Two Eyes Cenote oscura

he studies safiya’s face for interpretation. while he likes hearing her pretty voice, the words mean nothing. he shrugs, motioning to the passing shadows behind them as if to say this was their work. 

a memory hits him like volcanic brick lodged from hillside. 

tomillo; a sweet-faced, lovely boy from the emerald hills of silao. soto recalled the boy was an enchanting singer. there was something sonorous in the way his words fell like layered honey on soto’s longing ears. soto found him endearing, and so, kept him around longer than most of his pets. 

tomillo fell earnestly and hard for green.  soto remembers the boy’s first draw, the euphoric high that limned his silvery eyes. the years may pass, but the faces of his victims remain in perfect clarity held in his mind’s eye.

tomillo chased that appetite to his end, which was neither gentle nor kind. first, he came scrabbling with bitter meats for payment. then he came around with nothing at all. the brothers allowed him some grace, but when it came time to pay up, tomillo offered them nothing. 

first, soto stole tomillo’s song. then, he’d stolen his tongue. and finally, when the boy had nothing left to give, soto took his life. 

soto returned from his reprieve with a faint smile. it was tomillo’s aching song, in a stolen language, that filled the halls now — and for all his gruff exterior, soto’s crooning song carried deep melody to it. 

estrela, estrela,
como ser assim,
tão so, tão so,
e nunca sofrer,

brilhar, brilhar,
quase sem querer,
deixar, deixar, 
ser o que se é,

borrowed song and borrowed tongue — soto sits up midcroon, listening as his voice carried down the halls. would his captor know he sang for his daughter? perhaps it would incite him to something rash. 

he strums the hard stone with a claw, gaze fixing on the lovely safiya. mi dulce lluvia de verana, his pet name for the stunning vision that was safiya — voy a follarle los sesos a tu padre mientras miras. his voice still singsong, his eyes dancing with a light that could be misconstrued as geniality.