C4 antho - Chamber Four

The Affliction ~139~
They began to talk. Ricardo noticed the way in which Javier
Castillo’s eyes were dark, a dark brown flecked with gray.
That Javier Castillo had spoken to him in Spanish didn’t
bother Ricardo. Many people spoke to him in Spanish, could
tell from his face and dark skin that he was of Mexican descent.
They exchanged small talk, nothing remotely exciting.
And despite this, Ricardo had felt his heart panic in his chest.
Ricardo left the airport with him. He never went back. He
never went home. He never called his wife and family. He
couldn’t think of what to say or how to explain Javier Castillo
to them. He left the airport with him and drove for hours. In
a corner of his mind, he believed he was being abducted, but
he had not been abducted. He had asked Javier Castillo if he
could come with him. And in the sun visor mirror, Ricardo
noticed his own eyes were a different color green. His eyes
were more of a dark forest green, darker than the usual pale
green he had seen in the mirror all of his life.
Once, after almost three years of living with Javier
Castillo, Ricardo felt the sudden urge to press his hand
through him just before he completely faded away. He
wanted to see if he would also start disappearing. The affliction.
What must it have felt like? Could Javier Castillo actually
feel himself dissolving? The hands, finger by finger? But
Ricardo knew that when Javier Castillo disappeared, he did
so evenly. It was not as if the chest dissolved leaving the
heart exposed and beating. He just slowly faded into a shimmer,
and then a shadow, and then air. It was gradual. There
would be a man, and then a man seen through but still there,
and then the dingy, yellowed wallpaper clinging to the wall
behind where Javier Castillo had been standing. Dingy and
dirty: the wall would suddenly be more sharply in focus, its
browning yellow like the nicotine-and-tar-stained filter after
smoking a cigarette. And though Ricardo had no explanation,
he knew the disappearing happened faster at times,