He didn’t like drugs or gangs or violence — he liked pretty girls, and that may have killed him.
Photo illustration by Silvia Ros and Marcy Mock.
Published in the January, 2010 issue of the Biscayne Times newspaper:
The days when Miami was awash in cocaine, cash, and bullet-riddled bodies are over. Today art gallery owners likely outnumber drug lords, and running gun battles are far less common than book fairs, art festivals, music conferences, and fashion shows. What was once the nation’s murder capital is now a well-branded cultural Mecca.
So just over a year ago, when the body of 18-year-old high school senior Alex Tillman was found beside the FEC railway tracks in Wynwood, the killing seemed reminiscent of an earlier decade, when violent criminals and cartel hit men committed scores of equally brutal slayings.
At the time of Tillman’s death, local news outlets made a point to mention that he had no criminal record and no involvement with drugs or gangs — declarations made necessary, apparently, because he was from Overtown, where most murders are still drug-related.
Indeed Tillman didn’t fit the profile of someone whose life was likely to end in criminal violence. His murder, friends and family suspect, was likely motivated by something else altogether — jealousy.
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Eternity
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The briefest novel excerpt ever. Featured on Six Sentences:
The old wind-up clock on the bedside table said three a.m. and the boy, sitting on his windowsill, fought the heavy, persuasive lure of sleep. The street below was empty except for the occasional moped whirring by in the night, briefly obscuring the nighttime cricket songs of summer and throwing up invisible plumes of pungent smoke. Ship lights blinked in the dark distance and some were so far out to sea that it was hard to tell whether they were stars low on the horizon or large vessels on the verge of dipping down to the other side of the earth. An hour passed and drowsiness eventually jumbled his thoughts to the point of hallucination, until he slid off of the windowsill and onto his bed, but sleep didn’t come easily and once again he was awake and staring at the stars through the open window. For years, they appeared as white dots painted on a flat surface, but now he could see their depth and understood that the bright ones were closer and the faint ones farther away. The notion of eternity briefly entered his brain and a sick, helpless feeling took hold of his gut and he closed his eyes and tried to think of something else, but the thought would never be far from his mind again.
Also featured on RealAdventures.com:
Although often overshadowed by expatriate hotspots like Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama, El Salvador is proving to be a viable alternative for travelers in search of a low-key, low-cost Central American adventure.
Popular with the outdoors set for years, El Salvador’s empty beaches, mountainous terrain, and rustic appeal have been attracting surfers, hikers, mountain-bikers, and plain old pioneering spirits ever since the country’s civil war ended sixteen years ago. Beaches like El Sunzal sport long, slow swells that are perfect for experienced and aspiring surfers alike. $25 will get you a one-hour surfing lesson with the resident instructor at Sunzal’s Casa de Mar, a tropical hillside hotel made up of 11 villas. $40 buys drinks and a full-course meal for two at their hilltop restaurant overlooking the Pacific—think fried fish, ceviche, and seafood cocktails.
