Keeping his eyes on Lili, Adam finished putting on his sweatshirt and placed his hand over his watches. He was not an impatient man, but at that moment, he was struggling to control his anxiety. Adam was waiting for his neighbor to speak again, waiting for her to stop eating and say something about the audio file.

Am I imagining things?

Since the muted TV news had completely enthralled Lili and only opened her mouth to eat, it became clear to Adam that if he didn't bring up the subject, she would not say another word about it.

"Lili?"

"Your food is getting cold," she said without looking at him.

"What did you mean by that?"

"By what?"

"The audio file."

"Oh yeah, that."

While she enjoyed a sip of coffee, Adam felt as if his entire world was on hold.

"What do you know?"

Lili took a second to think it over.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Well," she started crumbling her second arepa, "I know that Bianca and someone called Rafael have something to do about it. And I know you are worried."

Adam felt his mask of composure was slipping.

"How do you know all that?"

Lili raised an eyebrow.

"Isn't it obvious?"

"No." Adam sat at the dining room table. "Who told you about this?"

"Why, it was you, silly."

"Me?"

She nodded.

"You talk in your sleep."

He sighed, feeling relieved. Things were making sense, and they weren't as bad as he thought. Adam knew that last night's nightmare hadn't been normal. It happened again, he admitted. I have to see Magda later. But first... If he'd had one of his 'episodes' and revealed some skeletons in his closet, then finding out how much Lili knew was crucial.

"And you believed what I said in my sleep?" Adam cut an arepa open, spread some butter in it, and filled it in with grated cheese. "Dreams are nonsense."

"Dunno," said Lili. "Never heard anything like it."

"Many people talk in their sleep."

"Don't know anyone who does."

"Maybe you don't know enough people."

"I know everyone. No one talks in their sleep. Not like that. Not like you."

As hungry as he was, Adam didn't want to eat anything after his first bite. Later that day, the only way he'd be able to describe the terrible aftertaste that bland arepa left in his mouth would be to compare it to the awful shock he felt that one time he thought there was Seven UP in his cup when, in fact, it was plain soda. They looked the same, even smelled similarly if you weren't paying attention, but the tongue always felt betrayed after that first taste.

"Tasty?" Lili asked.

Adam had a hard time swallowing and tried to stay on topic.

"So, what else did I say last night?"

"Nothing embarrassing," she winked at him, "Come on, eat!"

Adam forced a smile and the rest of the food down his throat. All he could think about for the next few minutes was keeping his stomach from retching. He couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten a meal out of obligation but doing something that could upset Lili was out of the question. A breakfast high in screams? No thanks. Besides, he needed her in a good mood to get his PC back that same day.

The TV stayed on in the living room while they spoke about Adam's nightmare. It soon became apparent that Lili knew nothing about the audio file. Not really. Thank God. If time had been on his side and the food hadn't been so bland, Adam might have even enjoyed that talk.

Lili was anything but shy. She joked about the Venezuelan 'pregnancy epidemic' and how she found it funny that Japan was having the opposite problem: "Shyness is going to get them killed."

"Really?" Adam asked.

"Yeah, but I can fix that," Lili said as she started doing the dishes. "Release fifty hot teenage girls from Caracas in the middle of Tokyo, a bit of booze, some reggaeton, and nine months later... Boom!"

Adam would have talked more about that if Luciano Ferrer's show hadn't started. The man on the TV screen was one of his former college classmates, and he liked him even less than Lili's arepas.

"Could you change the channel?"

"Not a Luciano fan?"

Adam shook his head.

"But he's 'Bringing the Truth to the Light,'" said Lili, quoting Luciano's show slogan. "He's one of the biggest names on TV."

"If you'd met him, you'd know that the only big thing about him is his ego."

Lili playfully socked Adam in the arm.

"Dude! Why haven't you told me you know famous people? Know any soap opera actors?"

Adam didn't know just one; he knew plenty.

During his time in the Mission, after a fully-funded government scholarship, Adam spent a lot of time in all the major TV stations. Back then, he had to attend dinner parties with the CEOs and high-level managers (before they fled the country like rats deserting a sinking ship) who were interested in getting in the good graces of the National Telecommunications Commission.

By the time he finished college, Adam had already kissed a Miss Venezuela, refused a blow job from a famous closeted actor, and (without Evelia ever finding out) slept with a high-class prostitute who was now doing time abroad for drug trafficking.

Adam wasn't proud of that, mainly because his work during that time in the Mission Phidias helped to shut down the TV stations that opposed the government.

They were the ones who wanted to bring the truth to the light, and not bastards like Luciano.

"No," said Adam. "I don't know any actors."

Lili sighed, somewhat disappointed.

"So, how was breakfast?"

"Finger licking good."

Adam helped her finish with the dishes. They had to use water from a bucket since there were scheduled water cuts in that area of Caracas every Tuesday. Luckily, there were only a few dirty dishes, and, like most people, Lili never washed the flat griddle, called a budare, where she cooked her arepas. According to her, "Therein lies the secret of the flavor."

Once in the hallway, after pressing the elevator button, Adam felt better, more in control. His phone was still dead, but at least Lili had lent him her old Nokia.

"Brand new, right?"

"Hey! At least you won't be incommunicado. It has some prepaid minutes left and everything."

Adam found comfort in having that particular phone in his pocket since he'd had one just like it back in college.

"Here you go... the Fat Dude that Walks," Evi told him when she gave it to Adam as a present in the summer of 2003. That night, she made sure the phone was set to vibrate, placed the device upright on a table, and called Adam's new phone number.

Not sure why we found it so funny, Adam thought, smiling. It was a small, chubby phone that seemed to walk when people called me.

"What are you doing?" Lili asked when Adam got in the elevator.

"We are going to look for my PC, right?"

"Yup, but we are taking the stairs."

Adam arched his eyebrows.

"Where are we going?"

"A couple of floors above."

"Oh, no."

An apologetic smile spread across her face.

"I know... You are not going to like this."

To be continued...