Octavio’s Story

The tour guide Octavio has a half-inch brown rectangle of decay between his two front teeth. Besides that, a nose delicately brutal, a mouth sensual yet squarish, and bitumen clumps for eyes. His jet-black brushy hair is tamed into a blocky cut.

“My dear,” he says, to all the tourists, but Janet feels especially singled out. “My dear, pay attention please.”

She re-crosses her legs self-consciously, wanting to keep his attention on herself despite the tender divots on her thighs about which she is also deeply self-conscious since her husband Ash regularly tells her to lay off him about exercise and get on herself to lay off the holier-than-thou-ness. He says the divots are proof that working out isn’t working out.