I wake up with heavy eyes. Gloom surrounds me, and darkness apparently takes control of my vision. I stir, uncomfortable, imprisoned, and immobile in the bed where I am. Attempting to sit up, my body screams at me to stop, aching and pitiful.  I grunt with annoyance at being unable to sit up as I always have. “Easy, brother, take it easy. It’s going to be all right. You’ve been asleep for a long time, it’s only fair you feel a little dizzy.” It’s Dawson who positions himself next to me.“What happened?” I question.My brother helps me sit up in bed with my back half straightened. He shakes out the pillow and places it behind me in a smooth, gentle motion. “You had the surgery, but the important thing

 “Are you sure?”I almost want to smash my face against the wall, hit it again and again until my neurons start working again. I stare at Darío. I can’t believe that he is actually blind, that after trying to regain what he lost with the death of his late wife, he is now left in that state for the rest of his life. My heart and mind cannot believe it. I cannot give it up so easily. He cannot give up. I have seen and heard so many miracles. For example, being cured of cancer, a fatal disease. Or diseases like HIV have twenty or thirty years of a healthy life without setbacks through care. Losing your vision is not the same. I know it is not, but it is impossible for me not to consider every option that manifests in m

 I run out of the room so fast, I fail to notice someone in the hallway in time, so I end up slamming into a muscular wall. “Hey, sister-in-law! Take it easy. Where are you going in that beautiful handmade dress?” taunts Dawson. I pull the fabric up to my chest; I think the sheet covers even part of my throat.  I blush from head to toe. He’s the last person I would have wanted to meet in the hallway in this shape. I should have thought things through before I ran away. It’s all his fault, or at least partly his fault. It’s Dawson’s fault. If he didn’t have a twin with whom it was possible to confuse him, Darío would have believed me and trusted my words, or maybe not. I don’t know who could hurt him so much and so badly that,

Darío Magghio Hours later, I am still waiting in the dining room for Tatiana’s return. I shooed her away as if she were really guilty of some atrocity. My demons of the past made my present vilely affected. Now, feeling the house empty and knowing that I was responsible for Tatiana’s departure, I begin to understand that I must get used to my new present and stop focusing on the wrong things someone else did to me in the past. And that someone is none other than Arianna. Because of her, after so many months since her death, I take responsibility for not reaching her in time when she jumped off the balcony. Just thinking about it, my body freezes, and I feel raging anger over the months I have learned to control. What the hell was this woman thinking? What kind of depression so strong wrapped her up that suicide was the onl

 His hands caress my body, and his lips run down my neck to transport my being to a place where only he and I exist. I wanted this as much as I tried to breathe. I want Darío. I want him inside me as he whispers my name and loves me as he did in the lake.“You’re beautiful.” He kisses one of my breasts; his mouth is like heaven.His words are shocking to me, as he can’t see me. He sucks and tastes me. He lightly bites my nipple, and my body vibrates, seduced by the wetness of his lips. “You don’t see me.” I smile shyly.I am with Darío at last, no reservations,