Despair Avenue

By A.P. Hernández

“The crackle of dead leaves beneath my feet and the wisp of warm air caressing my face like an invisible hand will forever linger in my mind. Suddenly, as I was walking, I simply fell to the ground, lifeless.”

This could easily be the ending of a novel, but in Despair Avenue it’s only the beginning. With his death, the protagonist finds himself trapped on a kind of threshold between life and death. His journey leads him to his former place of residence and visits to family members. It’s only then he realizes how much they’ve changed and the great danger they’re in.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BadPress
• Release date: Mar 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9781667453842

A.P. Hernández

Ο Antonio Pérez Hernández (Μούρθια, 1989) είναι δάσκαλος στην Πρωτοβάθμια Εκπαίδευση, παιδαγωγός, με Μάστερ στην Καινοτομία και στην Έρευνα στην Εκπαίδευση και Δόκτορ, με τη διάκριση cum laude (έπαινος), για τη Διδακτορική του Διατριβή Αξιολόγηση της ικανότητας στην επικοινωνία δια της γλώσσας μέσα από διηγήματα στην Πρωτοβάθμια Εκπαίδευση. Εργάζεται ως δάσκαλος και συγγραφέας.

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Table of Contents

Despair Avenue | A.P. Hernández

Despair Avenue

A.P. Hernández

––––––––

Translated by Angela Fairbank M.A. C.T. 

Despair Avenue

Written By A.P. Hernández

Copyright © 2023 A.P. Hernández

All rights reserved

Distributed by Babelcube, Inc.

www.babelcube.com

Translated by Angela Fairbank M.A. C.T.

Babelcube Books and Babelcube are trademarks of Babelcube Inc.

-Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1

Autumn Leaves

CHAPTER 2

Four Conclusions

CHAPTER 3

Her Name’s Cecilia

CHAPTER 4

Hope Street

CHAPTER 5

An Eternity Ago

CHAPTER 6

Despair Avenue

CHAPTER 7

On the Fifth Floor

CHAPTER 8

Nearer

CHAPTER 9

Following

CHAPTER 10

A Look Back

CHAPTER 11

Iron on Iron

CHAPTER 12

Apartment C

CHAPTER 13

Final Chapter

EPILOGUE

CHAPTER 1

Autumn Leaves

I don’t know how it happened.

As you’ll come to realize, it’s something I’ve thought about considerably, but to this day, I still haven’t understood the motives or reasons behind such a fateful outcome.

It was eight p.m. on an autumn evening, and I was walking my dog Luna, a three-year-old German shepherd. I remember the first shadows of the sunset were beginning to peek through the trees of the municipal park and, of course, I also remember the mantle of withered leaves covering the ground like an immense brown carpet. Luna was trotting beside me, panting, swinging her tail from left to right, rhythmically. We were on our way home.

The crackle of dead leaves beneath my feet and the wisp of warm air caressing my face like an invisible hand will forever linger in my mind.

Suddenly, as I was walking, I simply fell to the ground, lifeless. I watched as Luna licked my hand and then my face. I heard the surprised cry of a woman as she noticed my body on the ground and watched as a group of people clustered around Luna and me. Finally, I saw an ambulance arrive at the municipal park, heard the paramedics asking the crowd to leave, and watched as a doctor tore open my plaid cardigan, listened to my heart, and attempted to revive me with a defibrillator.

All in vain.

I realized I was dead and there was no turning back when the doctor wrote my time of death on a form and then placed my corpse in a yellow bag and zipped it up. Luna was taken by a policeman, who perhaps intended to hand her over to a relative.

The officer had to drag her. She didn’t want to leave me. My dog started barking in the direction of the departing ambulance, not understanding what was going on.

Shortly after, the crowd dispersed and, after half an hour, the park was empty. I stood motionless beside the spot where I’d died, wrapped in the shadows of the night.

The first thing I asked myself was What just happened? Then, What am I supposed to be now? Some kind of ghost?

I lifted up my hands and gazed at the bushes through my skin. I bent down and tried to grab a leaf from the ground, but I couldn’t. My hands sank into the earth without touching anything.

And what do I do now?

Perhaps in search of answers, I began walking and was accompanied by a horrible silence. I couldn’t hear the rustling of the leaves beneath my feet any longer.

CHAPTER 2

Four Conclusions

Over the next few days I had time to think.