Polaroid Paper Trail

By Zachary Thomas

Aaliyah stops receiving dated and signed polaroids from her younger brother while he's traveling in Latin and South America. She travels to his last location in Cartagena, Colombia to discover what happened to him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zachary Thomas
• Release date: Apr 25, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386434610

Book preview

Scene 1

Y es I mind, Aaliyah said. I’ve been on hold all morning.

I understand ma’am but— the receptionist said in Spanish.

What'd you say?

One minute please, she said in English.

The next person that picks up the phone should be the jefe.

Claro que si señora.

Around thirty-minutes past noon, Aaliyah had been on the phone with several different hostels in Cartagena, Colombia since six or seven in the morning looking for her younger brother Klem. The beginning of Aaliyah's day was like a dream, a nightmare rather, because she didn't know how she got here, at a point where the worst possible scenario became a potential reality. The polaroids that Klem promised to send her every month during his Latin and South American backpacking trip arrived routinely for months; and then, suddenly they stopped coming. With all of Klem's polaroids grid-stacked in fives according to their date on Aaliyah's small round wooden dining room table, she examined them closely with her cell phone in her back pocket and her headphones in her ears, waiting for the hostel's manager and trying to find more details that would indicate Klem's whereabouts.

Hola, this is Violeta, how can I—?

"Hi, yes, listen, I've called all of