I. RED

1. RECESS

There was a weirdo in our classroom. He would never speak unless the teacher asked him a

question directly. We nicknamed him “Doh”. Doh would never come outside to play during recess

because he preferred to stay in all by himself. He was able to stare at the blackboard for twenty

minutes without batting an eyelid. His favourite subject was Introduction to Design, which was

basically Arts & Crafts.

One day, without telling anyone, he grabbed different colour Play-Doh, cut in into small pieces and

gave it a worm shape appearance. Then, he introduced the pieces in his nostrils, one by one.

The very same day, before recess, my friends and I asked him to come out with us. He said it wasn't

possible because his brain was made out of plasticine and this is why he didn't behave like the rest

of the children. We didn't believe a word and we burst into laughter. Suddenly, the “Play-doh-brain

kid” pulled out a piece of his brain from his right nostril and said: Look, colours reflect thoughts.

This red bit is for love, like blood and hearts.

We thought that was very cheesy and random, but the “Play-doh-brain kid” continued as he pulled

out some more stuff: Look, I get yellow when something makes me laugh. The sun is yellow, and

jokes, and pee, and the yellow press. All our attention was devoted to him. We started laughing

when we heard the words “sun” and “pee” making sense in the same utterance. Doh continued:

whenever I'm being creative, whenever I let my imagination run free... I get white plasticine. And

the “Play-doh-brain kid” extracted a piece of that colour. We were astonished to find out that this

kid really had a Play-doh brain. Then, he picked a small piece, which was dark-green almost khaki

in colour, from the left nostril. One of us asked what this dark-green almost khaki piece meant, to

what the “Play-doh-brain kid” answered that it was the consequence of a variety of thoughts, fear,

dirty jokes or whatever came up to his mind. However, he confessed that what he had picked from

his nose was not exactly plasticine. We were so grossed out at this that we declared him a lost cause.

As we went down the stairs without him we decided that the “Play-doh-brain kid” was a very long

nickname for that loser, so we shortened it to “Play-doh brain”, then “Play-doh”, and by the time we

arrived to the playground he would forever be “Doh”. Thus, many years later and thanks to him,

someone could label the succeeding short stories by colour, following his plasticine colour scheme.

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2. JUKEBOX

I followed the instructions carefully. I took a deep breath of air before opening the door. I was

nervous. The access was restricted to a dozen, special people and I pretended to be one of them. The

place became silent the moment I opened the door. It gave me the chills. It was then that I

remembered the voice of whom had given me the instructions and had prepared me for days: “Show

confidence and choose the fourth stool to the left”. That exactly what I did. Then I lifted my head

and looked at everyone in the same way they looked at me, mimicking their facial expression. I

swept the place. The customers returned to their duties. Drinks and liquor covered an a wall-size

mirror.