LatinosUSA

You could smell him

from the entrance. Always the same. He’d enter,

wearing the same faded jeans

and brown shirt

Pass by the tables

salute and shake hands with those he knew,

usually the whole place

pull out a bill from his

back pocket

Put it into one of the slot machines

Choose a simple game with fruit symbols

and activate the autoplay feature

then look for a drinking buddy

He rarely picked me

but that evening he did

Sat down across from me and lit

a cigarette

and went on talking

«I’m pretty damn positive,» he said.

«There’s worms in my

gut.»

«How d’ you know?» I asked

He grabbed his shirt and

stretched it

away from his chest. «Look at me. I’m

scrawny as a putrid toothpick. But my

gut stays round and swollen. Plus, I’m always

hungry even after I eat. Even

after I drink

beer. Stomach feels ever empty,

ever grinding

on naked gears. It’s hell, man.

Seriously, don’t

get married.»

«What?»

«What?»

«What was that about marriage? I thought

you were telling me about

your gut worms.»

Nodding, he grabbed a paper

napkin and

wiped at a beer stain on

the front

of his shirt. «Marriage is like gut worms, alright.

It consumes you

from the inside and eats away

more than half of everything you try

to invest in yourself. Also,

you can’t possibly get rid of it without causing

serious damage to your body. And

dignity.»

«Oh. Um, are you married?» I looked at his

fingers. Saw no ring. Only

a lot of dirt rimming his cracked nails

He watched the

slot machine

on autoplay as he replied, «I was engaged, yes.

Healthiest times of my life. My love

introduced me to

one of those blender machines. We put

in carrots and apples, pears,

prunes, oranges, and a lot of ginger. Now

that shit was healthy. But

you see, a healthy lifestyle only works

if you’re healthy to begin with. It doesn’t

work with people like me. I prefer

investing the money

into the fruits of slot machines, not

blender machines.

My love, she didn’t like that. It’s…

probably what determined

her to add bugs to my smoothies.»

«Damn, what kind of bugs?»

«Eh, you know, all that can be found in

one’s garden. Grasshoppers,

ants, cockroaches, butterflies, centipedes,

ladybugs, snails, spiders, rat shit. The usual.»

«And you drank them every time? How

long did it

take you to figure out what

she did?»

He shrugged. «Eight years? Ten?»

«I see. And, did you have any big wins

at the slot machines in those

years?»

He shifted on his chair to reach

with his hand and scratch

his ass before answering. «Well, nah. But

I definitely will tonight. Just

watch.»

We watched the slot machine

going on autoplay

Watched it like a very entertaining show

on TV

There was something to it,

something almost magical. It wasn’t so

much in the slot machine itself

as it was in

the eye of the gambler. You could tell

he was the type of man

to get drunk and then mug you for

gambling money

and you’d hate him for it only as much

as you’d hate the rain for getting your clothes

wet or the bee for stinging you

He was a natural element of

the town’s ecosystem

I still miss

the bastard

Unlike the creditors who came after

him a couple of

nights later