News & Features » August 2015 » “El Silbón” by Montague Kobbé
“El Silbón” by Montague Kobbé
Akashic Books is proud to introduce a new flash fiction series, Duppy Thursday. Though we’re based in Brooklyn, our location envy of the Caribbean is evident throughout our catalog. One aspect of Caribbean literature that appeals to us is the integration of folklore into contemporary stories—a perfect example being Jamaican author Marlon James’s debut novel John Crow’s Devil, which we published to great critical acclaim in 2005. Whether it be the spider Anansi, the devil woman La Diablesse, the Soucouyant, Mama Dlo, or Papa Bois, these mythical beings have injected life (and death) into the literature of the region. As with our other flash fiction series, we challenge you to tell your story in 750 words or less.
This week, Montague Kobbé, author of The Night of the Rambler and the forthcoming On the Way Back, gives us a twist on a Venezuelan folktale.
El Silbón
by Montague Kobbé
Venezuela
It was all because of the squeal of the windshield wiper. Not the rumbling racket it made as it stammered back along the pane. No, that wasn’t so bad. But the squeal on the way down—shrill, insistent, bleak. Who could stand that shit?
The stop was routine—he’d grown used to the particular way they burned his coffee there, the taste of yuca or potato in his tequeños, deep-fried in recycled oil. Who could blame management? I’d do the same thing if I were them. What he couldn’t do, though, was face the road, face the rain, face his windshield wiper on his own.
Just the thought of it left him squirming, fighting the sort of tingle that raced down his teeth when something solid rubbed against the underside of his toenails, when a metal fork slid on a plate. So he’d looked round, yuca–flavored tequeño in hand, and he’d seen the helpless shape of that tall, scrawny, blond backpacker by the bar, and: Qué hubo, musiú? Where are you heading?
After the second bottle of cold beer, he confessed he would normally not do this. There’s too many stories around here: La Llorona, La Sayona, El Alma en Pena—they’re all legends of spirits who take the shape of a woman to take the lives of men. I don’t believe in all that güevona’a, but it’s still best to be on the safe side. And were there no such legends about men? I don’t think so—not that I know of, anyway—and besides, you aren’t a spirit, are you?
The backpacker looked at him puzzled, as if he didn’t fully understand the meaning of his words, as if he didn’t know what to say—so he said nothing. Come on, let’s grab another one for the road and get the hell out of here before I change my mind. I need to get to Carora before the break of dawn.
The rain had stopped but the squeal of the windshield wiper—long since static—remained vivid in his mind, ringing in his ear, so he couldn’t stop talking to his newfound companion, not for a second. The scrawny foreigner sipped his beer in silence, impassive, neck stiffened, looking straight at the road. He hadn’t picked up much of a travelling partner, he thought, as the gringo barely mumbled monosyllabic answers to his admittedly trivial questions. Just a bit of chitchat, that was all he was after, just someone to help him fill the vacuum left by the chilling squeal that still perturbed him somewhere in the back of his mind. But the gringo offered nothing at all.
And then, when it seemed things couldn’t get any worse, he saw the unmistakable flickering lights of a roadblock in the distance. That moment, he wished he hadn’t picked up the useless hitchhiker, but he also knew it was too late to turn back. Just pretend you’re asleep, ok? He drove slowly—too slowly?—up to the barricade, becoming conscious again of the ringing inside his ears—still distant, but obnoxious, almost unbearable. Caballero, where are you heading? And his answer—to visit my cousin, his wife, in Carora—seemed to catch the guard by surprise. He took a long look in the direction of the passenger seat—pull to the roadside, please. Fuck!
In the stillness of the night he sensed the squeal whistling like a gentle breeze above the trees around him. They were about to search his car—I hope we don’t find any surprises there. Just my pana’s backpack, he said confidently, but the guard steupsed, rolled his eyes, looked up to the heavens, and: You think this is funny? He thought to say something relevant, but his mind was stifled by a whistle that might or might not be coming from his windshield wiper.
Suddenly, one of the guards produced the gringo’s backpack. I told you, that belongs to my pana, but when he pointed toward the passenger seat there was no one there. His knees buckled, his legs shook, he felt the blood run away from his face. The last thing he saw was the boot of the Guardia Nacional toppling the open backpack on its side. As a pile of human bones spilled out of the bundle, the breeze picked up above the trees and a piercing—though distant—whistle sieved through the leaves, rooting every last one of them to the spot.
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Montague Kobbé was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and for the past decade has sought the perfect balance between literature and life, residing at different times in Bristol, Leeds, London, and Munich. He has had close ties to the Caribbean island of Anguilla, the setting for his debut novel, for over twenty-five years. He maintains a regular literary column in the WEEKender supplement of Sint Maarten’s Daily Herald and his work has been published in Anguilla, Antigua, Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina, Venezuela, Spain, and the UK. He currently lives in Madrid. He is the author of The Night of the Rambler and On the Way Back.
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Do you have a story you’d like us to consider for online publication in the Duppy Thursday flash fiction series? Here are the submission terms and guidelines:
—We are not offering payment, and are asking for first digital rights. The rights to the story revert to the author immediately upon publication.
—Your story should be set in a Caribbean location and incorporate some aspect of folklore, whether centrally or tangentially.
—Include the location and the referenced folk tale or figure of the story with your byline.
—Your story should not exceed 750 words.
—Please include a short bio with your submission.
—Accepted submissions to Duppy Thursday are typically posted 2–4 months after the notification date.
—E-mail your submission to info@akashicbooks.com. Please paste the story into the body of the email, and also attach it as a PDF file.
Posted: Aug 27, 2015
Category: Original Fiction, Duppy Thursday | Tags: Caribbean, Caribbean Literature, Carora, Duppy Thursday, El Silbón, flash fiction, Montague Kobbé, On the Way Back, short fiction, short story, The Night of the Rambler, Venezuela