WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS A MODERATE USE OF STRONG LANGUAGE
¡¡LUCHAR!!
A Mexican and Texan Saga
001: A Phone Call With Giselle
Her phone is ringing. God damn her phone is ringing again!!
It’s been ringing on and off since she hit the hay almost an hour ago. Her usual bedtime is 8:45 in the evening. Actually, her favorite bedtime is further past the e'ven tide because she likes to fall asleep under the stars… well more like under the view of stars through the windows panel in her roof; dreamer dreams, but this phone… God damn that phone… it’s a fucking nightmare. This atrocious thing has been ringing on and off. This is the seventh time that someone called!! Is this some phone jockey at the bottom of a telemarketing-pyramid scheme!??
Whoever this caller is, they just made ‘The List’.
She’s getting frustrated, hell she’s beyond frustrated.
She grips the bridge of her nose and pinches it. Her frustration recedes enough to settle her nerves and suddenly… the phone stops ringing...
Did it really work?
Finally, peace and quiet. She throws herself back and hits her head on the pillow…
…but there it goes again; right when she was about to get some shuteye, the damn phone is ringing again; The phone is ringing again!! This makes the eighth time it rang!
Whoever they are. They’re persistent… frustratingly persistent pissants. Why are they still calling? Whoever’s responsible they should know they already made a spot on ‘the list’: a special one. Guess she’ll just have to add a gold star next to this caller’s list entry;
(Good job jackass you’re the cream of the crop among those Telemarketing-Pyramid schemers.)
Against her better judgement the young woman snatches the receiver off the hook. She’s more than ready to unload unholy hell upon this telemarketer.
“Who in the hell is this! Do you realize what time it is!??”
“...Giselle, you are as feisty as ever.”
His familiar voice leaves her frozen, like a deer caught headlights.
“Lozaros!… no way…is it really you… Lozaros Cuervo?”
“...yeah… it’s me Giselle,” “I spent a bit of change to reach you but I’m glad to hear your voice.”
“...Lozaros…”. Giselle ’s second response is but a whisper. She’s caught in a daze.
“...Hey listen, Giselle … I’m sorry for calling you like this.”
“...”
“Giselle…? Are you okay?”
“Lozaros… Where in the hell have you been!!?”
Lozaros chuckles. “As I said, feisty as ever.”
“To answer your question… I guess you can say I’ve been off finding myself.”
“Finding yourself!? Go look in the mirror and find yourself! The last I heard about you dropped out of school and crashed from couch to couch!”
Lozaros sighs. “If you want to call it that then I guess yeah I’ve been crashing from couch to couch… but I was making money all over Texas and Mexico from street fighting.”
“What!! Street Fights!!?”
“Yeah… I want to take a shot at being a Professional Fighter.”
“Cut the crap Lozaros, you were close to graduating; You only had a semester left…I don’t want to see you fail Lozaros just because you want to be fighter!!? Lozaros it’s already been three years since you dropped out of school. You’re not a teenager anymore. Chico, You don’t even have a high school diploma. How are you going to make it in life?”
“There are many ways to succeed in life, Giselle, and there is only one road to failure… Once I turned my back to academics I accepted failure as a scholar and yes I walked on the path to failure once I just upped and left the classroom, the school building, the campus. I didn’t even bother to take a single look back. I just hopped on my bike and took off.
“Sounds more like running away to me, Lozaros.”
“Giselle, I couldn’t give a dirty rat’s ass about all that academic stuff. Even if I didn't drop out to pursue a college education, a Masters Degree in World Literature doesn’t amount to anything. All of that crap is just wishful thinking and the whole high school experience is just a bunch of dead memories.”
“You can’t be serious, Lozaros. . Do you hear that nonsense you’re spouting? For Christ’s Sake, what was the time you spent with me and our friends!? I mean, we spent late nights into the early morning cramming all of that school work with our friends. All of those midterms and finals!! You're to freaking dismiss that as wishful thinking.”
“...”
“You don’t mean that do you Lozaros”
“...”
“Bastardo!* Answer me!!”
“All of what we and the gang have been through is not wishful thinking. Far from it.”
“... then what was it to you, Lozaros?
“...my time with you and our friends was an experience worth more than a lifetime… …something I can do all over again.”
A hush suddenly befalls the two.
A lone tear streak across Giselle’s face: like a shooting star granting someone’s wish.
“And here I thought I might’ve done something to drive you away. But I’m glad it wasn’t that. I had this rant in my head that I considered unloading on you. Damn you Lozaros”
From Giselle’s end of the line Lozaros can hear feint sniveling. He knows exactly what to say.
“... *Oye, no te preocupes por eso, Giselle.”
Lozaros’s calming words and suave yet gruff accent soothes and calms Giselle.
“Lozaros?
“Yes Giselle?”
“...so about this MMA stuff. I still think it’s not for you. You have brains Chico… but not for you to get your them smashed.”
“Giselle, my mind is made up about this.”
“...”
“Giselle..?”
“Where are you now, Lozaros?
“…I’m outside the Texaco near the train tracks running parallel along Mykawa Rd.”
Giselle gasps. “Seriously!!
Giselle proceeds to squeal with a high pitched glee.
From Lozaros’s end Giselle’s jubilant glee is just as loud and just as high pitched. He grits his teeth because he has sensitive ears, but he doesn’t grit for long.
Lozaros is happy to hear Giselle’s signature squeal. Perhaps she has accepted him becoming a professional a fighter.
“...Giselle?”
“Stay put! I’m coming to pick you up!”
“What? Wait no!!”
The call ends.
Lozaros breathes an anxious sigh and hangs the receiver back on the payphone's hook.
He reaches into his pocket. He still has some change left…
… oddly enough it’s enough for another call.
Lozaros breathes another anxious sigh as the conversation he just had with Giselle fades into the timeline...
#
“Memories are ephemeral phenomena; transient as they are, yet they subsist through the method of linking one and another into chains.
As moments expire, one after another; memories join together, link by link.
Memories traverse, to and fro, their beaten path from the present to the past. Upon the whim of the mind they are summoned. Memories are mere echoes past. They are reminders of follies past...
...lest history repeats itself.
*Bastardo*: "A Spanish word usually referring to someone as a "bastard" in English"
*Oye, no te preocupes por eso: A Phrase in Spanish meaning "Hey, don't worry about it." In English."
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