“STRANGE HAPPENING IN RIO LOBOS“
By Juan Carlos Álvarez
AUTHOR'S NOTE
The characters and situations in this novel are the product of my mind, then, any resemblance to reality is purely
The characters and situations in this novel are the product of my mind, then, any resemblance to reality is purely
1
“Mimi...”
“Jack...”
“I’m at the
hotel now”
“How was your
trip?”
“Not bad”
“And the hotel?”
“The hotel is
fine”
“It’s hot here”
“It’s really
hot here, its unbearable having to work in the street during the day in this
noisy city and with all those people!”
After a short pause Mimi continues.
“What are you
doing now? Have you unpacked?”
Jack answers her looking at his suitcases.
“I’m lying
down… And I haven’t unpacked.”
“I presume you
are not even going to think of getting off with some bad girl when you have
such a good one here? Don’t even think
of cheating on me,” she said, half jokingly, half seriously.
“I don’t know
what to do, whether to sleep, or go for a walk”, he said looking at the hotel
room ceiling.
He was
going to do both, sleep and take a walk.
Once he hung up the telephone, his eyes gradually began to close and he
fell asleep for a few minutes. When he
woke, he remembered that his luggage had been in the same place since he had
arrived from the airport and he slowly began to hang his clothes up in the
wardrobe.
“Man I’m tired,
I should really get some sleep,” he thought.
When he finished unpacking, he took a shower
and felt like a new man. He put on some
elegant sportswear and left his room. When he reached the reception he headed
towards the receptionist.
“Good evening”
“Good evening,
can I help you?”
“I’m going to
take a walk”
“Can I give you
any information?”
“Yeah…no, no
thanks”
He left the hotel on Alcalá Street
and after less than 100 steps he turned and strolled down Velázquez
Street. It was hellish outside and a
thermometer outside a pharmacy read 38 degrees Celsius. It was 9pm! Through his sleepiness, Jack
thought about what he would do the next day, go to the Prado and Thyssen
Museums or to the historical centre. In
his daydream, he arrived to Goya Street where he went into a cafetería, just
because of the fantastic smell of good coffee that invaded the sidewalk. He couldn’t resist the temptation of having a
good coffee. The caffeine would wake him
up and half an hour later he would continue his walk like a new man. He wandered down Velazquez Street and arrived
at a bar with large windows that caught his attention. There were a few tables outside on the
sidewalk and many more inside full of “beautiful people” aged between 20 and 40
years old.
The bar was called Lateral
and when Jack saw the amount of beautiful ladies inside, he decided to go
in. He propped himself at the only part
of the bar that was free and ordered a glass of Rioja wine. He sat studying the people while a Filipina
waitress studied him lustfully. Jack
noticed and smiled, and so she smiled even more and didn’t stop. She continued to give him little glances the
whole time he was in the bar.
He stayed there eating tapas and
drinking wine, watching and smiling at the pretty girls until around 1am and
when he decided to return to his hotel in the opposite direction. When he passed by the Wellington Hotel he saw
an entrance to a place with a sign that said “Gabana” that had two
well-built doormen outside. One of them
looked Cuban and the other, Eastern European. Jack walked towards the black
guy.
“Is this the famous Gabana discotheque?” he asked.
“That’s right”, the doorman said with either a Cuban or Dominican
accent.
“Where are you from?” the doorman asked.
“From the States, New York”, Jack answered.
“Do you wanna go in?”
“Sure, thanks!”
“It doesn’t really get going until around 2am, but you can have a
few drinks till then.”
Jack
smiled and went inside. It was true what
the doorman had said. There was hardly
anyone there. A few couples, a few
occupied tables. The typical neon
lights gave different iridescent tones to the barmaids’ faces and the seats and
the carpets seemed to constantly change colour.
Jack went to the bar closest to the entrance where a barmaid, presumably
American (who later turned out to be from Philadelphia) said to him in Spanish:
“What can I get you handsome?” she asked, over the beats of the
house music that was playing.
“A Black Label with ice” Jack answered.
“Woo hoo! That’s a good start
to the night!”
They
chatted for a while and afterwards, Jack sat at a table close to the VIP section
which was still empty. The time passed
as he thought about what he was going to do the next day and he hadn’t noticed
that the nightclub had slowly begun to fill up.
He ordered another Black Label from a passing waiter and
unconsciously looked to his right and saw that three women aged about
twenty-five were looking at him. Seconds
later the waiter came with his drink. He
swivelled the ice taking a sip, turned and saw that the three girls were
laughing and looking in his direction, probably talking about him. This went on for a while, long enough so that
Jack could really study them properly.
