• A man, sitting in the hill, the sun setting behind his back, watches the town sitting down in the plains. A man, moonlight upon his face, watches the shadows of the people wandering the streets, in the roofs, sitting in their front steps. As the sun sets, he thinks he feels the breathing of the townsfolk, the movement in the air.

    He turns his back to the city and he sees the last ray of sunlight seeping through the leaves. He sits by the fire, and everyone around him is quiet. They can hear the sound of the animals, the sound of the trees, and the man, among all others, thinks he hears the sound of a girl that runs to her room and turns off the last lights of the town. He turns, and everyone sleeps.

    Except the man. He closes his eyes and wishes to be asleep, somewhere else, down in the plains, in the city. He opens them and is still at the heat of the fire, sitting in the hill, with the moonlight upon his back. He raises his head and sees the same sky, starless, the same he has seen all his life. Closes his eyes and wishes to be asleep, somewhere else, where the stars shine brightly. Opens them, and he is still in front of the same gray, in front of the same clouds that darken the night.

    The man tries to remember the last time he saw the night sky, with the stars shining clearly, each one with its own name, its own story. The only thing that comes to his mind are his childhood stories, those stories that lightened his dark room, while he heard steps going up the hill. Everyone sleeps below the black sky, everyone except the man. He sits by the light of the fire, and sees the child that, with curiosity, closes into the bright sound of the camp. The kid, after analyzing the situation, decides to sit next to the stranger, as if he was waiting for an answer.


    The voice of the kid ringed from the silence. “What are you doing?”

    The man, surprised, turns his head away from the light.
    -I watch the fire.
    - And… What do you see in the fire?
    -Nothing.
    -Nothing? I see a house, and a city, and some kids, and some dogs. Nothing?
    -Nothing…

    The man, confused, can’t sleep, like every other night. He closes his eyes and wishes to be asleep, somewhere else, far away. He opens his eyes, and the only thing he sees is an empty fire, without houses, without cities. The night passes with the man looking for an image in the fire, among the wood, among the movement of the flame. Finally he raises his head, and sees the same darkened morning sky that always finds him awake, always with his eyes open, always wishing.

    A man, sitting in the hill, with the moon setting behind his back, watches what’s left of the town, of the houses, the ashes and the smoke, all in flames. A man, with the sunlight upon his forehead and the firelight upon his face, watches the agonizing remains of a city ablaze. He watches the pure, white light of the night being replaced by the warm, red glow of fire, and everything is silent. He watches the clouds being replaced by the fumes of the fire that he and his mates have fed with the houses, and everything is silent.

    He closes his eyes and wishes he was somewhere else, up in the hill again, far away, again by the warm of the campfire. But he’s by the heat of red and violent flames, dark flames. He opens his eyes, remembers the kid, and again watches the new fire that he has before him. But the man, despite the sound of the houses crackling through the blaze, despite the girl that last night snuffed the final light of a city now in flames, despite everything, the man sees nothing.