CHAPTER 16

“Okay. I am glad you chose loyalty. It fits you well. And you seem such a good player. Fair play, then?”, Sanders asks with a hopeful smile. If we weren’t in this mess, I’d think his face is the face of a reliable and kind man. But the truth is that I don’t and that he’s not.

And another truth is that I don’t like to see any of the girls exposing this way. But I also know that we don’t really have a choice. And I am so sorry. I shouldn’t have let them go with me. I shouldn’t have done that.

“Carmen…”, I try to warn her, calmly. She doesn’t turn her head. She just blinks her eyelids once and I know that she heard me. And that she won’t change her mind. She’s brave, but maybe too stubborn.

“Look…”, Sanders says, showing her the palms of his hands and arching his eyebrows in a defeated expression, “…I know you’re tensed. Okay? I do know that. But I need you to be concentrated. I need you to focus on the game and, please, don’t listen what your friend Dante has to say”.

Carmen runs her tongue on her lips and flaps here eyelids like she’s trying to figure out if there is a trick between Sanders’ words. But there’s no trick. Everything is a huge joke. A fatal joke. And that man is deadly serious.

”The seas evaporated
Though it comes as no surprise
These clouds were seeing
Their explosions in the sky
It seems its written
But we cant read between the line…”

“You know, I am sorry you’re a lesbian. I wish Johnny had a girlfriend like you…”, Sanders murmurs and Carmen winces in disgust, throwing a rapid glance to the guy on the wheelchair. His knees are clasped together and his legs form an inverted V. His long, slender fingers tap onto the void like he’s playing an invisible piano. He is foaming at the mouth, again, and is disgusting.

“…I am sure he wouldn’t have ended that way…”, Sanders adds tilting his head towards his son. And Carmen makes that thing she seems to do every time she’s stressed up. She rubs the palm of her hand on the nape of her neck.