Illusory flash, H2O, adrenaline passion and later… Death in every way
Jorge Picazo Carrillo
I suddenly woke up naked, lying on the pavement of an avenue! I had no notion of my identity, and my existence of memory arose only five seconds ago upon the sudden awakening. What I lived before was just a dream, without distinguishing the real from the unreal. The truth is that what my eyes saw next, amazed my incredulous pupils.
Flashing and blinding colours, shadows, and confused shapes were moving against the light, chiaroscuro that visually made it difficult to define the limits of their contours and silhouettes. Then the strange visual dance was joined by a faint sound… Murmur… Cadence… Then it was all magic! Figures belonging to the realm of the fantastic appeared parading next to me! A range of spectacular characters, amazingly impossible, illogical beings, surpassing the effect of any dream or hallucinogenic drug, manifested themselves wrapped in layers of translucent fluorescence, while a mist of lurid, almost cloying colours surrounded us. What looked like streaks of high-speed neon streaked through the air, leaving distorted trails. The scene in its magnitude was like eye candy.
More creatures of madness followed; unimaginable for healthy minds, unspeakable. Even though some of these rarities were asymmetrical, their physical structures provoked the laws of gravity, the same that in the end ended up succumbing to said entities. Later I saw an entity that led the legion and that impacted me the most: “a Sun Being”, of which I couldn´t observe details. Behind came another whose physical appearance reminded me of plasma. One more had rain of greenish binary sequence (machine language) descending from its skin, likewise, a fourth being in which it was observed that his external constitution was labyrinthine. And finally, an enigmatic, reptilian, and repulsive reddish being marched at my side, possessing an extensive tail ending in a sting, like that of scorpions, that was being hoisted in synchrony to the beats of sinister kettledrums.
Even through the immense abstract landscape and the rhythm were similar to Samba, I was able to distinguish certain “recognizable” characters from the popular imagination intermingled with those of the strange circus-like universe: Chinese dragons, harlequin buffoons, demons, alebrijes1, goblins, garotas2, jugglers, nahuales3 in full transformation, humanoids with majestic antlers, macabre clowns, huehues4 and an endless number of multi-coloured carnival masks with bombastic attire; rich, high and colourful plum crowns, porcelain faces with fine features and mocking expressions. They were accompanied by vehicles decorated with infernal paraphernalia, perhaps inspired by hell itself! All that surrealism passed by my side, apparently without noticing me, some dancing, others vomiting fire. Excited, ecstatic! Such a scene could not be real!
At a certain moment of lucidity and putting my excitement aside – to which I had to make a superhuman effort – I tried to investigate my location, to find out where I was. I feared I was in the streets of the underworld or had sleep paralysis. But no, what I expected to be surprising wasn’t. I just found a simple, common, dark alley, worthy of any popular nightlife neighbourhood, without signs or references. It could be any street on the planet.
When I returned my attention to the “chimerical world”, the rhythm of the drums, and the merriment of the fascinating agglomeration that made an impression on me, I was infected. I felt my body vibrate and the scene was no longer indifferent to me. An instant later, two indefinable beings −to whom not even the most daring and imaginative fantasy writers could describe− extended their hands to me in a full invitation to revelry. I stretched out my arms and clung to their limbs, they did the rest lifting me, then I felt their irresistible and almost addictive beat. I couldn’t help but dance with them.
After several uninterrupted days of exotic dancing and unforgettable experiences, in which the Moon and the Sun appeared alternately, I stopped to question myself and analyse what carnival I found myself in. Although honestly, I had already concluded that I was experiencing a dreamlike state (since no one can spend whole days at a party without feeling tired, hungry, thirsty, cold, hot or sleepy). But no, this was so real! More real than life itself!
I was wondering if it was in Brazil (because of its gigantic, spectacular and incomparable carnival), but this was beyond it! I wondered if it would be the one in Venice, however, “and the gondolas? Its Grand canal? And the other characters of Commedia dell’arte? Maybe the Veracruz carnival?” However, despite having some similarities, this one was different, more colourful and wonderful! “Tlaxcala? Puebla?” Because of the huehues. Yet the imbalance continued, “and the presence of those characters not characteristic of that area”?
This is how inexplicable, real and unique is the concept that gave me back the crystal of life. Then I understood that the reflection of these beings is nothing more than the optical illusion of flat, concave and convex mirrors of ourselves.
Translator´s notes:
1 Brightly coloured Mexican sculptures of mystical creatures.
2 Women, dressed in flashy costumes that we can observe dancing in carnivals.
3 A magical creature, a shape-shifter.
4 A masked person, representing a Spaniard or a conqueror in a mocking way. They can be observed in the famous carnival in Puebla, Mexico.
Jorge Picazo Carrillo-(Mexico) he is a lover of literature. Has published his texts in various online literary spaces.
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