Free What Men Don't Understand by Nuria Solano

The inner garden

    Three o'clock. Again, sleeping was impossible for Inma. During August, the unbearable humid heat of Barcelona make her skin dripping, and from tossing and turning in bed the sticky sheets would get rolled around her body, suffocating her. She had not sleep. There is nothing worse than spending the holidays without leaving home. Doing nothing. An hour earlier, bored to solve sudokus, though still uneasy, she had turned off the light thinking that sleep would come, in vain. The heat was not the real cause of insomnia.
    In the dark, with the whisper of a useless fan, she kept spinning about the matter: Hugo had broken up with her a week ago after a two years relationship. Inma still couldn't understand why. Everything seemed to be going so well... Two months ago, when she turned thirty, she thought she was in the peak of life. With the love of her life. How wrong she was!
    The holidays they had arranged together were canceled, and she was now spending her days off in the worst possible way, between mourning and anguish. Sibi, the lady upstairs, who also lived alone, had behaved beautifully despite being almost a stranger. Inma didn't not know what she would have done without her. The rest of her friends had left on vacation, and though they called her to worry, it was not like having them there to mourn over their shoulders.
    She got out of bed and went to the small balcony of her room, instead of facing the street, it looked out upon a spacious interior zone. Below there was a garden with shrubs and grass, several poplars, and a beautiful fir with long branches, one of which came up almost to her window. The janitor kept it looking good, pruning, and watering daily. This was what she liked most about the flat she had moved in a month ago. Appart from not having the street noises, she had the illusion of nature in the middle of the city. And the flat got the same sunlight as one facing the street. Although, if she would have been superstitious she'd have thought that her misfortunes were to blame to the new place. Actually, for one reason or the other, she hadn't slept well there. Upon arrival, that strange allergy, that still was being diagnosed, made her exhausted. And in the office, tearful from sneezing and sniffle, she'd perform less. Her appearance also had suffered. But the last straw was that Hugo had left her.
    She looked around at the other balconies and windows. It seemed that everyone was gone on vacation. Maybe Sibi and she were the only ones left in the building. How depressing! She went into the living room and turned the television on. A nature documentary was showing a snake devouring a bunny. Disgusted, she quickly changed the channel. There was a scramble of ads and teleshopping. Penis extenders, moisturizers made with snail slobber, pythonesses who insulted anyones inteligence. People were crazy! She snorted and turned off the TV. Calm was then absolute. A silence that hovered in the air, like a muffled beep. Dopey, Inma went back to bed.

    Next morning things didn't seem better. The sound of running water woke her up. Benito, the janitor was watering the garden, punctually at eight o'clock. It was not an unpleasant noise, but woke her up when she finally had managed to collect a couple of hours of sleep. She leaned over the balcony and, to locate the janitor, she had to look at the tap of the eastern wall, and then follow with her eyes the path of the green and yellow hose, crawling through the vegetation to ending up in Benito's hands, who held it firmly. The image suggested a man strangling a snake with his bare hands. Perhaps that idea made her think she saw a small snake in the bushes, so she peered. But there was nothing; she had imagined it. She was still half asleep, and it was difficult to see things in the shaded area of the garden.
    “How is it going in the flat? Are you now completely installed?
    The janitor questions frightened her. She was really sleepy.
    “Very well, thank