Nepomuceno laughed. “You believe those fairy tales? We know what happens to the corn and the beans and the lard. They end up on theblack market. And the politicians have their hands in this. Ask the governor of Durango where the corn goes.”
“The price of sugar is really outrageous,” Sarita Novo said. “And they sell you minute quantities, and if you can find more it’s a robbery. One kilo for thirty centavos!”
“Factory workers don’t need sugar,” the doctor proclaimed.
Just then the older police officer, who had been half asleep in a corner, opened his eyes and suggested that they play dominoes. Dr. Carrel was enthused by the idea, and Cándido agreed to join the game.
“We need a fourth,” Dr. Carrel said. “It’s ten pesos per game.”
“Come on, Bartolo, pull a chair,” the older policeman urged his younger colleague.
“Not tonight, sir,” Bartolo replied.
The young cop likely wanted to spend the rest of the evening staring at Inés with round, eager eyes and an open mouth. The dunce.
Ulises realized he’d been doing the same, staring at the girl. The discovery made him so uncomfortable he stood up quick.
“I’ll play,” he said, for the sake of getting her out of his line of sight.
“With what money?” Perla asked, so loudly that everyone laughed.
Ulises stood in the middle of the room, his cheeks burning with mortification. Perla didn’t seem the least contrite about the round of mockery she’d initiated and looked at Ulises with a cool indifference that made his face burn even more.
“It’s a game with friends.”
“It seems your wife’s wallet isn’t feeling friendly today,” Cándido replied, and there was another round of laughter.
“If you’ll excuse me, I forgot my cigarette case,” Ulises said with as much dignity as he could muster, and exited the room.
He walked quickly to the front of the house, lit a cigarette, and stood by the iron gate, smoking and stewing in his anger as he contemplated the grotesque parody that his life had become. He was a sap. Yeah, thatwas right. A sap and a loser and dear God he was fucked. Roundly and completely fucked. No Havana floor shows for him, no nothing.
He thought about stepping out into the street with nothing in his pockets but his cigarettes and a box of matches and to hell with it. But as soon as the idea formed in his mind, he immediately discarded it. There were men who could live like tramps, hitching rides in trucks and stumbling out into unknown ports, begging for their supper. But he’d never been that type.
He wasn’t the violent criminal type either, the kind to hold up a bank or a jeweler, or even to press a knife against the ribs of an unsuspecting man in an alley. The truth of the matter was that Ulises had been raised in a specific kind of environment and grown up with a certain sensibility that wouldn’t allow him to partake in several profitable and unsavory operations. He had neither the constitution nor the bulk to serve as muscle for a mobster and lacked the temperament to pimp women out. Gangs were out of the question; he wouldn’t survive a day in one.
As for marketable skills, aside from an interest in photography, he had none.
He looked at the street and smoked. Soon enough she was standing at his elbow. In her sensible shoes she didn’t make much noise, unlike Perla, whose high heels were audible against the tired parquet floors. But that stealthiness announced her anyway.
“It’s too risky,” he muttered, without turning his head, without looking at her and her cloud of black hair and her dark, gleaming eyes.
“I didn’t say anything,” Inés replied.
“You’re thinking it. Hell, I’m thinking it.”
“And?”
He was quiet.
“Goddamn wuss,” she said.
“Really, what a mouth. How’d you learn to talk like that?”
“The other kids teased me at school. It’s hard being born out ofwedlock in a town like this. They were rotten to me until I started cussing them back. I kicked a couple of boys in the groin for good measure.”
“That’s a bit severe,” he said, though he smiled at the thought of her dispensing a few blows.
“Boys think they can do whatever they want with certain girls. Girls that aren’t worth much. If you don’t put them in their place quickly, they get ideas. I didn’t need that kind of trouble,” she said, and she wrapped her hands around the iron gate.
