Sand in the Air
Author's Note: This selection is from an attempt at a longer version of Bartering Nola that never quite materialized. In addition to molding it into a full-length novel, I also tried to tie it back into the larger Vinestead Universe. Obrego, for example, has an Ayudante biochip, which has been featured in Vinestead books. And this was before the MZ got renamed MX. For whatever reason, the project ultimately failed, but I still enjoy revisiting these old glimpses of what could have been.
Obrego awoke to the sound of metal on metal, a harsh clanging that evoked flashbacks of the MZ. His pulse ramped from 65 to 120 before his Ayudante chip locked it down. In the electronically induced calm, he remembered where he was, how far from the MZ he had traveled since the days of his military youth.
The slag of the MZ receded, replaced by a comfortable queen size bed set beneath the lazily spinning blades of a ceiling fan. He was home, on the second floor of a house he had built himself, for the most part. It was small compared to most houses in Pickaxe, but Obrego had billeted in much worse. Compared to the pine box he would have been occupying had he stayed in Mexico, it was a palace.
Metal scraped against evercrete; something was being dragged around the lot behind his house.
To the outside observer, recall was instant, but in Obrego’s head, he saw the totality of the last sixteen years play out in his head. The highlights, exploding like fireworks from his periphery, reminded him of his wife, Ronnie, and of their son, Caison. The boy, now fifteen, was likely the cause of the ruckus, a theory Obrego confirmed by sliding out of bed and walking to the window.
The sun was up, though a haze hung on Pickaxe like a blurry filter. Another crisp summer morning had dawned without Obrego; he couldn’t remember the last time he’d even seen the sunrise.
