The
vast majority of these cases are based on true events… The short story ‘Big Noise’ was first
published in magazine format in 2008: here is a very brief excerpt:
Big
Noise
“What
kind of surprise have you got
for me?”
“You’ve come to
the right person, Mr. Santos!” Darren Atkins said, speaking louder than was necessary
in the tapas bar that overlooked the Plaza Mayor. “My product is the best on
Spain’s south coast, take my word for it! I’m the big noise around here!”
Every
sentence tended to end with an exclamation. This self-styled important person
was big in other respects as well. Even when I use my real name, Leon Cazador,
rather than my undercover alias of Carlos Santos, I stand six feet high in my
open-toed sandals; yet Atkins was a couple of inches taller than me. His
Hawaiian-style short-sleeved shirt bulged due to his big muscles and shoulders.
Because he had shaved his head, his big ears appeared more prominent and tended
to press forward like little radar. I wondered if that feature prompted him to
go into the acoustics business.
Well, I said it was brief…
From
time to time news reports echo the Cazador tales, and this is but one of them,
from the Costa Blanca News of August 30,
2013:
Another snippet from the same story, about noise:
Spain is the
second noisiest country in the world and Madrid has been branded the most
noise-polluted city in Europe. It’s a pity, as our capital is an attractive
thriving city, a place where I enjoy staying, even if it has to suffer all
those politicians, many of whom haven’t yet quite grasped the concept of
democracy. Like all the great cities, Madrid has its parks, places to walk and
take in the fresh air and get de-stressed. William Pitt the Elder said of
London’s parks that they were ‘the lungs of London’ and I believe that’s true
of all city parks, which enable us to breathe fresh air, isolating us from the
stress and noise of the street and office.
Paperback post-free worldwide from
here
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com from here
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