Love, Lies & Red Eyes | ONC 2023 (Complete)

Chapter Two | Lidia

I've had the same dream since I was a child.

Always the same. I see him standing next to a light post, the whole street covered in a foggy film like an old picture kept in an album too long. I move toward him and he never gets any closer.

No matter how hard I try. No matter how much my muscles burn and my lungs scream.

He remains ever out of reach.

Lately it's been getting worse. He actually gets farther away as I run toward him. Maybe I should try running away instead.

I guess it's like a metaphor for me and men, you know? Always out of reach, especially when I'm trying to run toward them. It doesn't take a genius to figure that one out. No dream interpretation degree necessary.

Yesterday, something changed. I saw that man again, but this time it happened while I was supposed to be awake. The technical term for seeing things that aren't there while one is awake is hallucinations. And having them was a pretty good sign I need more sleep, but a girl only has so much time in her day.

And I have a job to get to, so I get up and get dressed and head off to work, hoping that the half night of sleep I just got will be enough to stave off any more hallucinations.

I step out of the door of my apartment. It's only three blocks from campus and filled with university students almost all the time. Well, the university students, Sra. Oliviera, and me.

I like walking, and this gives me that chance. The other professors have questioned my sanity once or twice, but when you keep to yourself like I do, it doesn't much matter where you reside, so long as it has what you need.

And my apartment has everything a girl could hope for, including proximity to absolutely everything I could ever want for or need.

It's perfection. And my proposal on research into cadejo culture is in full swing now, with interviews underway and more surveys being sent out daily.

There is the minor hiccup of the time limit for finding actionable data, but I'm sure we'll get there. I just need to work harder.

The air shifts when I step onto campus, like I'm in a different town or a different time. The university and the city that surround it have always felt like this. Like they are completely separate; like the university is an enclave of a separate nation merely inconveniently placed in the center of town. No matter what anyone tries, the two will not meld. They will not become one.

Despite this little fact, or perhaps because of it, the university is the fuel of this city. Without it, no one has a job. We all know it. Many of us hate it, but we all know it.

I must admit that I don't mind it all that much, but I'm a university dweller, so I acknowledge my bias. Having moved here to start my masters all those years ago, I've integrated as well as anyone could expect me to. I have a fine life. I get on well.

I've been here since the very first cadejo research question became a reality, and I'll still be here when I finally finish my groundbreaking research on cadejos.

I can feel it.

Finally managing to cross the courtyard filled with students, I push through the door of the anthropology building and take a deep breath. This is home.

But something's off. No one will meet my eyes and everyone's chattering with their friends, ignoring everyone else. Which might be normal in some groups, but these are the kind of people who assign you a food to bring to the faculty dinner so 'no one gets accidentally left out' and make it almost impossible to say no.