Bird's-Eye View
Chapter One
The bottle flies banging against the window screens wake me up. Not
yet dawn and they're already out there, lying in wait, drawn by the
ripe human odors wafting out of the open windows. Big green flies,
the kind that when they bite you, you feel the sting for days, the
welts rise and itch like crazy and neither calamine lotion nor
rubbing alcohol nor the direct application of urine from a virgin
can soothe the pain.
Although my windows are open, it already feels hot and muggy-in a
couple of hours the heat will be of blast furnace intensity,
particularly for the unfortunate souls, like me, who don't have
air-conditioning. It's a bitch living around here without artificial
cooling; those bereft of it suffer mightily from June until October.
Air-conditioning in this region is like television-who doesn't own a
TV? The answer is, very poor folk; struggling students in tomblike
dorm rooms; alternate life-stylers who eschew modern conveniences
altogether; and a handful of fall-through-the-cracks people, like
me.
Along with the flies there is a swarm of mosquitoes, buzzing like a
ripsaw. Cousins in kind, in intention. ... read full excerpt from Bird's-Eye View ebook
