C4 antho - Chamber Four

~140~ The Chamber Four Fiction Anthology
slower at others. He wanted to pass his hand through the
shadowy Javier Castillo, the one about to become air. But he
could never get himself to do it. Javier Castillo was always
watching him carefully, and Ricardo feared that Javier
Castillo knew what he was thinking.
What must such a life be like? Think about it. To live
with a man half shadow, half something, something that you
could not explain to someone else, much less yourself? Even
after three years of living with Javier Castillo, after lying in
the one bed next to him night after night, after sitting out on
the balcony and smoking cigarettes watching the smoke coil
into shapes that only disappeared, Ricardo did not understand
Javier Castillo. Ricardo never asked any questions. He
just didn’t know how to do so. He simply lived there, simply
existed. He did not work. He did not worry about money or
his wife and sons. The time simply passed, and the man
known as Javier Castillo moved in and out of air. And finally
that day arrived, the day that Ricardo could not recall with
any great detail―Javier Castillo faded away and did not return.
Ricardo thought nothing of it at first. A week passed, and
then a month. Ricardo had no money to pay the light bill or
the utilities. He had no money to pay for anything. He had
never questioned the fact that Javier Castillo always had
money, was always able to pay for anything they needed.
Two whole months passed before Ricardo realized Javier
Castillo was not coming back. Without electricity, Ricardo
walked around the dark house occasionally flipping switches
to see if something would happen. The air was still most
nights, the heat of the desert coming in through the windows
carried along by the echoing howls of the coyotes hunting the
nearby canyon. Ricardo was alone and without a dime.
Within a day or two, he began to wander the streets. He did
not remember how to go home, and he wasn’t sure how he