Twilight's Flash Fiction / Relatos cortos crepusculares

Seres azules -Abuelo, cuéntame un cuento. -Ya es muy tarde para que estés despierto y además eres muy mayor. Duérmete. -Por favor, por favor. Me dormiré muy rápido escuchando tu cuento. Por favor.  -Está bien. ¿Qué tipo de cuento quieres que te cuente? -Estoy pensando en el de los seres azules. -Ya sabes que te cuento el mismo cuento muchas veces, pero siempre cambio un poco la historia y sobre todo el final. -¡Vale! ¡vale! -Vamos allá. -Érase una vez, en lo más recóndito del bosque profundo, vivían unos seres fantásticos, azules. Habían conseguido dominar el arte de la comunicación telepática, y entre todos ellos se extendían unos filamentos invisibles que los mantenían unidos. Cuando nacía un nuevo ser, después de que su progenitor lo expulsara por la boca, los filamentos empezaban a salir de su cuerpo. Primero lentamente y de forma muy  tenue, solo visible para los seres azules, y luego, después de alcanzar a todos y cada uno de estos seres, los filament...

Estaba sentado en la terraza de una cafetería leyendo tranquilamente el periódico y tenía la sensación de que alguien me estaba observando. Alcé la vista tratando de descubrir al ladrón de imágenes pero no pude sorprender a nadie mirándome. Sin embargo la sensación persistía y me hacía sentir incómodo. Al cabo de un rato me levanté y abandoné la terraza. Me dirigía a casa cuando un joven con gafas oscuras y un gorro de lana se interpuso en mi camino. -¿Es usted el profesor Newmann? Su voz sonaba metálica, como la emitida por un dispositivo de síntesis de voz. -¿Quién es usted? ¿Qué quiere? -Hemos secuestrado a su hija. Si la quiere volver a ver tiene que venir conmigo. Me quedé petrificado. No podía reaccionar. Sofía era lo único que tenía en el mundo y no podía imaginar lo que estaría sufriendo en esos momentos. -¿Qué le han hecho a mi hija? ¿Dónde la tienen? -No haga preguntas y acompáñeme. No tenemos tiempo que perder. Un coche de gran cilindrada, con los cristales...

Me encantan las patatas fritas. Siempre que puedo y me lo permite mi salud, como patatas y huevos fritos. El otro día estaba friendo patatas y disfrutaba imaginando cómo sabrían, y en un descuido, una de ellas, no sé cómo, saltó sobre mi mano derecha y me quemé. ¡Qué hija de satanás! Grité. La miré con odio y tras un instante me di cuenta de lo que ocurría. Me había enfadado con una patata, con algo que carece de intención, y pensé: Paco, todo lo que experimentas es tú. Tu enfado eres tú….¿existe algo realmente que esté fuera de ti? Ni la patata se entera de nada ni mi reacción va más allá de mí mismo, se trata siempre de un diálogo conmigo mismo. Y luego pensé: Además del caso de la patata, ¿no ocurre igual cuando interactúo con alguien? Cuando alguien me habla…¿no son mis prejuicios, mis ideas, mis tradiciones, mis convencimientos los que no me dejan escuchar….siempre es un diálogo conmigo mismo….y después de eso me pregunto ¿hay alguien ahí afuera?

Abandonado en una esquina, el fajo de billetes no sabía qué hacer. Su dueño, sin darse cuenta, lo había sacado del bolsillo y justo allí se había quedado, esperando, muy preocupado pensando en su dueño. Pasaron los minutos, las horas, y nadie venía a recogerlo.  A la mañana siguiente, muy temprano, un niño se acercó peligrosamente pero ¡ay!, alguien lo llamó y el niño se alejó del paquete. El pobre paquete no había podido dormir en toda la noche. De repente oyó un gran estruendo, ¡una silla de ruedas motorizada se acercaba a toda velocidad! ¡uy! …su conductor no reparó en él, y la rueda casi lo destroza. Por fin, pudo ver a lo lejos como su propietario se acercaba corriendo y sudoroso. Después de haber pasado toda la noche a la intemperie y de haber salido indemne de la curiosidad del niño y de la veloz silla de ruedas, ¡ahí estaba su salvador! Pero…¡sintió a suela de un zapato que lo pisaba! Y alguien se dirigió a su dueño diciendo: -¡Oiga! ¿Dónde cree que va? ¿Pretende ...

