Forget all the faces you meet
No heart is worth to risk
The pain. It's no use to cry
The shame. It's no use to hide

When I woke up, the sun wasn’t up yet. The green aura was only beginning to appear in the distance but it was enough to outline the buildings across the street. The snow had recovered everything.

I grunted. I had a hammering headache and my throat was hurting from being dry. Water. I tried to cough, to release my lungs. I felt stuffed and constricted. Even more so with Oracio’s arm wrapped around my chest.

He was rolled up behind me, profoundly asleep. His quiet snoring grazing the back of my neck, where his head was resting against. His second arm folded under his neck was pushing against the pillow. It was uncomfortable, certainly more for him than for me. Yet, I didn’t move.

From the stiffness of my entire body, I could tell that I hadn’t moved at all, once I had closed my eyes to sleep. We probably remained in the same position the entire night, and now all I wanted was to stretch my legs.

Despite the morning fogginess and how sketchy my mind had turned after smoking, I still had recollection of how the evening ended. I eventually gave in to the medicine and started falling asleep in his arms. His head on top of mine, he finished the joint, supporting me with his free hand. The snow storm was getting stronger. The weed was cracking lightly next to my ear. But none of us said a bloody word the whole time. Then he installed me in the bed, and I remembered how low the temperature had dropped. The pug in the bracero had just died out and I could see steam forming every time Oracio breathed. He put a knit hat on my head and a scarf around it to make sure I was perfectly insulated. After that, the picture became less clear. I do remember seeing him searching for extra cloths in the closet and setting another pug in fire. I have a vague memory of him sitting at the window, looking at his phone. And that’s about it. 

He probably lied down, some times after I passed out. Even without turning my head, I could tell he was just sleeping on top of the duvet, his arm holding on it to maintain it on my shoulder. Yet, this position kept us warmed throughout the night. 

He knows some tricks this guy. Good instinct. 

I sighed. The urge to cough was becoming more oppressing, but I really didn’t want to wake him up. He probably spent a good amount of time trying to fall asleep. Delicately, I lifted his arm and slid out of the bed, not without difficulty. That idiot had an amazing grip. But I eventually managed to free myself. He didn’t bulge an inch.

Oracio was wearing almost all his jackets on him and his shoes, letting his feet hanging out of the bed, certainly to not dirty it. From the shadow under his eyes, it was obvious he stayed up pretty late. 

I can’t leave him like that. I removed his shoes and wrapped him in the duvet like a burrito. It was easier than trying to slide him in. His snoring intensified. It was a bit cute.

I smiled. Then I rushed to the bathroom and muted my coughing in a towel, behind a closed door. After a good run, I felt like breathing again and taking care of my other urge. But to my displeasure, the toilets water were entirely frozen. And so was the reservoir. The night had been proactive in that matter.

This is usually when you can tell someone is a stupid teenager that likes to experiment stuff just for fun, even though they know deep down it is not going to work. I did my experiment and let me tell you, hot urine do not melt ice that well. It more likely splashes on it miserably and fumes. 

I looked at my creation, considering I just added up another problem to the list of things we had to take care of, and slowly started realizing this was going to become a serious sanitary problem, if the lockdown was here to last. And seeing how cold it was in that room, our chance to have the toilets running was as low as the temperature. I stepped out of the bathroom and laid silently against the table, observing Oracio sleeping.

This wasn’t the first time the city was cutting us the juice. Every time some shit was happening, authority would turned off the power for a bit, just to teach us to behave and remind us our place. But this time, I could tell it wouldn’t be just a call to order. The head of the police had been targeted and they were not going to let that pass. Outside, light was starting to take a golden touch. The sun was on its way.

While my companion in misery was getting his express beauty sleep, I changed the pug in the bracero and intended to prepare us something to drink. With a knife, I shivved repeatedly the water I saved in the bucket, now rock solid, to make pieces out of the ice.

“What’re you doin’?” mumbled Oracio as his head stuck out of my burrito duvet. His face was reflecting perfectly how little rest he had.

“Ice melts faster in small chunks” I replied, putting some in a saucepan above the bracero. “I was thirsty.” I continued my calm stabbing. Oracio sat on the bed and rubbed his face. “The toilets have turned to ice.” I told him as he got up. “And it is like a freezer in there.”

He still went in. “I’ll put some anti-freeze on it.”

“Just so you know, urine isn’t a good one.” I raised my voice, so he could hear me in the other room. His footsteps shifted and turned back.

He popped his head out of the threshold and looked at me, with judging eyes. “I know that!” That still didn’t stop him from trying. “Crap!”

“Told you…” I went back to my carving. I had a lot to do before getting to the bottom. Coming from the bathroom, I heard noises of Oracio opening the toilets reservoir and checking the pipes.

“We’ll have to melt that down before putting anything in it.” His voice reverberated against the bathroom tiles. “Should have done that yesterday…” He came back, blowing on his hands to warm them.

“Isn’t it simpler if we just not use the toilets from now on? What do you want to put in it anyway?”

“Road salt loaf. There are some in the basement. Next to the generator.” He started stretching his back then touched his feet. He was pretty flexible for someone his stature.

“The generator?” I asked while staring at the back of his neck, now leveling with his knees.

“The emergency solar generator.” He turned his head to me, his chin touching his pants. “You know, in case of something like today. It’ll start running when the sun will be fully up. But it isn’t very strong.”

