Apache Zone

I know the blind man sleeping and the lame man sitting.

At least for then it was what I thought, that I knew them all.

But my friend Raúl, seven years older than me showed me that it was not so that

what I knew he had forgotten, and saved my life that almost fateful night of March.

Since then I have known that I am a sponge, I absorb everything and I hardly like to show what I know.

As the criminals in my neighborhood say jokingly...

“I do not like to know very much, the more you know the more sticks the police give you to speak !,” They usually say.

That night to which I refer to something about her three months ago I had predicted, not by my intelligence I swear that I did not know the word KARMA; but subconsciously if of its meaning. And with examples I already knew that in my neighborhood it pays with death to be a sneak.

I was there enraptured looking at the girl who came to us. and it was not that it was ugly nor much less beautiful, it was more a little slum! It seemed to me and to confirm it he was drinking a drink at the peak of a bottle.

But who cares! if she bends down to pee, she is welcome to do it!

OH! that girl was the zize of a night of all men, of which one sends to sit and lie down, Raúl always suspiciously inquired her with a glance over his shoulder and between his teeth he muttered something that no one understood, but gesturally left no room to doubts: that he did not want to see her again by the wax of his house.

"Sorry!" I just took the route and I liked it so much because it made me look pretty, nothing else came. And I am like the toad that is waiting for mosquitoes but if a fly will also catch it; Idiotized I really wanted to exchange body fluids not only salivary but also genital ...

What even grayish skin does it have! -I was saying.

But for a car without insurance to kill me better a woman with the C ..! Laughs

And Raúl interrupted the musings of this anuro:

Hey astronaut raphy! - he told me. Welcome to earth! And I snap my fingers demanding attention.

Because he realized he had a half-hearted receiver, I pleased him by giving him due attention for a few minutes. More Raúl paused and lit his cigarette.

And it was then when I turned to the girl I saw her and I believed that she wanted to break my face with her bottle; same that she no longer had anything more than the evil and unsuspected intention of that bad girl.

What a contemptuous pearl! ; Now she's not a girl, she's a girl! ; She didn't know me!

Could it be my imaginations ?!

It was very fleeting, it was not clear to me, she was cleverly concealed her attempt very well, leaving me only a trivial suspicion of that penetrating look with red eyes that looked at me just as pending; but that could also be due to a burning water of those bad ones that are only found in my neighborhood.

That placed me worse than a toilet paper wrapped in one hand, that if we do not look at it we do not know if it is clean or clear; from behind, not being a mirror, reflects something to us.

Do you have problems with your so-and-so husband? Raúl asked her.

She grumbled and shook her head and in her gestures I noticed that it was a problem, that Raúl knew her and that she lived nearby, but no more from there and would keep it that way. For he was still threateningly clutching his mallet-shaped bottle.

And if Raúl's answer reassures me, not entirely; He was very much at my right hand with his bottle, and those eyes had penetrated me and I now wanted to carry the singing voice.

With a distant Raúl who did not listen but who could hear him in the background, I drew up my plans to make the hare jump.

and go! Here you will see that it would not be in vain:

With the thumb under my jaw the index finger bent over my nose and the other fingers in front of the mouth in the shape of a tube. At first glance it seemed that in the abstract I drank and was filled by an invisible and non-existent glass. But in my palpable interior I offered for my safety, because if this hare had to threaten at least my nose and my mouth with this defense pose they would be protected.

I knew that if I left I would be damaged, but I had to take risks because at that moment the words would not speak only the facts.

This being so and seeing that his intentions did not speak, it was necessary to see how he acted:

Sitting down I checked my shirt taking my hands behind me and there, leaving them, I jumped into the chair, it was all part of my plan, that was a well-known neighborhood gesture very particular to the one who carries a dagger.

Luckily for me she was a slum because these neighborhood codes I have not anyone who comes to her; But I was betting on her, it was that she was not one of those girls raised eating Kellogs' sugar cubes or watching the cartoon network in a residential complex. She wasn't like that. She was just like me. She was from some Apache Zone. And indeed as I bet I reacted to my pantomime.

I turned the omelette over to her and she was intimidated by such reciprocity: bottle by stab!

Never would anyone ever consider it was not a good game.

And so he walked away from our side threatened and frustrated for not achieving his mission. And I filled with relief knowing that the bottle scars do not erase, I thought that the night had completely absorbed my luck.

This time the mountain went to Mohammed! - I told myself.

And Raul smiled at me and with a wink she gave me the credit, but the girl came back and overshadowed our moment when she yelled at Raúl from afar:

If you were smart you wouldn't have people like that in front of your house!