The magic in things (6) The cyborg girl came over and kissed me on the cheek. Gideon's comments and laughter flooded my mind. -This girl has fallen in love with you. Be careful. LOL. Without knowing how, I gave her another kiss and she smiled at me again. That was incredible. This machine was not supposed to have feelings, and yet it made me feel affection for her. The human factor manifests itself even if the situation does not make sense. When the girl was gone, I commented to Gideon: -It is impressive how cybernetics and robotics have evolved. I think I was completely right when I decided to dedicate my efforts to learning artificial intelligence. -I am sure that future humanity will appreciate your decision. You are going to achieve great things. We left the restaurant and left the hotel. The campus was very close, but we still had to hire an air taxi to take us to my appointment with Dr. Yoda. We entered the Rectorate building and at reception they told us where the professor...

The Magic in Things (5) Although we could talk and listen to each other as it had always been done, we had the chance of channeling communication telepathically if at some point it was more comfortable to do so. A simple glance between the interlocutors was making it possible to change the communication support, substituting sound by telepathic waves. Gideon looked at me and telepathically told me that a girl was approaching our table and that she looked a lot like the cyborg secretary who had rejected me. Indeed, before I could turn around, a very suggestive female voice spoke my name: "Richard ...." I got up to greet that monument to technology and said: "Miss, how can I help you." "The director of the artificial intelligence program wishes to speak with you. He is Mr. Yoda." As the girl spoke to me, Gideon's telepathic whispers kept occupying my mind: "It's really beautiful. She has nothing to envy those of flesh and blood… .Smile at her, ...

The Magic in Things (4) Gideon, the young man I met at the hotel, asked me about these huge storms and, above all, he wanted to know the effects of fine Martian dust, which was frequently blown away by winds of more than 100 kilometers per hour, and which affected the important to the health of aliens from Earth. I confess that I did not want to be very explicit about it because the effects on human beings, which I had even seen in members of my own family, were devastating. So I told him that I hardly had news on the subject and that it affected only people with health problems causing serious disorders in them but that there had been very few cases. Those disorders that I did not want to name were dementia and a strange inflammation of the lymph nodes that destroyed the immune system and that days later caused death. We were in the dining room of the hotel. Tasting the exquisite delicacies served by cyborgs barely allowed one to focus on anything other than the palate and the aromas...

The Magic in Things (3) Before starting my trip to Earth, the set of satellites around Mars that control the climatic conditions of the planet have predicted a great storm. When the plans for the colonization of Mars began, a group of experts including climatologists, geologists, planetologists and volcanologists, led by Mark Phillips, proposed innovative solutions for the planet itself to provide the necessary atmosphere that would allow its habitability. However, the formation of storms is very frequent and it is necessary to be prepared due to the outside with which they are manifested. There are currently three colonies. In one of them, business complexes were installed that control the extraction of materials from the Martian soil. The second colony is responsible for the government and administration of the entire Martian system. The third colony is occupied by families who have lived there for a long time and who occasionally travel to Earth. This is the largest colony, with ab...

The Magic in Things (2) The admissions rate at Stanford University was one percent at the time and I was very proud to be a member of that privileged club of chosen to learn in their classrooms. My trip from Mars to Stanford was very comfortable. The means of passenger transport, far from resembling the aircraft of the 21st century, have evolved in their shape, size and means of propulsion. Applying the technique of space-time curvature of the theory of relativity and making use of space-time micro-loops, points of space very far apart, they can practically touch thanks to the curvature of space. Thus, the space-time properties contribute to making the trips more comfortable and faster. At the hotel where I was staying, I met a really peculiar sophomore. Although practically all known languages, such as Spanish, English, German or French had ceased to exist, and communication was established with a logical-computational system, he was an expert not only speaking and writing those lang...

The Magic in Things I am in the epilogue of my life. Not that it was anything special, but fundamentally I feel lucky. I have been lucky enough to share my life with an extraordinary woman, I have enjoyed four exceptional children, and I have worked, or rather, I have had the opportunity to dedicate my life to what I was passionate about since I was a child and that still awakens my eldest today interest. I remember the day I came to Stanford to enroll in artificial intelligence studies. It couldn't be more shocking. I was greeted by a very nice and friendly girl who invited me to fill in the documentation corresponding to the registration of the first year. When I tried to flirt with her, she very kindly responded with some splendid pumpkins, and given my natural success with girls, it left me somewhat disappointed. My surprise was that when I met other students at the University, I learned that the beautiful and friendly girl was actually a robot, one of the recent results of th...