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to rearrange furniture or leave it as
it was. He was unable to decide
whether to stay at home or go
out to the city. He did not feel like
taking a bath, did not want to eat;
he just wanted to shut himself up
in the darkness of his room and
protect himself from something or
someone unknown to him.
Without any certainty, he started to
speculate about the new secretary
as the person responsible for what
had happened. It was apparent
that she was making up nonexist-
ent love stories and that her obses-
sion was turning her into a poten-
tially dangerous person.
He would make sure to get her
fired the following week and, if he
proved that she had been respon-
sible for the chaos that his life had
become, he would not hesitate to
have her subjected to the full force
of the law. An inexplicable feeling
of hatred towards that young girl
was growing inside him.
When night came and Friday was
approaching, Walter curled him-
self into a ball on the bed and,
with his legs almost touching his
chest and his arms wrapping his
legs, he fell asleep.
That Friday morning, Susan did
not come to work and, although
nobody knew what had happened
until Monday morning when she
was found by the police, she was
laying dead at the side of her
bed, her naked body showing that
she had been beaten and cut in-
numerable times with a knife.
On Monday, Walter came back
to his office smilingly; he was
greeted with applause, hand-
shakes, and kisses from his closer
female colleagues.
At noon, his boss invited him to
have lunch in the company caf-
eteria. There, he thanked Walter
for having come to work for a few
hours, in the midst of his conva-
lescence, just in time to contribute
the ideas that made possible the
signing of the contract of sport
footwear advertising.
-
“Who? Me? – he asked in
astonishment. “I never came to the
office last week” – he said, even
at the risk of losing the money of
the commission.
Confused, his boss looked at him
and, putting a hand on Walter’s
shoulder, he told him that maybe
it was not a good idea to come
back to work so soon. Walter
reacted immediately and laughed
while he said to his boss that he
had obviously been at the office
last week; and that he was only
playing a joke on him.
The man smiled and patted his
employee on the back before get-
ting up from table.
That afternoon, Walter bought
three surveillance cameras in case
of a new attack. Once in his
apartment, he installed a cam-
era aiming at the entrance door,
another camera in the dining room
to register any activity there as well
as in the living room, and the third
one in his own bedroom at an
angle that captured images of his
bed and his bedroom window. He
connected the three cameras to his
computer and left the surveillance
program running so that it would
start to record images and sound
in the computer memory as soon
as cameras registered any motion.
In the morning, when he checked
what the cameras had recorded,
the surprise literally sat him down.
Nothing was recorded by the
entrance camera, which implied
that nobody or nothing had moved
there; the camera of his bedroom
had recorded four sequences
matching his movements in his
bed while sleeping; but the dining
room camera showed something
really disturbing: Walter’s image
appeared clearly. He was wear-
ing pants, shirt, and jacket. He
was looking out the window, then
rummaging through the armchairs
cushions as if he was looking for
something, sitting at the table ap-
parently reading some reports, and
then his face appeared taking up
the whole screen while he stared
straight at the camera a few cen-
timeters away from the lens.
But what left him completely in
shock was the time of recording:
each one of the footages of the
dining room camera matched the
sequences of the bedroom camera
with an almost pinpoint accuracy.
Illogical as it may seem, after
the accident and for a reason
beyond what he could explain or
understand, he was able to give
concrete form to the content of his
dreams.
Suddenly, all the pieces fit together
in his mind. Before, he had not
been able to remember any of
his dreams but, when he saw the
video and realized what was go-
ing on, any and all of his dreams
came to his mind in a whirl, and
he recalled everything his oneiric
twin had done while the original
slept.
When police knocked on his door
with an arrest warrant for the mur-
der of Susan Timber, he was wait-
ing for them without caring about
the matter. He knew that, although
he was likely to spend the rest of
his life in jail, he would never be
there altogether.
In the end, as he usually said, life
is a dream…
S
APRIL 2012 -
SEXY X2
MAGAZINE -
47