When James opened the door he couldn’t believe its eyes


    <


    >


    <<The last time I fully cleaned my apartment was before the hospital. Way before the hospital>>


    James looked at him


    <<What do you want? I am tired when I get home after work, you should understand me.>>


    The two of them passed a whole afternoon cleaning. James had brought a vacuum cleaner because Pxan didn’t have one. The two of them cleaned and organized the apartment together.


    James picked a pot and started boiling water


    <<What are you doing?>>


    <<Making some tea, we can’t continue working like donkeys>>


    <<Do you bring tea everywhere you go?>>


    <<No.>> he picked up two doses of tea from his pockets <<just when I go to another house doing chores.>>


    Pxan took a sip of tea <<It’s good...for being an industrial tea.>>


    <<Oh common, where do you even find a non-industrial one?>>


    <<They used to be common>>


    <<When I was a kid>> added James completing the phraseThe narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    After this initial conversation silence returned to the room


    <


    >


    Pxan looked at him while drinking its cup of tea.


    <<who is the man in the photos?>>


    <<What photos?>>


    <<I found some old photos while organizing, is that your dad?>>


    Pxan stopped drinking his tea and became tense <<uncle, I don’t have any photos of my dad. We lived in the countryside, we didn’t take many photos. The few that we took got destroyed.>>


    James looked at him without saying anything


    <<My uncle took care of me when I arrived here.>>


    <<And do you keep in contact with him?>>


    <<No, he is dead. Happened a few years ago while I was in university, you know how bad low quarters are for health.>>


    James was thinking of something to ask or say


    <<Don’t worry. Those are not arguments to speak of while drinking tea..>>


    <<When I was younger I called myself Bad Mace James, it sounded cool, I remember that I was quite the criminal back then...


    << I went around, attacked rival boys and damaged buildings. I was quite the devil, my parents were always furious with me, I went horribly at school and…>>


    <<And?>>


    James took a deep breath <<No, nothing.>>


    Pxan looked at the clock <<I think that we should continue with the cleaning>>


    <<Agree>>


    The cleaning continued without problems. Pxan made sure that all photos were in closed boxes so something like that would never happen again. Never again.


    The day after he searched for this Bad Mace James on the computer, he found two old newspapers.


    “Oh” he thought while reading the newspapers, he looked at James, he was sitting far from him, doing some paperwork “how have you even managed to arrive here?>> now he looked at him with different eyes, he looked at him like an injured puppy who is starving and needs help.


    While travelling to check a ‘noisy old lady’ Pxan took the occasion to ask James to hang out sometimes. James agreed. Pxan became very embarrassed because he didn’t use to hang out with people, and the few times that he did he was insincere. Pxan was always insincere.