The sign had fallen in the middle of the sidewalk.. At the top, in very big letters, a text dominated the rough design to arouse the attention of the potential interested party: “FOR SALE”, said. Below the text, handwritten, The phone number of the alleged seller was noted. The logical question that arose almost immediately was, but, what do you sell? And here the controversy began.
The first to intervene was a man in his fifties., short, with black hair and a mustache who said that, very probably, The poster came from one of the commercial basements in the surrounding area., but, after consulting, Nobody remembered that there was any premises for sale at that time and, quickly, the idea was discarded. For that reason and for the lack of imagination that such a vulgar explanation entailed. Although it may not seem like it, People like to look for solutions to conflicts among the most convoluted options we find.. It's not something we do with malice., the thing is, as a group, we don't trust anyone. Let's imagine for a second that we have to choose a direction, on the way to somewhere. Several paths or options are presented to us.. One that takes us in the most direct way to our final destination, another somewhat more sinuous and a last one that, besides sinuous, it's really dark, which will make the trip difficult. For some inextricable reason, as a society (which is not the same as individually) we will always choose the third. Maybe, at first, someone choose the first alternative, the most reasonable, but soon a guy will appear who will begin to spread suspicions. It seems the simplest, Yeah, but, "What if it's a trap?"?”, will say, spreading your doubts to everyone.
Thus, a woman over forty, alta, straight hair, moreno, collected at the nape of the neck with a silver hook, He suggested that perhaps it was the sidewalk that was really for sale.. The group of curious people who began to gather around the poster liked this a little more.. Given its disposition, It seemed like a pretty reasonable answer.. And some were already beginning to agree and adopt this criterion., when a third party drew attention to some containers that were just two meters away. This, fueled certain discrepancies, in such a way that some began to get nervous. That's when another guy intervened., about thirty, who stated that they were all wrong and that what was really for sale was the building under whose skirts they had deposited the mysterious sign. Since this explanation also seemed likely, some went to his side.
And the boy was already celebrating having imposed his opinion on a good part of the group. (You had to see how the very cocky man stuck out his chest, someone said), when a fifth guy came to question the agreement, asking who told them that it was not the entire street that was sold. This new subject would not be more than sixty, but he still had all his lustrous thatch of hair that shined in the bright sun, clean, of that beautiful spring morning. His intervention stirred up the group., that began to discuss without an agreed moderator who kept track of who participated (and in what proportion) in the discussion. In response to the question that wanted to clear up the doubt about what the intruder was basing himself on for saying that and that was asked by a girl also in her thirties who came around to look around., the man appealed to the purest common sense. And there he developed a whole theory according to which, at first, The problem seemed to lie in the distance between the sign and them, the pedestrians, but it was enough to go up to the fourth floor to see everything in a different way. And who told them that the seller's intention was not for the poster to be observed from a certain height?? They didn't know. “In life, "Everything depends on the perspective from which things are seen.", stated.
This left the group silent for a few minutes.. In the silence of this new abyss that opened in its unfathomable ignorance, you could hear the complicated gears of their minds reasoning. Then, the thirty year old girl, average height, a mesh bag on the shoulder, orange hair like pumpkin, He raised his finger again to intervene. Everyone turned to her., which no doubt impressed her a little. Overcome the initial blush, The girl proposed the following. “What if instead of looking at this from a fourth-floor height?, we would be at an even higher altitude?” “Like what?”, asked another. “Like the height at which someone stands on the terrace of a building”. So, from that height, it would no longer be about the street. Maybe it was the entire neighborhood that was for sale.. That's when something strange, a feeling, It traveled through the souls of all those present. Why, What would happen if we went a little higher?? So, even without saying a word, everyone understood that, then, it would be the entire city that had been put up for sale. And if we kept going up, The country. And if we kept going up (such as from a spy or telecommunications satellite), the entire planet could be for sale. Awareness of this fact, It made the group consider something that perhaps they had never considered before., and it is that, Just beneath their feet an enormous sphere floated in outer space to which they, at last, they called world.
Now, silence in the group (increasingly numerous, by the way) was even older. But this strange story, it's not over yet. Trying to relax the tension that was in the air, another type (little more than twenty, alto, delgado, maybe a basketball fan), He said that no one could put the planet up for sale.. “It's outrageous! Don't you understand? “The world belongs to no one.”, said, how exalted. The new silence that followed, broke when someone else (a woman also entering middle age, fur, long skirt to the feet), asked, in a low voice, but perfectly audible: “¿safe?”
The main question is, How the hell had they not thought of it before?? How could they have missed something so obvious?? They had the solution right there and they hadn't realized it until that girl of about ten years old, the chubby face, stretch tights and white shirt with a sequin heart painted on the chest, said: “Someone call the phone”. Of course! A single call and the mystery would be solved once and for all.. But, Of course, who dared to call? Suddenly, All those speculations began to seem absurd to them.. It was just a sign lying in the middle of the street.. Or was it perhaps fear that made them look for a way out so as not to assume the responsibility they had acquired in the face of that enigma?? They played it by luck, but they couldn't reach any agreement. In the end, after much fighting among themselves, someone offered. He was an older man, about eighty years old, bushy eyebrows, wrinkled dewlap like that of an iguana. “I'll call now”, said. “But we all cover the cost of the connection”, warned, very serious.
With trembling hands, The man managed to dial each of the phone numbers that had been printed on the poster.. He had activated the hands-free function of his cell phone so that everyone could hear the conversation he would have with the other party.. Suddenly, a male voice, very serious, but also feminine, very soft and melodious, just like the voice of a child, acute, and of an old man, light and tremulous at the same time, responded: "say?"Everyone stayed silent.". They looked at each other, but no one dared to answer. "Say?”, the voice insisted. "Who are you?”, asked, at last, the eighty-year-old man with the iguana dewlap holding the phone. There was a new silence. Suddenly, on the other side of the line, the voice responded: "IT'S ME". Aware now of who they were playing with, They wondered if the owner of the world would find a buyer. GERARDO LEON
