TE19 Iberian Adventure

Sara Mesa

Marina brushes her hair furiously. Static lifts her bangs, which wave above her small, close-set eyes.

“Well, she can count me out for sure. They really came down on us, thanks to her.”

“And it’s not like she can do anything on her own,” Cristi says.

“She uses us because she can’t do it by herself,” says Valen, not entirely convinced.

Teeny—her voice ground down by the others—repeats herself again and again until they hear her. “She didn’t force us to go with her. We all wanted to. It sounded fun.”

“She should just go back to her neighborhood,” Marina says. “I’m sure she misses it.”

“What’s her neighborhood like?” Cristi asks.

“Rats, hooligans, graffiti, needles, all of that.” Marina wrinkles her nose.

“And people like that?”

“Of course. People who grow up there want that. They complain if you take them out. Like Celia.”

They hear her coming down the hallway, her ragged breath reaching them.

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