Traces of an Imperfect World

By Jose Carlos Bermejo

Throughout the stories contained in TRACES OF AN IMPERFECT WORLD, there are unusual stories that talk about the topic of LOVE.

Romantic relationships in the course of daily lives, that turn towards unexpected moments. The ‘unfaithful love’ in ‘Who to love’; the "hidden homosexual love" in the story "The last class"; The ‘unexpected love’ in ‘The transit of useless things’; the ‘love that saves lives’ in ‘The Wink of Good Luck’; the ‘family love’ in ‘A new life’; The ‘love at first sight’ in ‘That gaze’; 'animal love' and its relationship with humans in 'The Nightingale in Love'; and the crazy 'love of books' in 'Back to Utopia'.

TRACES OF AN IMPERFECT WORLD is a look at the World from the perspective, so often blurry, of love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BadPress
• Release date: Jun 21, 2021
• ISBN: 9781667404615

Book preview

Traces of an imperfect world

José Carlos Bermejo

Traduction: Emmanuel Lucero

Book index

Who to love?

The transit of the useless things

A new life

The Nightingale in Love

The Last Class

Back to Utopia

There is not so much Poetry

That Gaze

The Wink of Good Luck

ABOUT AUTHOR

Copyright © 2021 José Carlos Bermejo

josecarlosbermejo.com

All rights reserved.

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© 1997, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2018 and  2021: José Carlos Bermejo

Traduction: Emmanuel Lucero

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Book cover © Prettysleepy

It is forbidden, within the limits established by law and under the legal warnings provided, the total or partial reproduction of the work by any means or procedure, computer processing, rental or any other form of transfer of the work, without prior written authorization. of the copyright holder.

It is love, and not german

philosophy,  that  is the true

explanation of this world, whatever  may.

Oscar Wilde

Who to love?

I

THE FORTUNE TELLER flipped, one by one, the five cards that the man had chosen moments before. The figures of the cards were face up, forming what is known as the Celtic cross. After a long silence, the fortune teller started speaking.

-I don’t know... hmmm... I don’t know- she doubted.

The fortune teller repeated what she had already told him in the previous session, last week. Just like then, she told him that she was still not sure of the prediction: she had certain doubts...

-Maybe I should shuffle and pick five new cards- she sentenced, certainly annoyed.

The man gathered all the cards in a deck, shuffled them and, when he thought he was sure, proceeded again to pick five cards up. It was the third time he had done it that afternoon. The man had long ago begun to think that the fortune teller did not dare to tell him the truth, the message that the letters conveyed about his future.

The fortune teller had been reading the cards for this man regularly during the period of a month. He went every week, the same day, at the same hour. And the truth was that in the last two sessions she had not told him the whole truth. And it had not been because she had not dared, but rather because she couldn’t clearly see the meaning that the letters conveyed. Besides, she didn't know him well enough. She was unaware of many details of his intimate life. She didn't even know his name. As she knew less than necessary about him, it was difficult for her to relate what Arcana said about the events that the future held for him. He was always hermetic, his gaze was hideous and somber, with an image that was impossible for her to decode. In his eyes, he was sinking between sullen shyness and a reticence that was impossible for her to surpass.

-I would need you to tell me if you have a... little issue with your relationships...- the fortune teller said, with no idea about how to start.

-Little issue?- he asked.

-Look- said the fortune teller, gravely. -I've been trying for a few weeks to understand the message that the cards are telling you, and that's because I can't figure out whether or not what appears in your future is good or bad news. In the cards you drew today, it says, as they said last week, that someone abandons you, someone very close to you, a personal relationship.

-An abandonment?- he asked, as if his questions were meant to be affirmations.

-That’s what cards tell me. Something that comes to an end. An union that breaks, but doesn’t break definitely. You know... Are you married?

-Yes.- he answered.

-I suppose you are going through bumpy roads, isn’t it?.- she said. -Do you have a lover?.- she asked, holding her breath.

The man, even when the fortune teller looked at him suspiciously, didn’t answer.

The small room in which the fortune teller used to have her sessions was now silent. The fortune-teller got up and drew back the thick curtains that hid the morning light. The man did not lift his gaze from the cards, which still remained on the table, flanked by two white candles that, although they were lit, they could barely illuminate the place, as their light was overwhelmed by the daylight. The landscape that outlined the room, now, seemed neither so reserved nor so mysterious. Despite that, the man continued observing the figures on the cards, oblivious to the rest and as if he wanted to understand the meaning of the drawings in the set of major Arcana that were placed on the table.

-Is there any solution?- the man asked.

The fortune teller had heard that question so many times that she had several answers thought out beforehand in order to comfort those who weren’t lucky enough to have a comfortable destiny. But in that case, with that man, she preferred not to use any of those constructed phrases about an unchangeable future, or a future that is not immovable by its own concept: nobody knows if the future can be changed because it is known and for our purposes the future only happens once. On that occasion, the fortune teller decided to remain silent.

The man, as if he was waiting for an opportunity for that, asked:

-Can you prepare love potions?-

The fortune-teller wondered if what that man really needed was a love potion or if what he really needed was to stop running into that ambiguous reality that outlined an uncertain future