For you, life seems to be easy, moving from one place to another, doing the day-to-day concept that you are so proud of. The whole life is a mystery, and that makes it wonderful.
In Sintra, it is not like that. Life is not a mystery.
We all know what tomorrow holds. That is why this concept of being here makes my soul shine.
The old Qual not always what’s this confident man that you can see, some time ago it was nothing more than a nervous breakdown in this infinite ocean of unwritten rules, because yes, the most impressive thing about humans is that they perfectly know how to behave with each other without this being uncomfortable or absurd, they have learned to the letter the invisible limits that people denote.
It’s frustrating and fascinating at the same time, but let me explain what I mean.
In any civilization with reading its history and reading the pamphlets or rule books of societies, that is enough, and we can all move between the lines that were outlined by those who wrote them, and always, at any time, we will be correct.
But when I got to Earth, that was not the case. I did review Earth just like the usual, using the speed reading that characterizes us. I familiarized myself with all the organisms and rules that humans manage, and I changed my way of seeing myself and prepared to enter this new experience and knowledge.
How I was subjected to the sane madness of humans was in my first job. I had to go to my first day in construction work where according to the rules that I had read, I had to have a good relationship with my colleagues and get paid for my work.
“That won’t be hard at all,” I said. No, actually, I thought so, but there is something that was reading about how things are done does not prepare you on Earth.
The first thing I learned was that no matter how much you dress up, humans will always find a way to make fun of you, but even though teasing is categorized as a negative thing, in many social groups, it is the high point of their friendship, just that fact left me baffled.
When I entered the building, on my first day of work, I looked everywhere, and the first thing I noticed was Nina, the engineer’s secretary. She was sitting at the door waiting for the manager to arrive to open it.
While looking at her, I thought, this is my chance to introduce myself and use what I’ve learned.
I approached her slowly and confidently as the book I had read said.
“What’s wrong? Does your leg hurt?”
That’s what she said when she saw me, though.
I couldn’t help but stop. I had exactly done what the book wanted. While looking at her seriously, I replied, “I am overflowing with confidence!”
Her eyes widened, and then she smiled wide. Nina nodded and said, “I don’t think that’s what you want to do… you’ve arrived early. The builders arrive until eight o’clock.”
I smiled and calmly said, “I want to make a good impression!”
“But, it won’t be very good if you make the boss look lazy for coming after you!” Nina retorted, still smiling as if I was silly.
Silly. I don’t like that word at all cause I am sure I’m not that.
Still, I didn’t understand that concept, just two minutes on my first day, and I had already made two mistakes. Maybe I wasn’t cut out for this. Nina stared at me and, with a smile, she offered me a spot on the wall where she was sitting.
“I know you’re nervous... it’s normal to be on the first day, and you should enjoy the process that will help you,” Nina remarked patiently.
That didn’t make the slightest sense. This was just the process. How could she enjoy it if she didn’t? Something about the way humans’ words and their actions matched it seemed inconsistent. It was like, for them, it’s the most normal thing in the world.
I could not help but look at her in confusion.
Noticing this, Nina pat my back and said, “It doesn’t matter how badly you do, just show that you’re trying, and everyone will accept you…but I remember, don’t make it as if you are trying too hard. Nobody likes a brown nose!”
I looked at her, and all the words she said I understood, but her meaning was not attached to the conversation we were having.
In the distance, the manager was approaching. When he saw Nina walking the same way I had, he remarked, “Nina, you are radiant today!”
She shrugged and smiled oddly. Nina thanked and replied, “You look very good, and it seems that you overflow with confidence!”
I couldn’t believe what was happening, so I could only watch Nina and the man enter the building, and I decided to wait outside.
When the workers were arriving, I thought it would be good to go in with them, and one of them stood up and said.
“You’re the new one, right? Welcome… try not to die, or we don’t get paid!”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I looked at him, stunned. The concept that the death of a worker put the benefit of others at risk showed great unity.
Yet, another worker hit the previous one on the head and said, “Ignore him. He likes to play jokes on others... What’s your name again?”
This interaction. I understood it and waved with one hand as I said, “I am Qual!”
He looked at me, and with a smile, said, “I’m Erick, and these are the guys!”
The boys waved, and Erick nodded.
We entered the building, we all marked the entrance, and everyone was talking about the most unlikely things I could imagine.
One of them was talking about basketball. I had read about the sport, two teams of five players each were fighting to score enough points to win.
However, the way humans expressed themselves surprised me, one of them said to Erick.
“Did you see Leron Kames? He is a monster, don’t you think? That guy is an alien!”
“Same as me?” I asked with a smile as I looked at him.
They all looked at me and smiled. Erick answered, “Yeah, but you’re from another galaxy, Dude!”
Apparently, that was a joke, and without a doubt, it was a very good one because they all smiled as if there was no tomorrow. While looking at them, I thought that I should laugh too and laugh as best I could. I made them laugh even more.
They all looked at me, and one of the guys told me.
