Piñata by Leopoldo Gout

Author:Leopoldo Gout
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group

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Carmen finished out the rest of the day at the office, collecting all the emails and documentation that she had on the Abbey Hotel project and compiling them for her replacement. She was fully aware and even understanding of how office and corporate politics functioned, knowing that there really wasn’t any option but to send someone new to head up the project on the ground after the scaffolding failure, but all the same, she still resented Sam. More so, she found herself resenting the idea of some gringo going to Mexico to help demolish an old abbey. It felt like one symbol of colonization being refurbished by the new colonizers. At least when she was involved it felt closer to a process of reclaiming the land, now it was just the work of a Spanish man being replaced by an American man giving instructions.

All the same, she cc’d Sam on everything he needed to know and sent him a file of all the permits he’d have to reference once he got down there. She also gave him a list of personnel on site with a “rude, pockets money” note next to Joaquín’s name. Carmen left a little bit after everyone else, hanging back to avoid sharing the elevator with anyone who might ask about Mexico as well as to catch a train home that might have an open seat.

Casting a premature twilight on the city, the sun had hidden behind the Midtown buildings by the time Carmen stepped onto a train at Grand Central. Sliding onto a seat, she got herself comfortable for the long commute back up to Newburgh and was shocked by how few people were on a train so close to rush hour. It almost seemed unfair that she’d been charged for a peak-traffic ticket. The train rolled out of the station and of the city and, as they rumbled farther from Manhattan and the sun sank lower in the sky, the few people in Carmen’s train car slowly trickled out their respective stations until it was just Carmen with a car all to herself.

She stared out the window at the sun setting over the other side of the Hudson River as the sky grew increasingly dark. Watching the tree line drift by, she suddenly saw movement, something flickering at the edge of the orange sky and the dark silhouette of the trees. Her eyes widened before squinting into the bright sun, trying to catch another glimpse of what she had seen. A gap in the trees appeared where a power line ran from the river’s edge into the west and that’s where she saw the buzzing static of a black cloud. Her breath caught in her throat as she briefly glimpsed the undulating black swarm outlined by the sun before disappearing again into the dark shadow of the tree line, which now became blurred and fuzzy.

The train rocked around a bend and an embankment blocked her view across the water. Among the sounds of rumbling machinery, she heard clattering seashells coming from the front of the train car.

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