"And he saw two pensive buzzards who were drying themselves in the sun on the ridgepole of the house next door."
Think about one of your favorite short stories. What's the first thing that comes to mind? The characters? A pivotal action? Setting? Ending? A vivid image?
I suspect a good number of readers of Gabriel García Márquez's One of These Days will think of Aurelio Escovar, the skinny dentist without a degree, or the Mayor walking in with only the left side of his face shaved, or the dentist telling the Mayor he'll have to pull out his wisdom tooth without anesthesia. Many readers will undoubtedly think of the dentist's words that provide the backstory for both the mayor, the dentist and the people of the town - "Now you'll pay for our twenty dead men."
However, for me, the image that sticks, the picture I have in my mind when I reflect back on this intense tale of the dentist, the mayor and violence in a small Colombian town, is the description of those two pensive buzzards drying themselves in the sun on the roof of the house next door. I image those buzzards awaiting their next meal and knowing they will not be disappointed.
Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, 1927-2014
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