I was tempted to chase her to ask her why she had said that, but it was unlikely that she would say it like that anymore, since I considered her a threat and she equally considered me. It was a topic for another day and, above all, I understood deep down that it was very probable that what she said was somewhat correct.

At such a point I observed her carefully trusting always in my photographic memory, polished to the greatest detail because being one on the streets: license plates, addresses, moments, dates and gestures of people like her could not afford to forget them.

And more in these cases in which they tried to cause me wrong I was not allowed to stay with the doubts, sooner rather than later I had to settle the accounts with her and thus put a face on whoever had sent her to me; however this would not be necessary.

To my bittersweet surprise that very night what I feared happened.

More people came for me ...

Ooh yeah…!

That night would be fought for my skin, one of the many endless battles between Karma, and that abstract, but at the same time tangible thing that was fighting in my defense, after much meditating on this, here between insignificant lines I only glimpse calling it: Prayers of my mother!

"Raúl, friend, I'm leaving," I said, somewhat hasty.

"Not now Raffy" Raúl ordered me.

"How not now Raúl?"

"Not now, Raffy, there are problems... and I know my neighborhood" something mysterious told me, while I was looking, I was scanning the environment.

The atmosphere was heavy, the night had a medium reddish or perhaps brown tone, a slight drizzle was falling, but what put all the dots on the i's was that Raúl noticed that all his neighbors had their doors closed, and according to the regular time they weren't sleeping, they were certainly more awake than we were.

Who the hell would think of sitting on a sidewalk smoking so freely and in full view with a friend, having a whole Dominican gang behind them ‽

Believe me... the truth is sometimes bad to see, and although months ago, I had foreseen it, I could only deduce the month, but the day is difficult to guess right, when you wrong someone on the street, you deserve it They give three months later, they let you relax, because they know that you act like a fly, even taking this into account, I forgot...

The invoice had now reached me in March, and my detractors wanted to charge me at the highest price, they had kept it for me since December, the date on which, they called me by phone so that I would not be arrested on Christmas Eve, and that's how it was... I spent merry Christmas, I got drunk until I couldn't, and I even fucked a girl very badly.

“How far away was I, when this girl fucked me, that my enemies loved Christmas, and if I fell prisoner, they would fall with me, counting backwards behind bars the end of the year, with their jaws slightly slack‽

"Poor friend Raúl, you don't know what I've gotten you into!"

In the end Raúl convinced me not to leave at that moment, that is something for which you are reading and I am writing this, so there is no way come with us to this butterfly effect.

The two of us entered his house, which, like mine, was a slum, and only four to five steps away, a battered sofa was waiting for us, we sat down and re-emphasized that the night was strange and that I had to wait, he was saying it on the phone. awkward and sudden silence from all his neighbors, although I only thought of one, you know... the one that almost broke my face with his bottle.

Raúl put his hand behind the furniture, to take out a construction rod that he always had there, in case of problems, he always used it as a baseball bat, but he could not find it, and after convincing himself that it was not there, Raúl left. He turned to me, and incredulously told me...

"My mother has hidden the Raffy rod from me again, so she feels calm, I'm tired of explaining to her that for the cross to reach our house it must go to the neighbor's!"

I nodded seconding.

Then something was heard, it was a boy parking his motorbike, right on the sidewalk where we were sitting before, inside there, on the sofa where we were now, me and Raúl questioned each other with a look, seeing that the boy had left us. approached, the boy although robust, in his walk did not denote any threat, in reality this was a subterfuge, I was about to know that not only I knew about pantomimes.

The boy did not finish entering the house, he was friendly at the foot of the door, and he said good night to us, all to reassure us, I think even he felt that damn atmosphere.

The first person he addressed was Raúl asking for his brother.

“He moved, he doesn't live here anymore” Raúl answered.

This micro-conversation between him and Raúl was enough for me, the boy had stupefied me, for me he was someone I knew who visited Raúl's house regularly, the boy had me ready and served, although Raúl did not.

The boy entered and walked past us, me and Raúl remained seated, he was already further from the front door of the house than me and Raúl, that is to say, to our left, he took off a cap that he was wearing and went back to to Raul.

"Tell your brother I'm out of jail"

By taking off his cap, he wanted to show that he had actually just been released from prison, since his entire head was shaved, here in the Dom. Rep. they don't leave their hair to prisoners, and for that reason, at least I instantly believed him.

That was exactly what he wanted, to completely disassociate himself from being a threat to stab me right there sitting, that's what he had come for, and he was not going to fail just like the girl with the bottle from before, she brought him the information that I was armed but it was not like that, that night I spent more than half an hour looking for him before leaving and I did not find him.

