Page 55 of Andalusia Dogs
“I think this is a discussion you three need to have,” said Jago with an air of resignation. “Alex, I’ll be outside. Walk with me when you’re done, please.”
“Excuse me? I think we all deserve to know why you only wanted this to play one night.”
Jago shrugged. “You already know why. Because you’ll never repeat what we just experienced. Every night is just one night.”
“So, you’re saying we’ve set ourselves up to crash and burn?”
“I said no such thing.” Without elaborating further, Jago left them alone in the dark, silent theatre.
“He’s right,” said Joanna. “I don’t know what just happened, Alex. It was like Vis said, sharing a mind.”
“What did he do to us?” asked Vicente.
Alex shook his head, scratching at his palms. “Whatever it was, we need it. Maybe that’s why we’ll never repeat it. He’s doing a runner.”
“Darling, that doesn’t make sense,” Joanna observed. “He’s waiting for you outside.You,specifically. That doesn’t sound like a runner to me.”
Alex had to admit this was not the act of someone leaving them high and dry. In fact, besides the odd insistence that they perform only one night, Jago’s every action and word had only brought out the best from their show.
Joanna stepped closer, kissing his cheek. “Even if he has some strange ideas, it’s bad manners to keep a cute boy with your best interests at heart waiting.”
“Vis?”
Vicente shrugged, caught between a damning opinion of Jago and an inability to deny their strongest performance yet. Before he could second-guess himself, Alex threw his arms around each of them, grabbed his knapsack and hurried out to meet Jago.
CHAPTER TEN
The line for San Ginés chocolatery resembled the bread queues they’d seen in photos of Russia or Romania, snaking around the corner, along the Pasadizo.
“Bloody hell,” Alex said. “I hope you aren’t proposing we get churros?”
“We can if you like. Don’t worry, you’re just seeing San Ginés from another time. Once the magick passes through you, it’s impossible to tell what residual effects might linger. In my case, visions of the past or the future were common. It stands to reason you might see the same.”
Alex stared at the river of people in casual fashions that would have stood out for all the wrong reasons among the fashionistas that haunted Chueca. “It’s sure as fuck not the Franco years.”
Jago gripped his hand, then smiled as this simple act appeared to allow him to share Alex’s vision. “You’re right. Twenty-first century, I’d say.”
Alex’s gaze fell on a young woman holding one of the many illuminated rectangular discs that anyone in line not talking to their friends seemed to be holding. She tapped at it with bored indifference, pushing her thumb along the glowing surface as if in search of something. “What on Earth are they doing?”
“On the other hand,” Jago said, guiding him down the hill toward the palace district. “Too much detail about the future can ruin one’s connection to the present. It seems like we’re both getting ahead of ourselves.”
“You’re telling me they’re from the future? That there are people from the future, here in 1980, queuing for churros at San—”
“I said you’reseeingpeople from the future. What you’re seeing is perfectly real, it just hasn’t happened yet. Seeing snatches of it here and there are fine. Just keep in mind, it can come from the past too. I saw a dinosaur once. That was a trauma.”
“Jago…” Alex gritted his teeth. “How?”
“What happened in the theatre? Surely you didn’t think that was just a three-way experience?”
Alex’s mind drifted to the image of Vis spooning Joanna, Jago spooning him, and the human cross they’d formed.
“Exactly.”
“You’re reading my mind now?” Alex let go of Jago’s hand, quickly looking over his shoulder to check if anyone had seen.
“Not unless you share it with me. What sort of busybody do you take me for? I told you, I’m a witch. I’m sure it won’t surprise you to learn what happened in the theatre stems from that power. I’m more specifically trained as an Entropist. My powers lie in the manipulation of time, fate, and the paths it might take. And after you tap into those powers? You might see visions of tourists from the future, or great beasts or monuments lost to time.” Jago shrugged. “Or you might see nothing at all. They’re echoes of magick, nothing more. They won’t hurt you. They can’teven see you. Just don’t go looking for them. Your brain won’t like being tested in that way.”
Alex tried to gather his words as they rounded the block, and the lights the Royal Palace emerged. The largest palace in the world still in use, it gave the city one final burst of light and grandeur before the darkness of the monarchy’s private hunting grounds, now a park for all to enjoy, stretched out for several miles below the ridge. “That’s not how it felt, though. It was more primal and willful than that, like Joanna and I were in this weird mental conversation.”
