Siete
The clicking of palmetto bug wings creates a strange kind of language. Ernesto hears them communicating, telling each other they’re in a safe zone, that the crazy old Cubano has finally decided to leave them alone instead of trying to murder them with poison. They like him, even feel affection for him. Their whispers sound like the crinkling of old parchment paper. Ernesto can hear things impossible for the human ear to hear. And it’s not just the cucarachas. Rainwater being absorbed by the grass, a lizard defecating on the porch step, the exhausted sigh of a robin laying her egg—he hears these things too. Death has opened up new worlds to Ernesto.
There are more of them than ever before. New families are being created, new social circles forged. The palmetto bugs have become Ernes
