Alfredo Garcia was named after a movie that no one in his family had ever seen

The family name was Garcia so Alfredo’s uncle suggested the name when Alfredo was born in 1987

Alfredo’s uncle had seen the movie with his cousin in a small cinema in Madrid in 1974

He admired Sam Peckinpah movies

The Spanish title of the movie was Tráiganme la cabeza de Alfredo García

Alfredo’s uncle liked the English title of the movie which he considered brutal

Both Alfredo’s father and uncle drowned when their fishing boat capsised in a sudden storm when Alfredo was ten

Their bodies were never recovered

Alfredo lived in a suburb of Malaga with his mother and sister

His mother’s name was Rachel

His sister’s name was Valerie

His mother was retired and spent her days playing cards with her friends and helping to feed stray cats

His sister worked in a travel agency in the centre of the city and also attended college twice a week

She was studying English

Alfredo worked as a builder

He liked his job and took great satisfaction when projects were completed

Alfredo quite often visited buidings that he had worked on and took photographs

With his Canon camera

There was only one thing wrong with Alfredo’s life

It was that he was afraid of going home in the evening

This had been the case for over two years

What scared Alfredo was that he witnessed things which he considered very odd

It had started on a Sunday morning in November when he had opened the fridge prior to cooking himself a breakfast

He cooked breakfast for himself every Sunday

As he reached for the eggs he could hear singing which appeared to be coming from inside of the shells

It stopped when he broke the eggs

This disturbed him

He asked his sister to listen to the eggs

She heard nothing

Later that day he went to a large supermarket and listened to the eggs on the shelves

They were silent

In tme Alfredo grew used to the singing eggs and prepared his Sunday breakfast as normal until he noticed that his cooked eggs were beginning to dance on his breakfast plate

Alfredo became a vegatarian

He was relieved that vegatarian food did not sing or dance

But this was not the end to the strange happenings in Alfredo’s life

Often as he lay in bed at night and watched as his lampshade closed like a retiring flower

His team photograph of Málaga Club de Fútbol would often move around the room and the team would reappear wearing red shirts instead of the normal blue and white ones

Alfredo drew his curtains tightly every night as he often saw flying saucers hovering over the velodrome

Especially when cycling events were taking place

His room became very hot

So did his mothers

His sister kept her windows open so her room was cooler

When Alfredo saw strange things he often went into his sisters room

And lay on her single bed

Her sheets smelt slightly of perfume

His sister wore an Italian perfume called Tender Night

She did not buy her own perfume

As she had a boyfriend called Martin

Who purchased the perfume for her

When in Madrid

Martin worked in a bank and was the same age as Alfredo

They both liked football and often attended games together

Alfredo always ensured that he his sister was not in the house when he climbed onto her bed

Nothing strange happened in her room

He would look at the spines of her English books and make up a short story

The Daughters of Silence walked along The Burning Shore as The Wind Off The Sea blew The Birds Of Paradise away from the shore. Their Travels With Charley had taken them to many countries including Ice Station Zebra where they braved The Atlantic Fury .They knew that they would Fail Safe when travelling along The Griffins Way

They story was always the same and Alfredo always fell asleep during its construction

His sister would gently wake him when she returned home from visiting Martin and they would talk for a while

Alfredo would describe the things he had seen

He would then return to his room as his sister prepared for bed

As soon as he shut his door strange things would happen again

He would hear a dog barking outside of his window

Its eyes would turn red

He could see the glow through the curtains

Alfredo grew used to this and would put his earphones on and listen to the

Sounds of the Balearics

He would look at his crucifix on the far wall

It would spin wildly like an propeller on an airplane

When this happened the spinning crucifix would act as a fan and cool the room and in time Alfredo would fall asleep listening to the music

At exactly two in the morning his sister would enter his room

And tell Jesus to calm down

She would then climb in next to Alfredo and remove his headphones

Twenty minutes later

Alfredo’s sister would rise from her brothers bed and wear his headphones

She would then invite Jesus down from his cross and ask him to to dance with her on the strict understanding that she would be free to return to her room

As soon as the clock in the square outside struck four