Interview with Valery S.

Valery sits back, legs crossed, the light catching her pale blonde hair. She smiles without showing teeth. Colombian, she says, though most people guess otherwise. She answers everything straight, no coy little pauses. Dreams, work, money, the things she likes to do when the camera is off. Her blouse dips low when she leans forward to reach for water, and she does not bother to fix it. She speaks softly at first, then quicker, each word landing clean. You get the sense she is not hiding much. When the questions turn hard she does not blink, just crosses her ankles the other way and keeps going. Her answers are short where they could be long, long where they could be short, always leaving you wanting the next one.