Out in the world, no one sleeps. No one, no one.No one sleeps.—Federico García Lorca, "Sleepless City (Brooklyn Bridge Nocturne)"Madrid 2007. Sometime after 3 am. In six hours, I'll be discussing ... [+]
Peter Hankins is a retired UK tax-man whose stories have had recognition in several competitions. His blog Seen and Done covers his writing and more. "Castrapitheca - City of the Ape" is in Short Circuit #04, Short Édition's quarterly review.
To call this elegant metropolis "The City of the Ape" does it a considerable disservice, but it is impossible to avoid. Every time we speak of something being as old as the Ape, we reaffirm the city's claim to popular fame, although the Ape is not in our opinion the best, let alone the only, reason to visit this ancient and sophisticated settlement on the eastern edge of the sprawling Wadimar Desert.The walls of Castrapitheca, made of limestone, are incomplete. They were partly demolished after the final siege of the regional civil war which ended some three hundred years ago, and with the cit