Leonor Henríquez

leer en español     At the bottom of a dusty box, I found four old watches. Each one with time stopped at a different hour.This fact of suspended hours gave me the shivers.Anyway, without giving more ground to my imagination, I tried them on again, all very beautiful, so I decided that the next day I would take them to change the battery so I could wear them again.That night I slept peacefully.The next day I woke up with a smile and the aroma of steaming, fragrant coffee resting on my bedside table.I was a little surprised, but in that state between sleep and vigil, I let myself be carried away by a feeling of fullness.I got up and when I looked in the mirror, I almost had a heart attack. It was me, yes, but twenty years younger.I'm dreaming, I told myself disappointed and went back to bed...

leer en español      I uncovered the jar of marmalade ready to enjoy it with my breakfast toasts.Then a fleeting thought flew through my head.That mysterious dialogue between Alice and the Queen, in Lewis Carroll's classic, Alice in Wonderland.- It's a very good marmalade, said the Queen.- Well anyway I don't feel like it - Alice said.- Today you wouldn't have it, even if you wanted to - said the Queen - The rule is: marmalade yesterday, marmalade tomorrow... but not today.”Confused, I looked at my shiny jar again and an existential doubt possessed me, as if I had stumbled into the same rabbit hole where Alice fell.- Could it be that "today" I don't feel like having marmalade for breakfast?I closed the jar and decided to have my coffee with a piece of carrot cake while I undusted the compl...

leer en español      A dear friend gave me an unexpected and unusual gift. Double pleasure.A fish. Actually, part of it; the beast, a halibut, was nearly five feet.A good part of these sovereign fillets became an anthological ceviche. Others wait in my fridge to be pan-seared with butter, garlic, and herbs.I really appreciated the gesture of my fisherman friend. His gift was very inspiring because it moved me, not only to cook but also to write these lines.Thinking about fishing made a childhood memory surface in me. The only time in my life that I have caught something other than a cold, a sardine, at the Playa azul pier. I was about eight years old and when I remembered that moment, I felt the same agitation as then.Suddenly, perhaps to please my inner child, I decided to resume fishing....

leer en español    I accepted the mission with great pleasure, without knowing exactly what it was about.It was a tiny way to give back for everything this good friend does for me.Nowadays people have very strange pets, lizards, spiders and even snakes, but I have a lot of experience taking care of children, dogs and similars, so I thought this would not be a problem.I made a mistake.My friend wrote down the detailed instructions for me. Food and drink hours that, depending on the weather, could vary.When I met them, I was amazed by the delicacy and almost fragility of their beauty.But above all, though mute and still, they were alive.And so I would have to return them.Every morning, I opened the gate of their garden and nervously, I looked at every possible corner where they lived, talkin...

leer en españolThe inspiration for this task came to me last Sunday.We enjoyed a spectacular paella as a family, credits to my wonderful mother-in-law.A splendid afternoon, not a cloud in the sky. The sun felt on the skin like a flamethrower; an Albariño, pleasant conversation, in short, an ideal Sunday afternoon.Suddenly a cold breeze, thunderclouds, and hail.Yes hail! About the size of golf balls.Luckily, we had already eaten.There is a saying here in Calgary that if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes because it will change.The incident reminded me of this Argentinian film, Granizo (Hail) (2022), which I saw a few months ago on Netflix.A comedy that I confess I have seen three times, with some of my brothers and the truth is, the more I see it, the more I laugh.It is about a f...

leer en español Year 1999 was just starting. The chaos of my life was beginning to sort itself out. I had already overcome a health problem, a divorce, which is never pleasant, even if it was friendly, several moves, job changes, etc. This introduction is meant to explain my assignment for this week, which is to relate an event that changed my life. The engineering firm for which I was working, had won a megaproject, in partnership with a Canadian company. I said to myself: "Well Leonor, focus on your work and nothing else". In the Project, there were people of many nationalities, Venezuelans, Norwegians, Indians, French, British. This one in particular, was a tall man, resembling Sean Connery, with an inscrutable accent and expression. I confess that his presence ...