I readjusted my glasses and planted strongly my blade in the crack I had been working on for the past minutes. “I thought it was illegal to have one.”

“We resist the best we can.” Oracio cracked his shoulders.

I kept quiet, my eyes riveted on the fissure. With a sharp twits, I finished to break the ice in half and detached it from the bucket edge.

“That’s some skill,” said Oracio sitting in front of me. “Looks like you’ve done it for years.”

“I lived in the street, for a while, remember?” I gave him a piece of ice to suck on. He took it, without adding a word, then offered me to trade so I could take a break.

In the saucepan, the water was lightly bubbling. The sound was soothing. Sitting against the window ledge, I observed Oracio stabbing the ice with good strength and rapidity. I am not the only one. I put the shard of ice in my mouth, to hydrate my sore throat, thinking of doing some instant soup when the water would be ready.

For a moment, I returned to my morning routine and lazily gazed at the street as the sun was showing in the horizon. Following the roofs lines, the shadows, going down to the doors, and the objects left behind when the crowd was forced back inside. I jolted when I noticed a bump on the surface of the snow. “Oracio” He responded with a distracted humming. “The man from yesterday… His body is still in the street.”

Oracio halted his crafting and joined my side, playing with the knife. From the corner of my eyes, I watched his fingers juggling the blade then paused when his eyes spotted the corpse under the snow. It wasn’t easy to see, as a good amount had fallen during the night. For a short moment, I even forgot about it, until I saw the strange irregularity on the ground and my memory unlocked all at once. Like a slap in the face. Oracio squinted. “Get your coat.”

I can’t really tell how or why, but I knew perfectly well what he wanted to do. Maybe he had read my thoughts again, maybe he felt I was about to suggest something dangerous. Or maybe it had been in his mind all night long. Maybe when I was asleep, he looked at the body disappeared under the white coat and felt sorry for it.

None of us exchanged a word. We just dressed up and left the apartment, knowing what needed to be done. Because nobody would do it otherwise. There was too much fear and risks. There was not enough option left nor evidence the authority would do anything about it. Or maybe we just felt guilty. 

But we couldn’t leave that man in the middle of the street.

We stood in the hall entrance, looking at the door. Oracio adjust his scarf in front of his mouth. My heart was pumping at high speed. He approached me and lifted up my surgery mask to hide my face. “No matter what, do not cough.”

He opened the hall door and a blast of the winter morning blew in, burning my eyes and putting all my senses in alert. The cold was killing the little bit of skin I had exposed. Like a thousand of needles piercing it. But I was suddenly perfectly awake, my mind thinking clearly about our new found mission.

Oracio had taken out a white bed sheet to hide us, so we could blend with the snow as we were making our way to the dead man. Holding the sheet above us, we progressed as quietly as possible to not trigger any of the patrolling drones, hopping they wouldn’t notice the footprints in the snow.

One of the flying rats passed above us. We stopped. It did the same. For a moment, I believed we were both dead and I felt Oracio hand tightening on my back. The robot eventually left. We continued.

The corpse was completely rigid, like a huge bolder, making it a nightmare to move. While I was covering us, Oracio worked on pulling the body. But the blood had frozen around him, gluing him down. Oracio took the knife out reluctantly and attacked the seal of ruby ice. After some carving, he finally managed to clear the body off the ground, tearing on his clothes.

The noise attracted the attention of another drone further away in the street. It turned in our direction but we both knew this time, our disguised wouldn’t work. The angle wasn’t right. “Move it!” said suddenly Oracio grabbing the man’s head. “His feet!” I seized them and began to pull the corpse off the road.

The drone was now making its way toward us, and I felt my heart stopped. The body was impossible to carry while keeping the sheet in position. At one point, Oracio had enough. He pulled the cover away from his head to walk faster. But he pushed to fast.

I fell. The fabric slid off my head. I ignored it. I took back the man’s feet and carried it with all my strength. Oracio joined my side and dragged him alongside with me. I didn’t even look up, convinced the drone was just above our heads. We continued our retreat.

Three feet. I pulled harder. Two feet. Oracio strengthened his hands on mine. One feet. We both gasped and fell over when we reached the doorstep. Before Oracio got the chance to react, I caught his arm and sent him behind a bunch of trash bins that were lining up next to our doors.

The drone finally get down to see what was happening, scanned the dead body, probably wondering why it had moved, looked a bit around, but didn’t check in our corner. We saw it leave eventually to return to its position and we both sighed after having held our breath all this time.

We waited a few minutes, to make sure everything was back to normal and finished to drag the corpse under the porch. We couldn’t bring it in. Staying in the cold was a better way to preserve his body until his family would be able to pick him up. So we left him there, in the corner, for a more discreet resting place. It wasn't ideal, but it was better than being in display on the road, for the entire street to watch.

The man had a beard and short grey hair, with a balding spot on top of his skull. He was in his fifties, with a tattoo on his neck. His skin marbled and completely blue. It was really unsettling.

“Should we close his eyes?” I whispered.

“It is too late at this stage.” He still tried, but he was right, his eyelids were frozen. It was a lost cause. Oracio shook his head and pulled the bed sheet over his body, wrapping it carefully like a mummy. I helped with the legs part. “Did you know him?” He asked me out of the blue, looking at the shape of the corpse’s face under the fabric.

“No” I paused. “You?”

Oracio stood up and looked at the morning sky filled with all its light and no clouds to stop it. “Yeah. I did.”

And without a word, he returned inside the building.