First prize:
“Sherry Tango”, originally by Ramón Camacho Rodríguez, resident in El Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz)
Sherry Tango
Staring into the cigarette smoke, sipping brandy in the café, it’s raining outside the windows and people are running to hide in any old dive. I’m not waiting for anyone, no one’s waiting for me, the coffee maker is beeping, steam rises, everything’s dripping, and even my soul is dripping inside me. Sitting at the table, I while away the cursed hours between drinks and puffs to distract myself from my pain, and the little dolls pass by with their pretty umbrellas, little flowers of love. Waiter, please! Serve me the strongest brandy, I want to erase the taste of those deathly kisses. And, lit with my cigarette, I blow out wisps of smoke, forgetting you, forgetting the world. It’s raining, raining… And here from the café, watching girls as beautiful as April roses, inhaling their scents, inspired by their “dri,” I savor another sherry brandy, compose a dandyish tango, and then I go to sleep. It’s raining, raining…
The Lone Ranger.
Second prize:
“Empty”, original by Alodía Villasante Marín, resident in Algeciras (Cádiz).
Empty
Upon waking, my glass of Brandy de Jerez It was empty.
I bit my lips to savor it one last time.
Besondere.
Third prize:
“The last word”, original by Victoriano Alcalde Azcune, resident in Irún (Gipuzkoa).
The last word
I pour myself a glass –the last one– of Brandy de JerezI sit on the sofa and wait for my killer. The front door opens, followed immediately by the quiet clatter of his footsteps climbing the stairs. It’s him.
I take a sip of brandy. I hear the jingle of keys in the lock. The door opens and his silhouette appears in the living room. Standing in front of me, he raises a pistol and begins to speak:
–Is the brandy good?
-Exquisite.
–Do you know who I am?
–You are the Writer.
–And you know why I’ve come, right?
–Yes. To kill me.
–I created you and gave you 150 words of life, not one more. You only have 34 words left until the end.
-I know.
–Have you thought about what your last words will be before I pull the trigger and the ink from your veins spills onto the floor?
-Yeah.
-AND?
–To be continued.
Walter Ego.
Non Plus Ultra Mention:
“Brief philosophical dictionary”, original by Sergio Estébanez Sáez, resident in Burgos.
Brief philosophical dictionary
Brandy de Jerez (Jerez, 19th century), Spanish philosopher, founder of the school that bears his name. His doctrine aspires to individual serenity through the slow and lucid enjoyment of both bodily and spiritual pleasures, and to collective growth through the exchange of opinions. The peculiarity of the school of Brandy de Jerez It is a tiered system of education: periodically, after completing their training, a predetermined proportion of students from the highest grade leave the school, being replaced by an identical number from the immediately preceding grade, and so on until they are replaced by new students in the first stage. This exchange of ideas and generations continually brings new nuances to the current of thought. His creed was frequently discussed by armchair philosophers and in café gatherings. He presented the holistic solution to the dilemma of the glass being half full or half empty..
Silenus the Night Watchman.
