A series commissioned by  Anciano for his friend  CedricBrowning
Story by Cedric
Art by Yours Truly
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In all of Puebla, there was no market quite like El Parian, a sprawling shopping area famed for its art, crafts, and souvenirs for tourists. Originally built in 1801, the plaza was named Parian because it was an obligatory spot for the Muleteers who hailed from places like Veracruz and Oaxaca, functioning as a marketplace since 1760. The stalls groaned under the weight of anything and everything imaginable: colorful guitars of all sizes, skeleton dolls dancing to distant violin music carried on the wind, leather boots, handmade phone purses, wooden masks of every animal that could be named, fine Talavera pottery shining with the brightness of the sun, and all the sweets anyone could wish for.

It had been nearly a year since Cedric had a chance to visit El Parian. Today was the perfect day to buy some traditional souvenirs, and maybe spend a good part of the day at the opposite part of the hallway, where artists all over the town come to exhibit their works, sell their art on the cheap, and perform plays and theater pieces.

With the radiant sun shining over a cloudless sky, Cedric made his entrance, jumping off the bus and taking his first steps to the center of the plaza. He wasn’t quite sure what to expect from people around him, and to be fair, very few people would know, but as he began browsing the stalls, he elicited a chorus of gasps wherever he went.

Noisy, absent-minded chewing and licking sounded rhythmically with the sound of music playing on the wolf’s earbuds, which compared to the noises the wolf made while eating his treat, was practically silent. The customers and tourists caught themselves staring not at the mess the wolf was making as he blindly devoured another popsicle, but something below Cedric’s head. It was a small yet growing belly that was poking out of the wolf’s t-shirt, bulging out taut and swollen, popping its belly button out which was pointing at wherever the canine was walking to, like a staring eye.

Cedric, distracted in his own thoughts and music, didn’t see when he accidentally dropped a ceramic jar which shattered when it hit the ground, nor did he notice the old lady screaming at him. The only thing the canine did in response was to look back and wave innocently to the old lady, which wasn’t the smartest thing to do. Since Cedric’s mouth was all covered with cream, as well as his free hand, the almost cringe-inducing smile he made was enough to shock the old seller and the rest of the tourists at his sight. He turned his head again to the front, ignoring any face that looks directly to him.

The big wolf has stopped at the front of a Talavera pottery stall, with all the merchandise at the table stealing Cedric’s attention and making him ignore the fact that he was in the middle of a frozen packer melting at his paw. As the wolf turned his attention to the vendor, Cedric puts his phone inside of his jeans, with a little effort and some huffs to fulfill the task. Then he took off one of the earbuds out of one of his ears and listened to the vendor’s sales pitch.

“Buenas, don,” Cedric greeted to the scaredy deer who was at the other side of the table, cleaning a wooden bull mask. “I was wondering, how much for that skull mask over there?” he followed moving his packer hand to a wooden mask covered with white and dark blue markings, simulating the petals of a rose. With a quick movement, white ice cream drops were moving all the way on the old deer’s stall, the biggest one falling over the mask he was cleaning up.

“ESTUPIDO PEDAZO DE MIER!” the raged deer yelled at his well rounded customer, but got interrupted by his own surprise by checking at the voluminous white fur at overall. “...That depends on the sizes,” he finished as he started shaking. “The cheapest at 50 pesos and the most expensive is 500 pesos.”

“Oh ok, I guess that would be the…. uhhhhhhhhhh…” Cedric’s indecision was enough for the ice cream to melt even more and dipping its drops at the now poorly white painted mask, but now the the seller didn’t notice it. He needed to get rid of this disaster of a wolf, and quickly.

“Ge… ga… Get the one you like the most, mijo!” the old man rushed his speech as much as his stuttery let him. “Any one of them at 150, any mask, but please get out.”

“Oh cool!” replied the wolf as he pulls a 200 peso ticket out of his pocket, passed to the vendor and walked away. “Muchas gracias”- was the last thing the old man heard from our childish fatass.

Taking a break on a bench near the main fountain, Cedric threw away the wooden stick, and got his hand inside his jeans pocket to get out his phone, but no success since the phone was as slippery as a soap bar. Once he got the phone out of the pocket, trying to pause the playlist, he accidentally drops the phone to the ground. Thank god it was still working, since the music was still playing on his earbuds. When he tried to get down on his knees and pick up his phone, he heard a shredding noise that came from behind, followed by a forced silence, a very low muttering and a large amount of laughters.

It took no time for the wolf to realize what was going on, he could feel his face covering in full red because of the shame. He tried to cover with his hand the rear view his broken pants are creating. Forgetting about the phone, he ran away the scenery, followed only by the echoed laughter and sounds of cellphone flashes.

“Dios mio, what was that?” the old man asked to himself as he finished cleaning the bull mask. Once his job was done, he hanged the mask between the other colorful wooden animals. As he got down to clean the next mask, a pink cat one this time, he returned his sight to the hallway, looking at the big and dirtier wolf running to get back his phone. As Cedric kneeled to pick it up, his pants shred even more, intensifying the laughter of the customers, and the old deer joined them this time. Maybe it was his imagination, but for a moment he thought that for a second, the mask he was holding blinked.