Story by Sofía Iirigoyen

There he was standing in the middle of the countryside; his eyes seemed to be looking nowhere...

Paul had been working a lot that night, he felt really tired and bored, but he also had a strange feeling, he was anxious but he didn´t know why. This feeling became to get bigger and more powerful. He decided that he was just stressed so he gave up working. Slowly, he picked up his things, turned off the lights and started going downstairs.

Silence was the only thing Pal could heard, he had to close the office in order to get out. After doing that, he opened his car, and started driving to the supermarket, his watch marked two o´clock in the morning, he thought the time had gone very quickly.

Not only on that night the time went by so fast, all his life had been like that. There he was ,a middle-aged man, with a belly that continue growing as a consequence of the excess of beer and whiskey, with a family that he would never see again...

Paul thought “my life is a complete disaster, no friends, no family, no pets, I cant´t even have a relationship with a goldfish”. His anxiety started growing more and more and the feeling of doing that, that thing he couldn´t control that lived in the bottom of him, and thatwas the reason why he couldn´t keep any relationship.

Paul was inside the car, he felt he had to control those feelings and just forgett; he opened the door and silently walked into the supermarket.

When he entered, he saw the teller watching a soap opera while she smoked a cigarette.

- “Miss...” Paul said

Nobody answer.

- “Sorry...” he said.

She didn´t pay attention.

- “Hey girl!” Paul shouted, and his face turned immediately.

-“Yeah...” the woman answered.

- “I want cigarettes, Marlboro” he said.

- “Don´t have” she answered without looking at him.

- “Ok you mother fucker! What´s going on with you stupid?! I´ve been like 10 minutes here and...” Nothing else could be heard, only a suffocated scream...

Paul´s hands were grabbing the teller´s neck.

Immediately he felt extremely bad, guilty, it was a mess and he coludn´t do anything.

Running he got into the car, and went far away, really far from that stupid teller...

There he was standing alone in the middle of the countryside his eyes seemed to be looking nowhere, but Paul knew what he was looking at.