By the time Lucio finished mowing the lawn, he felt an itch, as if he had grass lodged in the back of his throat. He sat on the sidewalk in front of his house with his head down and sweat hanging from his brow. His new neighbor stepped out for her mail. Lucio stared. He found the pregnant lady beautiful in her yellow sundress, with glowing bronze skin, and long locks of smooth black hair that fell down her back. The lady saw Lucio, smiled, and waved. She then called him with her hand.
“That’s a nice looking lawn. Do you think you could do mine some time?”
“Sure thing mam, just come knock on our door in the afternoon, whenever you like.”
“You don’t have to call me mam, just call me Lily. I’m not much older than you, you know.”
Lucio stood like an anxious dog wagging his tail at his owner, when he heard a bird sing with the voice and melody of an uncanny familiar song. He turned and stared at the bird sitting on the roof of his house. Lucio’s entire body itched, from his skin to his insides. He ran for the shower. He turned on the hot water and as the steam rose he looked up and saw the bird floating above him. Startled, he yelled and cussed at the bird,
“Fuck you, get the fuck out of here,” and threw a shampoo bottle.
The bird fluttered urgently, taking awkward wing, out through the open window near the bathroom ceiling. At dinner, Lucio thought about telling his mother that he liked the new neighbor. He contemplated on how his mother would react. His mother overreacted to everything, she carried her self with a solemnity that made people careful of their words. She wore a long dress with the kind of brownish patterns old ladies wear, and despite being quite an old lady herself, she appeared barely old enough to be her son’s mother. She sat across her son, with long black hair running down her back, purple lips, shiny eyebrows, and white skin, running her bony fingers over her long natural nails, knowing her son had something to tell her.
“I don’t like that lady.”
“She’s nice.”
“And I don’t like how she talks to you. She’s too nice. Where’s her husband? Where’s the baby’s father? I don’t want you talking to that lady.”
That night Lucio dreamt about a field of sunlight glittering over a lush green plain like diamond. His neighbor stood and waved from far but he could see all the details of her face. He was woken from his dream by a knock on his bedside window. He peered out the window but didn’t see anything. Lucio went back to bed, shut his eyes, and could perfectly see the images in his dreams, but did not fall back to sleep.
Lucio got up from his bed as the sunlight seeped through the blinds and blanketed his face with warmth. He put on his slippers and made his way to the kitchen in his pajama pants. His mind had rested from the waking world but his body was itching for slumber. He didn’t know where to scratch. The itch was everywhere.
Lucio threw himself on the living room couch while his mother made omelettes in the kitchen. He took off his right slipper and scratched his big toe. A spider burst from the shoe like a creature made of shadow stepping out of his dreams. The spider crawled in an X motion, swerving like it was drunk, then froze as Lucio’s slipper fell over it.
Lucio’s mother went over to peer at the dead spider. A black splotch with smaller fragments trailing from it.
“Looks like it was carrying a baby spider… Im going to the grocery store do you need anything?”
“Uhmm, no.”
“Oh, I’ll get you your shampoo and you need new curtains.”
***
A hot, dusty afternoon, like a faded memory, Lucio sat on the sidewalk by his mailbox, waiting. He’d mown the lawn, he’d daydreamed, the lady never came and seemed to only have existed in his dreams.
Lucio asked his mother if she’d seen the neighbor.
“Oh, that lady’s gone. She moved.”
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