3:AM Magazine

As Atlanta grew, we grew. We spent less time overturning stones in creeks, in search of salamanders, snakes and crawfish. We became interested in smoking cigarettes and pornography, hobbies we still associated with creeks and adjacent woods. Their wildness was our cover. We shoplifted at shopping centers that were sprouting everywhere, at drugstores and supermarkets. We retreated to the creeksides with our loot. Later, we would do the same with marijuana or LSD, which we could not steal since it was not sold in stores. The animals ceased to be of interest. We didn’t look for them any longer, and so we didn’t see them, unless it was fleetingly in a partially self-suggested hallucination. We only noticed the creek waters grew more and more orange. The stones became unhealthily fuzzy. The algae bloomed. We tripped, laughed, and made pilgrimages to Hess at 4 a.m. for Camel Lights. Once we had cars, we abandoned the creeks and the animals definitively.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marcelo Ballve was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1975. He grew up in Atlanta, Mexico City, and Caracas. He worked as an AP correspondent in Brazil and the Caribbean. In 2004, he moved back to Buenos Aires. His reading is digested and often regurgitated at his website, Sancho’s Panza.

First published in 3:AM Magazine: Thursday, November 29th, 2007.