life left him. Even his dog. But, even though he doesn’t care about anything anymore, that day the family caught his eye. As a group, there was nothing weird about them, but once he looked closer, there was something odd. The man observed each and every one of them, finding that the most normal thing was the weirdest about them. They were all at the dad’s feet, Andy. The children, the grandparents and the wife. Everything he said was done and his wishes where commands. Bobby could tell that they were not fearful of the man, but that their actions came from pure kindness and love. He could tell by the way all of them looked at Andy. That’s when Bobby started to get jealous; he was just standing there, dressed with the same suit from the last three months and without anything to look forward to. He knew that his head wasn’t on the right track lately, but who could prove him wrong. The torture of looking at Andy represented everything he would never have and so, out of anger and desperation, he started following him and his family. Bobby didn’t care if they saw him; at least then someone would finally notice him. As he spent three whole hours watching the family, he realized that it was not only love on the faces of Andy’s family; it was a strange mix between sweetness and pitifulness. Bobby couldn’t hang on anymore and he raged out directly into Andy’s face. As he didn’t know what to say to hurt him, he shouted “Pay me what you owe me!” Andy stood with his eyes wide open. Everyone silent. “I said pay me you disgraceful animal!” Andy tried to formulate an answer but he just gave up. The only thing he could figure out was to imitate a Karate Kid movie. He put his arms up and bent one knee, while doing a weird noise with his mouth. In that moment, Bobby had it all clear and rushing away he couldn’t stop thinking…Andy was crazy! That was why he was receiving that treatment from his family, life couldn’t be that good. The only difference between them was that Bobby didn’t have the support system that Andy had. Bobby then thought that, after all, maybe he had never been crazy. It never occurred to him that Andy’s reaction was just a cruel joke.
