June

She said her name was June. She was on the other side of the fence made of iron grills. I stood on the other side of the fence - the inside side. June was in a blue dress "pastoras" would wear as costume. On her head was a blue lace hat that was tied to her chin with a blue ribbon. In a short while she played the castanets that had been installed in her hands. The sound the castanets made was familiar. It sounded like Jingle Bells. She started to dance - almost a tap dance. Her shoes, however, did not make the tap sound with the hardened mud under her feet. She faked the tap sound with that coming from the castanets. She danced and continued to make the sound from the castanets until I told her to stop because the sound had started to hurt my inner ears. I gave her coins. She thanked me, then she left. I watched her leave. She never looked back. As she walked away, she had left shoe marks that were impressed on the street made of hardened mud. But the shoe marks had seemed to be those of someone who were walking toward me. And shoe marks were indeed moving toward me. I turned around, run as fast as I could, and woke up.

(October 3, 2009)