#OOTW2023

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THE FUTURE

by Helena Tornero (Spain/Catalonia) , translated by Helena Buffery

“When I was small, I used to have a bad dream. I dreamt it was raining so much that the world was sinking. The rain was so heavy it made the buildings disintegrate, and the woods, and the mountains.”

What do you know about the other?

About people who are different to you?

Have you listened to them? Have you looked them in the eye?

Have you looked them in the eye for more than five minutes?

The girl meets the foreign man. It might not have happened, but it happens. The foreign man is fleeing his past. The girl is escaping her future. The foreign man wants to go to Stockholm to meet someone, but there are problems. To do with bureaucracy. And borders. The elegant man is rehearsing a speech. The Swedish woman is talking about the future. The girl is angry, and she wants to make her father angry, too. She has just got her driving licence and just a few days before, the elegant man bought a new car. It might not have happened, but it happens. The girl takes a car that isn’t hers. The foreign man gets into a car that isn’t his. The elegant man rehearses a speech using the words of others. This whole story might not have happened, but it happens. It happened. It will happen. The minute the future arrives, it ceases to exist. Can we flee from something that does not yet exist? Does Stockholm syndrome exist?

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