SHORT STORY THE BALLPEN
THE BALLPEN
Automatic traslation from the original story in Spanish. Not checked manually
Barbara was blocked. Since her best-seller “Green’s Luminosities”, she had not managed to write anything else.
And it was the ballpen’s fault. That object that her sister had given her one summer night, to be exact, on June 23, a magical night.
She noticed it when she began to write that same night. The pen seemed to come to life, it wrote by itself. It created characters and situations. It filled pages and pages like never before.
In truth, she had never been a great writer, nor did she even have imagination, but that night she thought she would become someone in the world of writing.
While she thinks about all this, she looks again at the note that they have sent her.
In Central Park it begins to dawn and the first light of day illuminates that letter:
“We will only return the pen to you if in exchange you give us your giant poodle”
Barbara looked at how “Urtain” slept. The animal was 10 years old; it had been given to her by her father and then by her sister, it was what she loved the most.
She has not been able to write again since her pen was stolen. She still has not been able to understand how someone could be aware of the magic of that object, nor does she understand who could love “Urtain”
Barbara approaches the dog and says:
—Hey, lazybones! We are leaving. My suitcase is already packed and your things are wrapped.
She puts the leash on it and the two of them go down in the elevator.
The taxi she called is waiting for them at the door. The taxi driver helps her put the suitcase away. He looks at her in the rear-view mirror and asks her: —Are you the writer?
—Not at all. I am a biologist. —she answers.
—Where are we going? —the man asks, upset.
—To the airport.
—On vacation?
—No. I am moving to Australia. —As she answers, she sees a man at her door, with a pen in his hand. She watches him as he starts the taxi.
—Are you feeling, okay? She looks dizzy, —the taxi driver asks.
—Not at all. I feel better than ever. She strokes Urtain and Central Park begins to disappear…
The Ballpen – Short stories series – Copyright ©Montserrat Valls and Juan Genovés