The Country of November

By Jorge Jaramillo Villarruel

Organ thieves, ravens robbers, planets infested with fungus, capitalist vampires, voodoo gods turned into rockstars, witches celebrating Halloween with special dinners, passing loves, loves that remain through time, mad scientists and much more is what you will find in these pages.

The country of November brings together 21 frantic stories of fantasy, science fiction, terror and the bizarre, from the winner of the René Avilés Fabila 2014 award, Jorge Jaramillo Villarruel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jorge Jaramillo Villarruel
• Release date: Oct 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9781547534753

Book preview

Mammal

The creature appeared suddenly, leaving the forest to cross the road. Although the driver's reflections were almost perfect, the speed at which everything happened, did not allow him to dodge the blow and throw the creature about fifteen meters ahead. Damn manual mode, the driver lamented silently.

The blow instantly activated the autopilot, and the vehicle stopped at once; the driver's head hit the steering wheel sharply. The preservation systems were activated to avoid severe damage to the driver. The safety of the vehicle was secondary.

His central neural system was disconnected for a few minutes. It was restarted with a quick scan. Everything seemed fine, no damage to regret, but it would take a deep scan later, as soon as he was home.

The cold voice of the vehicle let the driver know he had run over a living thing and killed it. The driver could not decide between going home and going out to investigate. Leaving was against all the logic on which his existence was based on, but that same logic had led him, and not only him, to develop a vast curiosity for the things of the world.

He got out of the vehicle and discovered that his victim was an unknown mammal. He searched the data bank but there were no records of the strange creature. Physically, it looked like the driver, except for the organic structure instead of a metal and silicone base. Like other creatures, it had hair on its body, particularly on the head and genital area, but most of it was covered only by light hair.

A partial Xray of his bone structure revealed to the driver that the creature had walked upright, just like him, and a simple tomography, that his brain was large and complex, more than that of any known mammal. He shared certain characteristics with the great extinct apes, such as orangutans and bonobos, which were studied to this day, but it was evident that he had outstripped them in intelligence.

The driver recorded in his temporary memory what he had discovered. But he felt that if he referred to their encounter, everyone would think that the blow had damaged his central neural system, It would be more convenient to return with a group of researchers to attest to the finding. He returned to the vehicle, started the autopilot and told him to take him home. When he left, the driver thought he saw reflected in the crystalline sphere that was his vehicle, more of these creatures coming out of the forest and taking the fallen. He looked back. Was it a hostile look that was directed by one of those beasts? Maybe it would be better to erase cache and forget about it. With a voice command, he started cleaning his temporary memory.

The beginning of the end

To Theodore Sturgeon, who never decided to write this story

Now all he had to do was convince himself that he was free and could do whatever he wanted with his life. The separation had to be the best thing that had happened in his entire married life. He could start on that trip to the exotic Styx and Nix that he always wanted to do, and which he left as an unfulfilled project. Now he was determined, he would ask for his vacation next month, he would not postpone it any longer.

The divorce proceedings, although quite cumbersome due to their bureaucratic nature, were not as hard as it had been to realize that love was over. Or not, not love. Only marriage. Because he still loved her, and maybe she loved him too. This despite having a lover. But perhaps those who affirmed from the rooftops the death of love, a concept of the 21st century, or even more ancient, were right.

After that weekend that Nora spent with her parents on Mars - or has she gone elsewhere? - Kline went to look for her at Central Eteronef. With the passing of days, he would mentally return to that moment, he knew that there was the key to everything.

When he arrived at the station, he saw her chatting animatedly with a young stranger. When she discovered him in the crowd, she said something to the young man directly in his ear and he disappeared quickly into the sea of people. Nora greeted Kline with a kiss on the mouth, the last. A kiss that at that moment seemed routine, barely real. One to which he would return in his dreams and thoughts, hoping to capture him