Translated by Ana Hudson and the author
The girl in black wants me to tell her the time. She has been heaving sighs as someone who has waited and waited, and she wants me to tell her the time, which numbers the clock-hands cover on the watch face in that precise suspended moment.
Three sighs later, a young man approaches and kisses the coffee taste in her lips. He guesses he is late. It is written all over her face.
The young man looks uneasily at me. He pops the time question.
“Nine twenty nine”, I hear her butting in.
He takes her hand, multiplying apologies. Courage failed me to strike nine thirty two.