I remember reading this piece of writing at High School. It was during a mock exam for Spanish Language. Everybody was expecting an endless, boring article about the misuse of Vs and Bs but instead we found this surprisingly touching short story and a minute after, all the girls sighted and looked up with dreamy eyes, as if they had just felt the emotions written on the paper.
Is one of those fleeting moments that somehow stay in your memory long after you leave those halls. It was written and published in 2001 which means we already read it years afterwards and now, 11 years later, it feels as current as if it was written yesterday.
After last night's charade down memory lane with Britney, Black Street Boys and 50 cent, I though it was worth remembering, for old times' sake.
Llamada
MANUEL VICENT 8 DIC 2002
No había nadie en el bar salvo ellos dos, una pareja de
adolescentes sentados frente a frente, bebiendo inocentes refrescos de naranja.
En la mesa entre los vasos habían dejado abiertos los teléfonos móviles, que
sonaban a veces y entonces él o ella se ponía a charlar alegremente con un ser
ajeno e invisible mientras el otro se quedaba hierático. El chico estaba muy
enamorado de la chica, pero era incapaz de manifestarle su pasión. Sólo se
atrevía a mirarla con intensidad a los ojos y ella ya había captado las
turbulencias del corazón de su amigo y también le amaba, pero no podía ayudarle
en nada, debido a su extremada timidez. Hablaban de cosas anodinas, sin
comprometerse en absoluto. Las palabras iban del uno al otro directamente a
través de la vibración del aire sobre el mármol de la mesa. El chico necesitaba
declararle su amor y la chica esperaba que lo hiciera ya de una vez, un sueño
imposible, porque entre ellos había una barrera psicológica insalvable.
Cualquier gesto o inflexión de voz, al estar sus rostros tan cerca, podía
delatar un sentimiento íntimo y eso les llenaba de terror. Había media luz en
el bar, el hilo musical vertía una melodía propicia y los labios de los
enamorados permanecían a una mínima distancia infranqueable. El corazón de los
adolescentes tiene hoy un compartimento más. Se compone de dos ventrículos, de
dos aurículas y de un teléfono móvil, que también bombea sangre. De pronto,
este joven tímido y enamorado tuvo una inspiración. Usó el móvil para hablar
con la chica que tenía delante sin dejar de mirarla profundamente a los ojos.
Cuando sonó la llamada la chica descolgó. La pareja comenzó a hablarse de forma
descarnada como si fueran invisibles. Ninguno de los dos ignoraba que a través
de los móviles su voz se convertía en ondas electromagnéticas, viajaba al
espacio sideral y luego volvía para penetrar en el cerebro del otro.
Brutalmente desinhibido el chico le dijo la amaba. La chica le contestó que
todas las noches soñaba con él, pero sus expresiones de amor sin amarras tenían
dos vehículos: una voz recorría el aire sobre la mesa del bar por medio de la
vibración natural y sonaba terriblemente vulgar; la otra bajaba desde un
satélite de la estratosfera cargada de libertad e imaginación. "Te amo, te
amo"-le decía el chico. "Oigo dos voces a la vez, ¿a cuál de ellas
debo creer?"- preguntó ella. El chico le dijo que creyera en el amor que a
través de las ondas magnéticas le llegaba por la sangre hasta el corazón. 
There was
nobody in the bar except two of them, a teenage couple sitting face to face, drinking
innocent orange sodas. On the table between the glasses, they had left open their
mobile phones, which buzzed at times and then he or she started chatting
happily with someone else remote and invisible while the other remained
inscrutable . The boy was very much in love with the girl, but was unable to
express his passion. He only dared to look intently into her eyes and she had
already captured the turmoil in his friend's heart and loved him back, but
could not help him at all because of her extreme shyness . They talked about
ordinary things, without compromising at all. The words went from one to
another directly through the vibration of air on the marble table. The boy
needed to declare his love and the girl expected it once and for all, an
impossible dream because between them there was an insurmountable psychological barrier. Any
gesture or inflection, being their faces so close, could reveal an intimate
feeling, and that filled them with terror. The bar was half lit, the music propitious
and the lover’s lips remained at a minimum impassable distance. The hearts of
teens today have one more compartment. It consists of two ventricles and two
atria of a mobile phone, which also pumps blood. Suddenly this young, shy and
enamoured boy had an inspiration. He used the phone to talk to the girl in
front of him without taking his eyes off her. When it rang the girl picked up
the call. The couple began to speak with complete lack of inhibition, as if they
were invisible. Both were aware that through the mobiles, their voices became
electromagnetic waves traveling into space and then back to penetrate the brain
of the other. Brutally uninhibited the boy said he loved her. The girl replied
that every night she dreamed of him, but his expression of loosened love had
two vehicles: one voice travelled
through the air over the table in the bar by natural vibration and sounded terribly vulgar
, the other came down from a stratospheric satellite charged with freedom and
imagination . “I love you, I love you," the boy said. "I hear two
voices at once, which of them should I believe?” - She asked. The boy told her
to believe in the love which through the magnetic waves reached her through the
blood and then to her heart .
XOXO
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