Night fell

For a few months, I worked for a consortium of fifty European banks. It was by far the worst work experience of my life; I had to clock in even to go to the bathroom. I remember that the same card served me to pay for lunches, which were practically timed.

I felt strange because ninety percent of the staff were older than fifty white French men. In the entire company, almost five hundred people, there were only three migrants: a Chinese girl, a Romanian, and me. They were my only connection to reality; them and my afternoons with Radio Erbol.

Yes, I think out of nostalgia, I developed a liking for the radio. Also, thanks to listening to it, I imagined that I was a child again and that I was at home in La Paz. The thing is, one afternoon, they interviewed a Bolivian girl who won the prize of being one of the two hundred people to colonize the planet Mars. She was so excited, talking about the surprise of the news and how she was going to raise the country's name high, as high as another planet.

The host told her that he had a surprise, and it was that her mom was on the line with the radio. As soon as they gave the word to the lady, she started with a sea of ​​screams and cries. "My daughter, what have we always done to you? Don't go to Mars, please!" The poor host didn't know how to control the situation, and the girl responded very confidently, "Mom! We've already talked about this! It's decided! I'm leaving this planet!" This only angered the mother even more, and the host was trying to explain that there comes a time in life when parents have to learn to let their children go, even if that means leaving our planet.

I think it was by far the best three minutes of radio I've ever heard in my life. The next day, I resigned and started looking for how to participate in that program to go colonize the red planet.

Needless to say, the Mars One company never sent me a response. It was a fraud, and the project went bankrupt just before the pandemic.

A few minutes ago, I saw that planet in the night sky, of course, I only saw a red dot. I felt good because, in reality, it wasn't just a dot but a happy mother.