The Static

A young woman on the phone screen struts down the cold and busy Los Angeles sidewalk, the skirt of her beige cashmere coat flowing around her as her shiny black heels tap the ground. Each controlled step exudes elegance, grace, and a rare sense of controlled self-assurance. She continues walking through the crowded palm-tree-lined streets, under narrow scaffolding; a stylish vision crossing between dozens of obscure businesses, pedestrians, and cars in congested roads. She walks as if the city were her runway, as if everyone around her were merely her audience. And they are. Her eyes shrink in sincerity as she grins radiantly behind her. She flips her long, voluminous black hair, gathering it in her slender knuckles and letting it pour down her back in curling waves.

Her father, watching the screen, remembers all the cherished afternoon walks that have become boxes in the digital landscape of her social media profile. Visual treats for her three hundred thousand or so followers, who will become further entranced (or even enraged) as they watch the zoomed-in reactions of awestruck men next to their scornful wives, who twist their lips while hiding enviously behind cheap sunglasses and thin frizzy hair. Her father, Francisco, remembers each and every walk because he was the one who recorded them.

He chuckles and shakes his head before passing his daughter her phone back across a round table overflowing with desserts. Why put the attention on others? He thinks to himself. He watches his daughter lean back into the cozy wicker chair, smiling quietly to herself as she scrolls through her phone. Why care what they think about you, why show it this way? The truth is, there are a lot of things Francisco doesn't really get about his twenty-three year old daughter. Ah wait, no, twenty-five? Time froze for two years when the pandemic hit, you can't blame him for forgetting her age. What he does understand is that she's at the age where she's finally becoming sure of who she is.

Once upon a time, she was her own biggest hater, as they say. Today she's her own biggest fan. And now half her audience hates her, the other half wants to be her, and the other half doesn't know que chingados quieren, what the hell they want. Clearly, math isn't his strength, unlike his daughter. It doesn't make sense why she chose to be an influencer and waste her impressive math skills, or why she chose to go to that expensive beauty school when she probably could've earned scholarships to attend a research school.

A troubled look suddenly passes over Mercedes's face, and she stops scrolling to stare closer at her screen. Francisco stabs a fork into his chocolate drizzled, frosted strawberry adorned crepe, waiting for her to clue him in on what's bothering her. Instead, Mercedes scoffs at something on the phone and runs her fingers down her hair– she always seems to do this when she's nervous. Francisco glances around the cafe while munching, surprised at how many solitary young people there are working behind laptops. Even the ones seated in pairs might as well be trapped in secluded bubbles where silent conversations pass between person and device, and not person to person.

"Are you going to eat your crepes or are you just gonna let them sit there?" He finally asks. He's only in the city for three days before he has to get back on the road.

"Hm?" Mercedes's head raises in acknowledgement before her dark eyes do. "Oh yeah, I just had to reply to some comments really quick."

"While we're having breakfast?"

Mercedes tilts her head and pouts, as if she were looking at a clueless little kid and not the fifty-year old man that is her father. "Dad, don't take it personal. If I reply to comments often then the algorithm will push my content out to more people, and if I create more engagement then I get more money! Three hundred K is just the start," she says, scrolling on her phone again. "If I reply to at least fifty comments before the twenty-four hours after I post pass then I could boost my viewer percentages and ideally I'll have grown by another ten K in the next three or so months. Essentially, it's important."