“Qual, dude! You are a strange guy, but we will certainly have a great time… let’s have breakfast together. We all eat burritos for breakfast. Come on!”
I looked at him, and that was the last of the understanding I could use. A burro is the Spanish word for donkey, but in Spanish, burrito is the word for little donkey.
How can you eat a donkey?
In any case, nothing they said made sense. There was not a single donkey in the surroundings, perhaps they were talking about donkey meat, but in all my reading, that did not appear as possible food.
At that moment, I saw how everyone was walking towards breakfast, and since I didn’t want to be left behind, I began to chase them. They all climbed to the highest point of the building and calmly walked through the beams until they sat down to see a huge landscape.
The city towered over them, and without understanding why that vision calmed my nerves, I sat down. They all opened a lunch box, which I did not have.
As an alien, I can eat, but it is not necessary for my body to not do something unnecessary. My body doesn’t hurt me, only that, when something irrelevant is seen, it would need to function its defense system to make sure I’m all good.
I watched as they passed the dish that we were going to eat from side to side.
That made me curious. I looked at Erick, who was by my side, as he passed me one of the burritos. I took it, and by instinct, I opened my mouth to eat when Erick grabbed my hand and asked, “What are you doing?”
I looked at him in confusion. He looked upset, and I did not understand why.
“You’re going to damage the burrito if you eat it like that!” He said.
I had no idea what he was referring to when they brought out a little sauce and began dipping the burrito, apparently, to give it a more special flavor.
Erik looked at me seriously and told me, “You cannot jump to the good things in life, Qual. The world is huge and turns, so we must slow down a little from time to time.”
I looked at him. He was so serious as if something tragic would happen if I messed up. When I recalled his words, I thought that the concept he mentioned was physically correct, although if the Earth stopped, many humans would die, but something about what he was doing caught my attention.
Workers and humans, in general, have rules that are not properly written in their society. The way they treat each other is one of them. Sometimes a word is an insult, and others are a compliment. Many times they insult each other to show friendship, and for some, their flattery means that they are not friends at all.
For me, following these strange social rituals was so absurd that it could give any creature in the universe an intergalactic headache.
With that in mind, I watched Erick, who was completely focused on his task of preparing his burrito, and when he was done, his expression lit up as if there was a certain satisfaction in himself that he could not express with words.
It was as if seeing him, the man became a child again and grew to his most adult stage at the same time, within a life full of changes and sudden surprises that modified everything we knew that was consistent.
He looked at me and said, “There is only one correct way to eat a burrito… I will teach you!”
I looked at him, and for the first time, I let out a worried expression.
Earlier, I did watch him prepare his burrito, but he did so efficiently. What he did was kept in mind, and usually, I could replicate it with no problem.
Yet, at that moment, I was really concerned and anxious. What if I messed up?
The tortilla looked fragile in my hands and could easily break. But Erick urged me. He was quite patient with his pointers.
Yet, the process was not completely easy for me. I mean, it was the first experience, and all eyes were on me.
I wrapped the meat and some vegetable with shaking hands, as I was so careful that they won’t spill out from the white flatbread.
When I was done, I released a sigh of relief. For the first time, after I arrived at Earth, I smiled so wide, satisfied with what I did.
I also realized that Erick was right. There was only one correct way to eat it, for him and one for each one. Each one used that moment as a ritual of authenticity, as a proof of life that transcended the galaxy itself.
When Erick was five years old, he met burritos for the first time. For him, as well as for me at the time, it was a new experience.
The first encounter was clearly far from perfect.
But it showed in his mind a new stage, the beginning of a lasting relationship of a habit that will follow him until the last years of his life.
Developing what he called the perfect way to eat burritos took him years and changed to a point where he found the balance that his soul needed. Now even if everything in his life was in chaos, that was a true constancy, a show of consistency in a life that otherwise had no meaning.
There in front of me, he bit into the burrito, and it was a religious experience. His eyes closed to take advantage of every moment of the moment in which he felt that delicious taste for the first time. It was a symphony, a choreography, a dance that they all executed at that moment, connected by something deeper than friendship or species—connected by something real and at the same time imaginary.
Connected by a simple burrito, I decided to embrace the experience with everything I could. I took the burrito and opened my mouth. When I bit into it, I tried to feel every sensation, every taste.
And it was an incredible thing, the miracle of life that something could be so good, that something created a feeling of satisfaction so deep that it went down your body until it was completely covered with momentary and at the same time lasting happiness.
I never need to eat, in reality, it is not an activity that my species performs, but I knew that moment what it meant to be full, satiated, satisfied with a delicious dish.
It seemed to me that I closed my eyes for hours, but in reality, it was only seconded, and when I opened my eyes again.
I saw Erick who said, “See, brother! That’s the real way to eat a burrito!”
And as he was always right, human beings have only one true way of eating a burrito, they move in inconsistencies and in strange non-verbal agreements, but something that they never break is their established rules for what fills their soul, a single way to eat burritos, is the right way to live.