American River Review 2019 - Flipbook - Page 34
The Origins of Catfish
Eric Orosco
Inside the garage of his parent’s home, Manny Ortega
poses in front of a beer pong table crafted out of a
bedroom door and stacked milk crates. It’s New Year’s
Eve and the garage is cold enough that Manny has
pulled an oversized sweater over his celebratory button
up. A pair of glasses rests low on the bridge of his nose
and the stubble that frames his face is a week old. He
sets the red Solo cups in a diamond shape and takes a
swig of the open Pabst Blue Ribbon on his side of the
table. The only friend that showed up to his party snaps
a photo of him. Manny asks for a reshoot and this time
poses with thumbs up for the camera.
On his Tumblr, Manny states that his family is Italian
and that he lives in New York. There are days when
Manny likes the way he looks, the way his facial hair
grows, and the way he smiles when taking a selfie.
There are also days when his pictures upset him, when
his beard is too long, or his eyes look crooked, or he
notices another part of his body that is unfavorable.
The days where he gets upset are more frequent
than the former and he makes sure to include his
observations in the captions of his posts. His followers
reassure him that he looks fine, that he looks sexy, that
he is beautiful.
Christina Jones receives Manny’s beer pong picture
through a text message and smiles. She lives in
Houston, Texas and knows that the distance between
herself and this man is 1,628 miles. There is a bus
that can take her there and it would only be 37 hours
of transit time. Christina is beautiful. Her hair is long,
black and falls into loose curls along her back. She sits
down on the edge of her bed and allows her thumbs to
hover over the keyboard while she thinks of a response.
Manny and Christina have been best friends for two
years, and she knows everything about him. When they
would talk over the phone Christina would imagine
them sitting together under the Texas stars, bodies
wrapped in a thin blanket and a cool breeze blowing
against bare feet. Once, when Manny was having an
especially bad day, Christina imagined herself taking
the bus out to see him. She wasn’t sure if it was solely
for Manny’s benefit that she dreamed of visiting him,
the miles between them lessening until it was her under
the stars of New York and him right next to her.
This was her best friend of two years and they had
yet to meet in person.
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American River Review