Nicoguglielmetti Stories

Norma yawned, sat up among her jewels, and walked to the staircase that would take her to the rooms. On the plastic table, on a bandana she had used as a tablecloth, there was a card that was one of the 22 Major Arcana of Marseille. At the top, inscribed in red Roman numerals, was the number 18. Below, a violet and red moon emitted thick, pointed rays. Jana caught her breath and focused her mind on the details and symbolism. Under the rays, small drops of white, yellow, red, and green fell on two animals that looked like dogs and could be wolves, sticking their tongues out in thirst. Behind them, in the background, were two modest fortifications. The one on the left was yellow, the one on the right, white. Both had a red strip before the openings where the lookouts rested their weapons. One of the dogs was a timid light blue, and the other a shade that oscillated between the rosy color of piglets and snow white. They stepped on an intense green cord like the drops, and immediately after came a body of water that didn't seem like a river or a sea, but a crustacean appeared. In the center, with claws raised, was a lobster. Jana had gone along with Norma as a game, but she felt that what she was saying was addressing her. She had said that if that card appeared inverted, it meant lies, deception, hidden loves, conflicts with the maternal image, even cancer, and eating disorders like anorexia. If it appeared upright, it referred to ancestors, sea voyages, parties, past lives, reconciliation, and liberation from complex traumas. "Memory, it's the moon, dear, there's a whole world in it." When Jana decoded the message, she left the comfort of the house protected by air conditioning and decided to step into the January inferno.

The tip wasn't reliable enough for me to be there. Not because my presence was out of place among the regulars at Tropezón, as I had frequented the place for years, but because I couldn't believe Pulpo was using that dive as the center of his current operations. But there he was, and I had it out for him. Gutiérrez had warned me, an old dockworker who, after tearing his cruciate ligaments, spent his days driving a garbage truck. He got the tip from someone in the union: "Pulpo is back in the mud and hangs out at Club Unión." The bar in question wasn't a nightclub but the buffet of a civil association that in its heyday had been the cradle of great basketball players and was now about to mark two decades as a haven for drunks and gamblers gathered around a bocce court. I had left at the beginning of that decline, more precisely when the fire happened. That's how it was. I caught the first bus heading to the Valley and took off.

Romina, a naturalist from Stanford Bridge University, arrives in a small town in the province of Buenos Aires, on a quest to find the elusive Darwin Museum and investigate a theory from Darwin's famous voyage. However, her search for scientific truths is interrupted by the mystery of a missing woman that has thrown the town into chaos. The power is out, and the locals are on edge. Romina's inquiries lead her to Mrs Ansufatti, a member of one of the town's founding families. As Romina delves deeper into the mystery, she learns about the strange disappearance of the mechanic's wife and the suspicions that surround it. Despite the eerie atmosphere and the cryptic warnings from the townspeople, Romina is determined to uncover the secrets hidden in this remote area. Amidst the desolate dunes and treacherous tides, Romina's journey for knowledge becomes a race against time. Will she manage to find the museum and the evidence she seeks, or will she become the next victim of the town's dark history? "Darwin" is a gripping tale of mystery, danger, and the pursuit of truth, set against the haunting backdrop of a small, isolated town.