The brown haired-girl was about 5’5” and pretty. The black-haired girl was about 5’7” and
prettier and the blond-haired girl was about the same height and even
prettier. Jack wondered whether or not
to take the plunge and go talk to them. “They’re probably really uptight. I don’t know if they’re worth it,” he
thought. Perhaps it was the mix of the
whisky and the wine that made him change his mind. As he walked towards them – with that ability
that women have to intimidate – they began to turn towards him slowly, one by
one, laughing with an almost melodic rhythm ending in all three of them
bursting out laughing just as Jack reached them.
“Hey!” Jack said musically
with a smile.
“Hey!” the three replied in unison also smiling.
Jack
wondered whether to play dumb, joke around or begin normally and then change
depending on the tone of the conversation.
He decided to go with the latter.
“My name’s Jack…”
“My name’s Marta” said the brown-haired girl.
“I’m Almudena,” declared the black-haired one.
“And what’s your name?” Jack asked the blond, thinking she would
probably ignore him.
“My name’s Maria” she answered after a few seconds, staring directly
into his eyes.
He went
silent. Jack wanted to continue talking,
but he couldn’t stop staring at Maria.
He was in a daze. He hadn’t ever
remembered seeing such beautiful blue eyes coupled with such a pleasantly
feminine expression.
“Marta and Mary, are you Lazarus’ sisters?” Jack asked,
returning to the conversation.
“They are sisters, but not Lazarus’” Almudena answered.
“Wow! You’re sisters!”
“And proud of it!” They both
said hugging each other.
“Where do you come from Jack?”
Almudena asked, she seemed to be the confident one of the group, “by
your accent I’d say you were English?”
“I’m from New York”
“Wow! A Yankee!” she exclaimed, “and what brings you to these
parts?”
“My father is from Madrid, but he was four years old when he moved
to New York.” It was the first thing
that came to mind.
“Our father is from Madrid too!”
Marta joked.
“And mine!” Almudena said sarcastically.
They all laughed.
“Well, shall we get a drink?” Marta said, for the sake of saying
something.
“Would you like some champagne?”
Jack offered.
“Wow!” exclaimed Marta.
“Wow, wow!” repeated Almudena.
“What do you say?” Jack asked Maria.
“Wow, wow, wow!” said Maria, and the three girls started laughing
uncontrollably.
Jack made a signal to the waiter
and asked for a bottle of Moet et Chandon. They sat down around a table waiting for the
champagne. Nobody spoke, there were only
giggles between Marta and Almudena and looks between Jack and Maria, it was
obvious that they liked each other. When
the waiter uncorked the bottle of champagne the three girls gave a cheerful
shout of happiness as some of the bubbly spilled out. They watched open-mouthed how the waiter
filled the glasses; the people at the table next to them were also observing
the merry-making. They all made a toast
and more or less all of them said “ahhh, that’s so good!” After having their drinks, Marta and Almudena
went to the restroom. It was probably
something normal, however Jack thought they had planned to leave him alone with
Maria. He doubted whether to dive into
the deep end and make a move, or to take a smoother approach. He decided to go for it, not knowing why,
maybe because his subconscious was flirting with her and time was short as
Marta and Almudena would be back at any time.
He went for it, head on.
“I think you’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen in my life –
she was a bit taken-back - your blue eyes, blond hair, sensual lips, your
features, your body, your femininity, your pure sex appeal…I’ve never seen
anything like it!”
Maria
still said nothing. They just gazed at
each other and at that moment Marta and Almudena returned to the table.
“What’s going on here then?” Almudena asked as she saw the two.
The four
of them said nothing. Maria and Jack
just stared at each other and Marta and Almudena stared at them. All of a sudden Almudena got up and went
dancing and Marta followed.
“Do you dance?” Jack finally
said.
“Yeah, I do” said Maria, and with that got up and joined the others
on the dance floor.
Jack
watched how well the three girls danced.
He tried not to be too obvious by looking at each of them at a
time. Maria danced with her back to Jack
to relieve the tension a bit. Marta and
Almudena smiled while they danced and exchanged looks between Maria and
Jack. After a few minutes, and taking
advantage of the fact the dance floor was filling up, Maria moved in front of
Jack and made a signal to Almudena to ask Jack to dance. Jack didn’t notice as
he was polishing off the champagne.
Almudena took Jack by the arm and brought him onto the dance floor. They danced there for quite a while. Maria was facing Jack, but as there were two
guys next to her that were annoying her, she decided to move beside Jack
instead. Then the two guys started
pestering Almudena and Marta, and minutes later Jack and Maria went and sat
down.
“Would you like more champagne Maria?” Jack asked.
“No, thank you. I’ll be drunk
going home!” She replied.
“Do you have to drive?”
“No, I’m going to walk home”
“So you live nearby?”
“That’s right” she paused, “so Jack, what’s a guy from New York
doing all the way over here in Madrid?” she asked.
“Apart from sight-seeing, I’ve come to take notes for my next
novel.”
“Ahh, you’re a writer!”
“Yeah”
“Are you famous?”
