The Twilight Zone

by Nona Fernández

and draw on a dark mustache.

  It’s something I learned as a girl.

  I was trained for this, I think.

  Born to be a detective and a seer.

  The smoke reddens my eyes.

  I move in an army crawl, eyes watering,

  across Papudo’s black sands.

  On hands and knees I reach your pillow.

  I creep into your slumbers and with a curved knife

  I write the words you’ve dictated to me

  so that they echo

  like smoke signals sent into infinity.

  This is an information post, a smoke station.

  Of shared nightmares.

  Of dark rooms.

  Of stopped clocks.

  Of twilight zones.

  Of rats and ravens still shrieking.

  Of mustaches painted on with soot.

  And the future will come

  and it will have the red eyes of a devil dreaming.

  You’re right.

  Nothing is real enough for a ghost.

  Papudo, V Region, June 2016

  Nona Fernández was born in Santiago, Chile, in 1971. She is an actress and writer, and has published two plays, a collection of short stories, a work of nonfiction, and six novels, including Space Invaders. In 2016 she was awarded the Premio Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Her books have been translated into French, Italian, German, Greek, Portuguese, Turkish, and English.

  Natasha Wimmer is the translator of nine books by Roberto Bolaño, including The Savage Detectives and 2666. Her most recent translations are Nona Fernández’s Space Invaders and Sudden Death by Álvaro Enrigue. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.

  The text of The Twilight Zone is set in Arno Pro.

  Book design by Rachel Holscher.

  Composition by Bookmobile Design and Digital Publisher

  Services, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

  Manufactured by Versa Press on acid-free,

  30 percent postconsumer wastepaper.