The Cracks in the Labyrinth

Chapter 6 (Part 1)

It was pouring outside.

The relentless murmur of the heavy rain against the window would have been soothing if not for the vicious thunder cracking in the sky.

I've never understood why people are afraid of a little rumbling in the clouds when it's lightning that kills you, Adam thought, although he was not quite awake. Despite the downpour, it was hot enough for him to take off his sweatshirt. His fingers touched the four wristwatches strapped tight to his forearm. He was tempted to reconfigure one of them to check out the time but changed his mind right away. The countdown is sacred.

Adam clicked his tongue. It was his swollen hand and not the storm outside what woke him. He fumbled about in the dark for his phone. Where is it? I always leave it on my—His nightstand wasn't there either. At that point, he realized this was not his apartment.

"Dammit."

How long had he been asleep? His hands groped on the floor for the phone until he found it. The time was three o'clock in the morning.

Although Adam flicked the switch on the wall closest to him, the light bulb hanging from the ceiling remained lifeless. His brows drew together as he remembered what Lili had told him earlier. Then, he tried his luck with the lamp covered by the strip of red tulle. Nothing. Thunder bellowed again. There's no power in the apartment. Maybe there's a blackout throughout Caracas.

That was a recurring joke in his country, "If it's raining cats and dogs ... Blackout. If there's a drought ... Blackout. The worst part is that whenever there's a 'black' out, we can count on the police to shoot him."

His plan to stay vigilant all night had failed, but Adam was glad that this mistake hadn't gotten him killed. I'm going to wait, make sure no one else is awake before searching the apartment. Wary of his surroundings, he tried to read House of Leaves on his phone to pass the time. After being stuck in the same paragraph for a few minutes, it became apparent this was a useless effort.

The next half hour dragged until something startled him: a faint, rhythmic sound came from the bedroom, like someone tapping on a hard surface. The idea of Lili sleepwalking, her limp body pressed against the closed door, moving her fingers like a spider on the wood, made him feel uneasy.

Instead of risking falling asleep again, Adam listened to some music. At least my phone has enough battery left. His favorite songs, those forever tied to his high school years, were a time machine. That's what he needed, some tunes to escape from exhaustion on a highway to the past.

Wearing a single earpiece (he had to hear what was happening around him), Adam enjoyed a bit of Judas Priest and Aerosmith, and then some of Guns n' Roses and Nirvana's greatest hits.

Adam knew those bands had hated each other's guts, and still, there was nothing better to him than alternating their songs on his old mixtapes and burnt CDs. That is why he was sure that Lithium would play right after November Rain since that was the usual order of those songs in his playlists. However, after Slash's final guitar chords, it wasn't Kurt Cobain who followed.

"Adam..."

"Bianca?"

Adam jerked, then sat up to look at his phone. Was it an incoming call? Had he dialed his little sister's phone number by accident?

"Adam? Hello?" Bianca sighed. "You never pick up the phone. It's annoying, you know? Besides, I'm not too fond of your voicemail message. I feel like I'm talking to a copy of you. Anyways ... Call me, dumb dumb.

The audio recording ended, and Adam felt like crying. He didn't know why.

For a moment, Adam yearned to go back to his grandma's house in Mérida, not as it was now, but as it had been back then when he was in school. He missed those afternoons when they would watch soap operas (that he secretly liked), waiting for the few cartoons the TV stations broadcast. He and Bianca would devour anything from Tiny Toon Adventures to Dragon Ball. They loved everything, regardless of the quality, because what choice did they have? There were only three TV stations available, and finding a cartoon to watch was a miracle.

That was the first time Adam realized that he lived in a third-world country. Back in the mid-nineties, children were already talking of a mythical American channel called Cartoon Network, where you could watch animated programming every minute of every hour! Was that even possible? It sounded too good to be true. Bianca and he, however, were doomed to live on the scraps of Venevisión and Radio Caracas. There was a better world outside of Venezuela, and Adam wanted to be part of it.

A smile of sadness trembled on his lips. He felt sorry for his brother. Adam couldn't deny that Bianca and their cousins managed to have a great childhood. Better than Dario's, who was born much later than the rest of them and had the misfortune of being a son of The Fifth Republic.

When I was a kid, children hungered for cartoons. Now they just hunger.

What he wouldn't give to go back to those afternoons when his sole concern was finishing homework and staying out of trouble during the hours his grandmother took care of them until their parents came back from work. Oh yes! And to drink that late-afternoon glass of Toddy. He could almost taste it.

It tasted like innocence.

"Stop it!"

Tears stung in his eyes.

You're not homesick, Adam. You're grieving. That Venezuela is dead. Stop longing for a corpse, he told himself. You're better than this! Keep your eyes on the prize: getting your brother and sister out of here.

Even after making that decision, his thumb took him from the music player app to a video of his high school graduation.

Adam watched the recording and regretted it immediately.

"What is this?" he said as lightning flared across the dark clouds on the horizon.

To be continued...

This has been the hardest chapter so far. Not sure why. 

Anyways, I hope it's an easy read and that you enjoy it.