“Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled

And paced upon the mountains overhead

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.”

-W.B. Yeats

The traffic in New York city was as clogged as it always seemed to be when one is tasked with traveling there.

For every person who has lived there, seeing the traffic pile on and on as the line of seemingly endless Automobiles surround your own, became an every day test of patience and endurance.

For Hidalgo Vera, This was his moment of bliss. He would have his windows up, the car’s air conditioner on at full power, and his lively Merengue music playing in the background as he sang along to a tune he had heard thousands of times before.

“Baile las calles, de noche… Baile las calles, de dia.”

He had recently turned seventy-two years young, and was looking forward to moving to Kissimmee Florida, where he had recently bought a small, beautifully decorated two bedroom bungalow for him and his wife of 42 years. He’d worked at the furniture store for almost 15 years at this point, scrounging and saving what he could to get him and his wife the house they had always dreamed of living in.

Today was supposed to be his last day.

His last delivery was a simple wicker chair, to be delivered to someone named “Hilda.” He found it odd that no last name was given, and the address was even odder still. They only provided him the apartment building number and a phone number, to call when he had arrived.

As he pulled in to the closest parking spot he could find, he pulled out his phone and began to dial the number he was given to call. As he marked the last number on his cell phone, he heard a knock on his side window. “Ye… yes?” he responded as he put his window down.

The last sound he heard before he blacked out was a man saying “This better be him…”

When he woke up, He was bound to the same wicker chair he was supposed to deliver earlier, and was surrounded by darkness from everywhere but above his head, where a single light bulb shined down on him.

“Mr. Vera,” a low growling voice began, “we know who you are, what you do, where you live and everyone in your family. Do what we tell you and nothing will happen to any of them. Do it EXACTLY how we tell you to do it, and nothing will happen to you either.”

“What?” Hidalgo yelled into the darkness.

“Mr. Vera, before you moved to the United States, you worked as a hired gun for a pretty infamous drug lord, and we know that even now, you’re still very handy with a gun. You also look pretty harmless in your old age, so we know you can infiltrate where we need you to.”

“Sure, but..” Hidalgo began before he was interrupted.

“Someone needs to be eliminated as soon as possible. She may seem a quiet, timid little thing, but inside her there’s a hellfire burning. We need to ‘extinguish’ this fire as soon as possible.”

“Why not…” Hidalgo began as he attempted to loosen his straps, “Why not do it yourselves, you fucking cowards?

The voice laughed as it began to explain: “Well… to be honest, we’ve tried. Seems that she can’t be killed by anyone but her own kind. We’ve attempted to shoot, poison and even run the bitch over with a car. Every damn attempt, fruitless. She isn’t... human. Our leader figured out a plan though. It requires someone like you. He promises your cooperation will be rewarded tenfold.”

As the voice continued to monologue, the man nimbly released the straps that bound him, picked up the wicker chair, and flung it in the direction of where he had been hearing the voice. He heard a thud like noise, then something fall and shatter to the ground.

Another light flickered on, revealing a speaker that Hidalgo had just broke.

“Mr. Vera,” The voice continued on another speaker located overhead, “you continue to impress us. It took you less then five minutes to free yourself. But we’re not stupid enough to be in the same room with you before we know that we have your full cooperation.”

Hidalgo looked around & noticed that he was in fact in a padded room with only a secured door to exit from. “What do you expect me to do? If she is not human, how do you expect me to kill her?”

“well,” the voice answered, “You leave that to us. The first thing you need to do is to infiltrate your target. Have them gain your trust. Further instruction will be given to you if and when we reach that part of the plan.”

Hidalgo then scoffed at them. “Do you think you people are the first to try and intimidate me into doing something? I am retired for a reason. In my line of work, retirement is not only a luxury, it is an IMPOSSIBILITY. I had to kill my way out. You don’t scare me, I…”

His speech was interrupted by the speaker flickering on overhead, echoing the sounds of a woman moaning in pain, crying and asking to see her husband Hidalgo.

“You… MONSTERS!” Hidalgo yelled to the speaker.

“Do what we say, and she will be fine. Don’t, and well… she won’t.”

Suddenly the door made a sound as if it were unlocking itself.

Then it opened automatically.

“Go,” The voice echoed ominously, “Get her to think of you as a father figure. Then await further instruction.”

“who am I even looking for?” Hidalgo asked heatedly.

“You’ll be seeing her soon,” the voice echoed monotonously as four orderlies with masks ran into the room and held down a confused & disheveled Hidalgo as they poked him with a needle, “we just got word that her cousin ordered her some furniture from YOUR store. Don’t forget, infiltrate and then wait for our call.”

...And just like that, Hidalgo was out like a light again.

As Hidalgo hazily reawakened, he saw that he was back in his truck, in the exact spot where he had delivered a wicker chair to a ‘Hilda’ earlier, receipt of purchase signed by the purchaser.

Then his cell phone rang. It was His boss, Mauricio.

“Where the hell have you been old man?” Mauricio yelled through the phone Hidalgo had just answered, “We gotta delivery for ya! Mattresses. Get your ass over here!”

The delivery was to a young mother name Maritza, A timid soul who’s only words during their entire ride together was her gratitude and apologies for putting him through the trouble of letting them ride with him. He did chat it up with his other passenger though, an extroverted soul named Sierra who waxed poetic on everything going on in recent times: politics, music, the latest news about the Dominican Republic, etc.

When Hidalgo finished that delivery, he was almost hurt to see them go. He felt his heart warm to those kind, beautiful women. They had reminded him of his own beautiful wife and daughters, so enthusiastic and excited for the new opportunities life continuously brought them.

It was too bad he had to kill them.