hung his coat. He loosened his tie, black. Undid the top button of his shirt, and white. He went into the bathroom and turned on the light of the mirror. He had chosen on purpose, a sixty-watt incandescent bulb. The mirror height face down. He stood motionless, his face three-quarters. He stared at the eye. Increasingly closer to the light and the mirror is focused on red vein from the inner dispersed to the iris. It is now recognized. An outer circle of dark green, lighter radial filaments. The pupil black and shiny that it shrinks. I always noticed, if carelessly lost the moment the light extinguished and rekindled, focusing on the contraction of the pupil. Then he looked reflected in the contract to a black dot. Her image in her eye.
The apartment was silent. He would not make any noise. Sought to control the breath. He stopped in the hallway. The ears cocked, ready to receive any type of sound. He did not hear anything. She was not at home.
Now he could relax. He hung his coat in the closet. He went into the kitchen and began to heat water. Poured into the cup three tablespoons of instant coffee, decaffeinated, and two of sugar, white. poured hot water and held the cup in his hands. Then put on the table, opened the window and took the soft pack of cigarettes from his pants pocket. He lit a cigarette, exhaling the smoke outside. He could not stand the smell of tobacco in the house. With the cigarette between the index and middle fingers took the ashtray and put it next to the cup. The kitchen was lighted only by the light of the corridor. It was as if the darkness was closely linked to silence. He did not want to disturb this state of calm. The weather could stop now. The cup on the table. The cigarette between his fingers. The moon on the roof of the house opposite.
This perfect stillness was interrupted by the sound of a bell. Three rings and then silence, then three more rings. It was not his. It was not the intercom. Someone stuck in the elevator had been closed. He put out his cigarette, took the phone from his jacket and opened the door. The rings operated continuously. Nobody was out to control, was not the first time that happened since he lived in that apartment. The call button was off. He got downstairs, but the elevator was not there. He tried to press the button that lit. The lift off again. He returned to his plan, he climbed the stairs he heard the elevator doors close and the sound of keys. She was from the back, one foot already in the threshold. Remained stopped beside the stairs. He said nothing. He looked again to close the door and their eyes met.
- It 'she was to restart the elevator?
- Yes, I just pressed the button.
- Thank you very much.
- I have not done anything exceptional.
- No more, however, came out to check.
- If it happens I hope someone comes out to check.
- Yeah, right. Thanks again, and goodnight.
smiled and closed the door, three-pass key. He was paralyzed as a few seconds, then went into the house. He had continued to look through the peephole? Or was it simply came without looking?
went to the room and began to undress. He heard her turn on the TV. Now he would never understand exactly what part of the house he was, the voices of a news program covering the rest of the night.
Their apartments confinement. He was sure that the other side of the room bed there was his bedroom. The walls were so thin that he felt going to the bathroom in the silence of the night. Bare feet away. A door closed, and shortly after the toilet.
The kitchen was on the side on purpose. He was not sure, but had to give on the street. A few weeks earlier he had heard the clatter of dishes, cutlery. Would have expected this kind of noise several times a week, but it was not. Rarely hear the sound of crockery, ol'aspirapolvere or spin of the washing machine. But he was not home all day and had no idea that life did. Fell the most diverse schedules. A few weeks seemed like a normal employee, woke up at seven o'clock and return at eight. Other Once back at night, the two went out in the morning or at dawn. Certainly it was a security guard, but he was sure did not make even a whore. Had no doubt about this. And why not use the house with clients? He lived alone and no one ever came to see.
elements had not, of course it was easy to understand that he was about to leave the house when wearing shoes with heels. He felt to go back and forth for a while '. Then the noise of the keys in the door. In these cases, rushed to the peephole, no noise. He looked out and wait for the elevator. All of the curved lens in small and of poor quality.
All I knew she had heard, filtered from the walls, drawn from her imagination. Yes, he had met by chance on the stairs, or at the entrance of the building. He had never seen but in the neighborhood, or at the cinema or the bakery or the nearby metro stop. The only information given was his name, because he had read on the bell.
Her name was Mama Rossetti.