The boy said goodbye to Raúl and I didn't even pay much attention to him, until he extended his hand to me, I shook his hand and that was one of my worst street mistakes, the boy gave me such a handshake and when he felt his strength, I knew I had fallen into a deadly trap, this guy believed me so little, I was more than a weakling in front of him, that when I raised my head to look at his face, he was not looking at me, but at Raúl who he was next to me, I tried to free myself several times and the guy wouldn't let go, I couldn't stop because the guy was between my knees, and his other hand was slightly on his waist, he just had to take his dagger and start stabbing me, when I looked at Raúl in search of salvation, then I understood why this mole hadn't already stabbed me.

The reason for his indecision was that Raúl was not actually sitting on the furniture, he was there in an attack position like a cat with his hand behind the furniture, which even I believed or preferred to believe in that terrifying moment that his mother did not I had removed the rod from there, the guy let go of my hand, because he was not guessing, safeguarding yourself is the first rule of the street and he, like me, was not going to get into that, like me who gave him my hand as if we were entrepreneurs

The boy went to the door and looked at me again, I looked at him with red eyes and he was somewhat disappointed and somewhat annoyed for having failed the person who had sent it to me.

I was already clear about everything, revenge was stalking me, that night there would be problems, he left on his motorcycle with at least the certainty that he and his bad showgirls were not waiting for me for free a few blocks away, now after he loved me go, for the first time in my life I wanted to stay the night in someone else's house.

That was never going to be like that ever, Raúl that same night had to warn his brother of that unexpected visit, fortunately for me, his brother lived just a few blocks from there.

"Raffy let's get there" Raúl ordered me.

When we left the house, it was already early morning and the dogs were making a sound identical to their close cousins.

I was more than scared, we started walking and Raúl, even though he didn't know everything for sure, ordered me with temper.

"Hey Raffy, not that way, where you enter you don't come out, let's go this way"

At that time I did not like that he chose where we would go, but he was right, and I still had not finished choosing which of all my enemies was the cause of that attempt.

The two of us continued walking together, and as we advanced, I chose from time to time where to go, you know... where to turn, if straight ahead and so on...

I made a superhuman effort so that Raúl didn't find out, that at that moment I even suspected him, you see... in the lower world, friendship has levels, and the street forces you to betray, for your safety, a question in A coffee bar does not have to mean the same thing as being in a secluded place. Someone with a poisoned heart, if you invite him to a day of pinging, he thinks twice more than two lovers.

And being true that they were coming for me, then... it was me who was using Raúl as a bodyguard or he was selling me, I never thought of writing this part, but the days and learning on the street, give you very bad lines of argument or Maybe it's just that you're steric.

The only thing I can tell you is that thanks to Raúl that night, I thank him... we surprised the boy on his left side, and he didn't catch me, where he supposed I was going, he was sitting on his motorcycle , waiting for me to pass wherever I arrive, and to make matters worse now he was accompanied by another dark-haired boy, stronger than him.

I stopped short when I saw him, about twenty steps from where I and Raúl were, and neither of us even had a nail clipper on us, they're going to tear us to shreds, that's what I thought and my head hurt. belly.

"Raúl let's go home!" I proposed with a lump in my throat.

"No Raffy let's continue towards them with anger, they assume that we are already armed"

And so it was, the two of us were weaklings with our Afros drawn in the shadows, as if we were going to eat them alive, and they were intimidated, but the truth is..., when I saw the boy lower his foot to the ground and kick the kick of the motorcycle and started, I was finally able to breathe well, I was quite stupid at that moment to turn the page, because I thought that that night I would not find them again.

Some five or six minutes later, we stopped at a corner, where the neighborhood bakery was located, where Raúl told me:

"Raffy... so that we can share the danger, I'll leave you here"

I was already wondering how he was able to accompany me so far from his house according to the circumstances, because the extent to which he accompanied me was quite considerable, and to tell the truth, I would not have accompanied him, not because of a bad friend, but for reasons of the nature.

"Yep... all this fuss was something I wasn't made for, but Raúl would take me miles!"

As we said goodbye we heard a motorcycle not so far or so close, but we did manage to spot it.

I was the first to see the motorbike approaching us, but I didn't worry, because this motorcycle was not the one belonging to the boy who was about to stab me a few centimeters away, this motorcycle was raised doing the wheelie, by the time I lowered the tire to the side of us, me and Raúl respectively had two stones ready, and no ACME brand, for the cute kitten that we thought we saw.

