Act 1, Scene 16

FEDE

“Me too!” I told Meli, dizzy and euphoric.

“That’s great, Fede. I’m glad you love yourself,” she responded.

Her mocking of me never felt like real mocking, I liked it even.

That way we went out to an independent ballet production. It was organized by her friends (I mean, who else?) in this tiny theater in Centro. The theme at hand was Berlin divided by the Iron Curtain, which was a topic I knew like the palm of my hand and wasn’t too keen on. I expected to see something more emotional. I’m a simple man, I like Cats, and this was no Cats. The dancers were dolled up in cardboard boxes while they shook their hips in hypnotic motions. ¿Did I like it? I don’t know, it was abstract art.

After it finished the guys wanted to keep chatting about the Berlin Wall, the current state of the Cold War and yadda yadda. I was asked many questions, being the designated nerd of the group, which I half-heartedly answered.

Meli was quite into the discussion, she had this mystery project she was working on and wanted as much political inspiration as possible. All I wanted was my PJs and bed, but Rolo, the ballet’s director, asked to chat with me.

He saw potential of some kind in me. He told me he could have me meet a certain “White Flea”. I asked if the Flea was some sort of artist and he laughed, the White Flea was the leader of a national Communist League.

“What kind of work has that League done?” I asked without much care for the answer.

“Well, for starters, they did in your precious Don Eugenio,” he answered and I pretended to be wowed by the fact since I didn’t know yet who Don Eugenio Garza Sada, the beloved industrialist and founder of my university, was. The League Rolo was talking about had attempted to kidnap him and ended up murdering the old man years before I got to Mexico.

            END OF SCENE