Sangre De Toro (Old Draft - Now Published!)

Chapter 7 - The Breakup

Pepelito was lying in the living room with his head on an old bean bag when there was a knock on Rita's door. One of his horns had pierced the bean bag and a small number of polystyrene balls had spilled onto the floor. Out of curiosity, he started pushing some of them around with his nose to see if they moved on their own. He hauled himself unsteadily to his feet as Rita shut the door to the living room. 'My partner's coming to pick me up. Can you be good and stay here, I'll let you out in a bit?'

He missed the space on the farm, the fresh grass underneath his feet. The floor was  hard to walk on and he often skidded around. Being in a small room alone or with only humans for company was frightening too. He missed his friends.

What happened to them?

'Morning, Jesus, you're here early,' Rita said. Pepelito smelt that it was raining outside as heavy footsteps walked into the house. This place was a sort of nest for Rita, she ate and even slept here. Knowing this made him less afraid of her, but her visitors were a different story.

'What's all this straw on the ground, you keeping rabbits or something, Rita?' Jesus Dominguez chuckled with a deep voice. Pepelito was nervous of men; almost every time he saw one he was trying to hurt him. Cigarette smoke drifted into the room, bringing back terrible memories. He walked over to the bucket of water by the TV and lapped at it, hoping Dominguez wouldn't come in.

'Oh dear, yeah sorry, looking after my neighbour's giant rabbit for a week,' Rita laughed from behind the door. 'I'd show you, but he's a rescue and frightened of people.'

'You sure it's just a rabbit there? Nothing bigger, like that bull that's gone walkabout? Me and Flavia were saying, if anyone at work was going to hide it, it would be you.' Dominguez said, laughing.

'A bull? Shut up, I'm not that daft. Do you think I could fit a bull in a flat as small as this?' Rita laughed. Pepelito walked over to the door and scratched at it, tried to push down the handle with his horn like he did before but frustratingly it didn't open. It scared him. Were they going to take him somewhere else?

'What's that stain on the wall? Did you finally murder your brother in law?' He heard Rita's shoes spinning round. She gasped in shock.

'No. I hurt myself quite badly a while back on some broken glass, when I dropped that old laptop a few months ago, the glass shattered and I slipped, then I grabbed onto the wall. I cleaned it up but couldn't entirely get the stain out.'

'I don't remember that. If you say so.'

'Well -' Rita's voice had a note of desperation in it.

'I'm joking. Sounds painful, you OK?' Dominguez said, slurping his coffee loudly.

'Oh yeah, I'm fine.'

'Come, let's find this Raquel or whatever her name is. Whoa, what have you got in there, must be a big rabbit.'

'He's pretty big,' Rita laughed.

Their voices became indistinct as the front door closed. Then, from the street, Rita said, ‘Wait there. I need to check I turned the stove off.’  

Pepelito heard her sprinting back to the house and twisting a key to unlock the living room door.

'Be good, toro.' Then she darted out again, slamming the front door firmly behind her.

*****

'You're awfully quiet, Rita.' Jesus Dominguez rolled the window of his car down and lit a cigarette. A large cross hung in his car window, saying 'What would Jesus Do?', a souvenir from a trip to America.

Rita leant back in the car seat. 'My sister called me last night. After not being in contact for about 10 years.'

Dominguez snorted. 'I bet that went as well as could be expected. I couldn't get her arsehole husband off the phone yesterday.'