Otro Día en "Paradiso" - Another Day in “Paradiso”

Bittersweet Sunday by Edil Rentas Casiano We knocked on the door after a drive of about two hours from Ponce. We looked forward to this visit with eagerness, though with some apprehension. We were going to see Ana, a dear friend of more than thirty-five years, who at sixty-five years of age has been living with Alzheimer’s for the last eight. Her daughter opened the door, eyes bright with joy as my wife and I stepped inside. We embraced in tight greetings, with the warmth that is so typically Puerto Rican, followed by an undercurrent of sadness. Inside, there she was — Ana, seated in a wheelchair. The same face, a little more aged. The same smile — as if she had never left. The woman with whom we used to share so many conversations, who taught our children to swim, who loved my wife and us as if we were family. But the eyes… missing the spark that made Ana, Ana. We greeted her, embraced her, but she remained still, smiling, without reaction, without affection. My wife said — I’m Lucy —...

  LA PLAYA DE MIS "SUEÑOS"  —  Edil Rentas Casiano Cuando el calor cedía y la brisa del mar traía olor a salitre y a mangle, yo montaba mi bicicleta y pedaleaba sin apuro hacia Playa Alegre, la playa de mi barrio. A veces lo hacía solo, otras con amigos o mis primos. Solía tomar un camino que me sabía de memoria. Entraba por la jueyera, el campo baldío donde solíamos atrapar cangrejos, pasando mi escuela, luego bajo la sombra de almendros, tamarindos, y uvas playeras, bordeando los llamados zarzillales que parecían custodiar el paso y las trampas para atrapar jueyes. Zigzagueaba hasta que el mar se asomaba entre claros de vegetación. Cada curva y lomo del estrecho y polvoriento camino, al costado de los secos lagos de evaporación de sal de la ahora desaparecida Ponce Salt Industries. El liviano polvo que cubría el camino creaba con la lluvia una cubierta de burbujas de polvo que explotaban bajo mis ruedas, pareciendo aplaudir la antesala de mi llegada a la playa. Cuando l...