“The lemon arrived”

“The lemon arrived, the lemon.”

This is the street cry that I have been listening to for several days. It comes from that outside world abandoned by the majority while being occupied by an invisible enemy. That owns the bodies, controls them. You don’t know who is possessed because they are capable of behaving like the human they inhabit.

No one knows where it is. Maybe that lemon seller carries the invader. I suspect and lookout, but I don’t let them see me. 

That thing is very cunning, although it has the weakness to show itself when it accumulates more power: its host is no longer the same, and it shows. 

I am tempted by those lemons. But, the doubt is stronger than the temptation. Maybe he won’t attack me this time I would pretend that nothing is wrong, that I don’t suspect. 

When the first ones arrived, they took over prominent spokesmen who made us believe that everything was well. 

The citrus offer is no longer heard. I wonder if he will come back. I look out the window.

There he is. He has been watching me. The fabric of which the curtain is made gives me partially away, he must be observing my silhouette. I do not move. Maybe he just peeks in and doesn’t really look at me. I think if I don’t move for a while, it’ll think I’m a mannequin or something else.

It seems that we are playing statues and I worry, the two glasses of water that I drank an hour ago are having an effect on me, why should I have had so much?

Minutes pass. No sane person would stare so long inside a house without the intention of doing something else. I wait for a little longer; I hope he or it doesn’t notice my trembling to hold myself back. Why do we tremble like this?

At last, he is gone.

I ran out to the bathroom and felt a relief higher than seeing him leave. My suspicions grew more.

It is morning, and I count my food reserves. I need to go out for provisions. The lemon seller passes by later, so I hurry to get back and forth before running the risk of bumping into him. Surely I will walk among several like him without knowing it. They mix among us.

We are all suspects. I hardly ever go out, and if I do, I avoid doing it again for two weeks. Scientists say it is the period they need to take over, and only then can I make sure that I am still free to continue in my voluntary prison, and not free, but under their control.

Little by little, we have been falling. However, we are still the majority. At least we think so.

My shoulders ache at bearing the weight of vegetables, fruits, flours, stews, and so many things that I needed. Around the corner of my block, just before reaching the door of the house … The lemon seller awaits.

He hindered the door, and he was not alone. Three more accompanied him. A recycler, a vendor of tamales, and another who did not carry anything for sale.

I put down one of the bags and took out a glass ketchup container.

“Get away from the door, or you won’t know if blood or ketchup is coming out from your head. Why this ambush?”

“You are the last one missing from this neighborhood,” said the lemon seller.

While we were talking, several neighbors came out the door of their house. They only acted as silent witnesses. Everyone saw me and nodded with a half-smile.

I insisted threateningly, but they did not move. I did not understand what the purpose of their actions, or rather inactions was. To be around, to annoy. 

For at least a quarter of an hour, I argued with the lemon seller. He gave me no reason. Nor did he get out of my way. And suddenly, out of the blue … “

“Our work is already done,” said the lemon seller.

He stepped away from the door. Still too close for my liking, but I wanted to go inside and feel safe. So, I rushed open with the key without turning my back on them.

Within a few days, I began to feel strange. Nothing that had happened to me before was like what I was going through. It was like I had the flu with additional symptoms. Cyclically, I ran out of air, and it seemed that I was carrying tons per square centimeter of my body.

After a sleepless night, at dawn, I fell exhausted.

When I opened my eyes, I felt better than ever. Only there was something out of place.

Looking at myself in the mirror, I knew it:  A mocking half-smile and the hand waving to my reflection.