On Anything

Wandering through the streets of Perpignan, the narrator slips into an unexpected rooftop garden where a solitary man gazes toward distant mountains. Their brief conversation is haunted by an old woman’s cryptic admonition that he is “building castles in Spain,” a phrase that lodges itself in his imagination despite its impossibility. The encounter sparks a lingering fascination, turning the mysterious saying into a personal obsession.

Compelled by the vision, he eventually sets sail for Spain, only to be met with bewildering customs officers, an empty landscape of mud, and a nation that seems to forbid the very idea of a castle. He discovers that the very ground he hopes to raise his dreams upon is either too soft or already claimed by resistant priests. Yet the promise of grand towers in Zaragoza keeps his curiosity alive, suggesting that the journey ahead will be as much about confronting absurdities as it is about chasing an elusive dream.