Even so, I turned pale when I saw who it was, it was Karma personified, the reason for all that evil intention that night was in front of me, it was someone Raúl also knew, they called him Cara De Mico, my most recent enemy, the same as months before, he pointed his gun barrel at me, to take away a stolen item that I had bought, a laptop to be exact.

"Will I be Robin Hood to be giving mine to the poor" I said angrily after I felt safe.

I was filled with hatred and he gave me the call to telephone the real victim, I told him who now had his laptop, and how he could get to it.

"If the signs were already noticeable, that I was going to end up being serious and honest!"

Yep, and things got more serious, when the owner threw us with the police in recovery, the hard drive had an owner, the RAM owned, and thus, disassembled by pieces to many serious people, each piece was stopped.

So... the owner seriously, I don't know if he made it up or that the police and he didn't know how to count, he said that it was not a single laptop but three computers that were taken from his business, the police in my country are very serious So much so that they treat the offended very well and let it flow, with pleasure they have to believe, instead of knowing, because that way at the end of the month, they can cushion their salary a little better, and thus the system does not fall apart.

In short... many innocent people fell in this round of police, except for me and Cara de Mico, Christmas was not harmed, we left the misunderstanding for this night in March, only this time he did not warn me and he came with a group of people for my.

I swear that even today I wonder why I don't kill myself right there... I don't think that four stones that Raúl and I carried intimidated him in that solitude that they seized the night, given that he always carried a gun with him, at most. What arrived is that he was one hundred percent sure, that since he had the perimeter secured, I was not going to escape him.

"Well, you already notice that yes!"

What you read here is called the butterfly effect, so to speak, whether Cara de Mico likes my prose or not.

At that time, Raúl and I could shake hands and we did so to say goodbye, and we did so for a long time, today I think it doesn't matter which side of the coin he plays, the fact that with his pantomime in the furniture of his house prevented me from being stabbed, believe it or not, it was real that it saved me, even if I wanted to sometimes if sometimes not to thank it, the underworld is a crazy environment that not even my best friend would wish for.

And to think that Raúl went his way and I went mine, even though I was scared, I thought that I had minutes on the phone to make sure I got home safely, and while I was thinking about this, I observed from afar how in the next corner, came out and cautiously entered the front tire of a motorbike.

I stopped short, but I do remember I took a few more steps to hide it, if it was them I didn't want them to know that I noticed, in case Cara de Mico came up behind me.

To my left I saw an unreliable alleyway that was quite narrow and also led to a nursery, perfect for committing a murder there at the end, due to its solitude, and something that tormented me was that I was over fifteen years old or more without take this shortcut, so I did not know if there was an exit, otherwise I would be lost, because it was quite narrow, by that time I had concluded that my enemies were waiting for me further on.

"Who the hell would try to enter a main street and regret backing up a motorboat?"

I could not retrace my steps, and find myself again, but alone with Cara de Mico, I threatened to take the alley because in the middle of the street and in plain sight I had no time to think.

When I entered the alley instead of going deeper, I lay down and felt my heart bounce on the ground, I stuck my head out to see if now that I entered the alley, they would finally come out, a plant that was planted in a jar next to the wall it served as camouflage for me, after about eight or ten seconds they came out, they were waiting to see if it was true that I fell from jumping into the breaststroke.

I knew that if it was them they would like the idea, because at the end of the alley if they killed me, they would find me downstairs, I could only hear their engine in the distance, they were going like a damn soul and I could almost tell exactly why. where they were going, all because of the sound their engine was making, no doubt they wanted to meet me right at the exit.

But I went back to the main street and I passed right around the corner where they were waiting for me at first, which is only twenty steps from there, it was already close to my house, but it was in my area, although Apache yep…

But I was already thinking about what I would do at dawn, so if I thought about this, it was because I felt safe, when I arrived, it was as if I painted it in my mind before seeing it, I saw exactly what I expected, there were many people below that blue canvas on the street, they were playing dominoes and drinking coffee, it was a wake, I went in there.

"What better than hiding a needle among more needles?"

As for Cara de Mico, if I told you that I would settle an account with him, I would lie to you, but I know that I could at least control him, because that night when he tried to kill me, I was jumping the chain of command, because his higher-ranking bosses, me too I owed it to him, the bosses of Cara de Mico were planning to send me a pregnant girl to inherit my estate when they liquidated me, but I had known that for a long time.

A business of a house that my family bought, in which they felt cheated, for a long time without Cara de Mico's knowledge, the pressure was falling on me.

And if Cara de Mico managed to kill me that night, his bosses wouldn't be able to make me the father of a Billie Jean's son, much less according to the dangers I've run, it was the beloved Neverland Ranc.