Sebas. 1. The Reunion.

I returned to my city after everything. It had been a perfect ghosting. After 15 years of cohabitation. Not a single note of farewell, the closets empty of her clothes, CDs, and books, and some details of our joint trips. I took time, of course, to assimilate it. A few months of telephone attempts and the mobile phone had no signal. I didn't understand it. I went crazy. Friends were silent, they recommended I turn the page and I became desperate asking for answers they didn't want to give me. A complete disappointment.

In the city, starting over, resuming what I had renounced, a great void. I was a shadow. The psychological help I sought only helped me survive.

Until one day, by chance, I ran into Sebas. A former student from over 20 years ago who recognized me and greeted me friendly. He was in his 30s and many, I was already over 50. I remembered him because he was the only one I had to physically discipline as a teacher and regretted it instantly. I didn't know how to control him. He was one of those who bothered and bothered because he didn't realize anything and didn't want to realize it. He barely knew how to write a whole sentence at 13 years old, already in the last years of schooling.

Now he was a man with a beer belly and some gray hair, but friendly, conversational, and kind. His friendly attitude surprised me. He invited me to have a drink. We talked. I didn't want to reveal my sad situation. I told some lies. On the contrary, he summarized his life in a few words. He had been married to a South American woman who tricked him into getting papers and quickly abandoned him. He had a simple but more or less stable job. He took care of his elderly mother, lived with her. And he went to a roadside bar near his place to have sex with prostitutes every weekend. But it was very expensive, he complained.

When we had already paid the bill, smiling, without giving it importance, he said:

- Are you a faggot, aren't you? Teacher?

Before my surprise and silence, I didn't know what to say, he added:

- Don't worry. I've fucked many faggots, and I like it.