“Not really I guess, you haven’t even heard of me,” he said smiling.
“Oh I’m sorry, what’s your full name?”
“I’m actually Jack Álvarez, but I write under the pseudonym Jack
Nicholason, it was my agent’s idea. I’m called Jack, and my dad’s name is
Nicholas…”
“Your name is almost the same as the Hollywood actor!”
“I think that’s why my agent chose it!”
“Now I remember…you wrote “Hell Train” and… “The Old Oak
Mansion”…”
“Amongst others”
“And your photo is on all the books, and you look just as handsome
in real life!”
Jack
blushed, he didn’t think she was going to flatter him, and when Maria pointed
out the fact that he was embarrassed she started laughing, and Jack followed.
“Is this your first time in Madrid?”
“I came here with my parents and my sister when I was fifteen. We
travelled around Europe, mainly Spain and Italy. My mom’s from Rome and she moved to New York
when she was 4 years old, just like my dad.
“Wow, you’re a pretty cosmopolitan guy then”
“I have to be, if I want to continue writing, I have to travel”
“And I bet you leave a broken heart in every city you visit, don’t
you?”
Jack
smiled at Maria’s intentional question.
“It’s not always like that.
In some cities I leave two or three broken hearts” he said jokingly as
Maria laughed.
Almudena
and Marta were still fooling around with the two guys on the dance floor,
perhaps to give Jack and Maria some time to talk. But they weren’t talking anymore, they were
just staring into each other’s eyes engrossed and now and again would look at
the dance floor.
“Hey Maria, what was your life like as a teenager?” Jack asked out
of the blue.
“Well, I don’t know, what do you mean?”
“I mean, the in-girls in Madrid, is that what they’re
called?”
“Yeah…”
“Aren’t in-girls very narrow-minded and controlled by their
parents?”
“My mother is from Argentina and she is the total opposite, and, she
is a lovely mother, and she is very much in love with my father.” Maria said.
“Have I said something wrong?” asked Jack.
“No” she smiled. “But it’s
true that they are very narrow-minded. Anyway, I’ve travelled a lot and I studied in
London and Paris”
“What did you study, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“I studied law here in Madrid and in Paris, and I did a masters in
London. I work with Goldman Sachs in
London and now I’m on vacation” she explained, giving plenty of information as
she had lots of questions for Jack.
“And do you go around breaking hearts in all these cities?”
“I just broke up with Patrick, a French guy who worked with me in
Golman Sachs and he just left to go work for BNP in Paris.”
“Wow, I’m sorry” he said, although he wasn’t really.
“Oh well… But enough about
me, Tell me about you Jack”
“What do you want to know?”
“Everything!”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know… everything!”
Thinking
that Maria would probably be interested in a lot of things about his life and
New York, Jack gave her a pretty extensive biography.
“As I mentioned before, my father was born here in Madrid…in
Chamberì. My grandparents moved to New
York in the time of post-war Spain. My
grandfather worked as an accountant and was able to educate his children. My father is very intelligent and he studied
law at Yale. Then he got a job at a law
firm in Manhattan where he became partner and made a lot of money, now he’s
retired and he lives…well, my parents live in Miami Beach.”
“I was going to ask, and your mother?”
“My other grandfather started a pizzeria in Little Italy in Manhattan and my mother
studied piano. She became a professional
concert pianist.”
“Really? I play the piano
too! I have a piano that my grandmother
Paloma gave to me that she used to play when she was a child.”
“And are you any good?” Jack asked.
“Well, I can play Chopin, Beethoven and Mozart pretty well. Hey Jack, how is it that you speak such good
Spanish?”
“I studied Spanish at Princeton”
“Have you left your wife or girlfriend at the hotel, or did you
leave her behind in New York?” she asked
suddenly.
Jack had
been waiting some time for this question, he knew that sooner or later she was
going to ask.
“Even if I did have a wife or girlfriend, I would leave her for you”
he thought, but as this seemed a bit much, he decided to lie. “You ladies don’t love me. Intelligent and attractive men are the ones
most loved by women and the most hated by men.
Men don’t hate me much, I’m a lovely guy!”
“You’re a lovely guy because you are intelligent, and very
attractive!”
“You don’t say!” Jack exclaimed, truly surprised, he loved it when
women like her flirted with him.
“You’re just the kind of guy that I like, intelligent, sensitive…”
“How do you know?”
“From your books. Brown hair,
green eyes or honey coloured no?” she said staring into his eyes.
“I don’t know” Jack said smiling.
“Handsome features…athletic…around 6ft more or less, and you know
women like you!”
“Not as much as men like you! He said paying back the
compliment. “More champagne?”
“No, but if you order a whisky, I’ll help you drink it”
“Okay”
Jack
called the waiter and asked for a Black Label. They exchanged sips in perfect harmony. They were there for a while watching Marta
and Almudena and the group of vultures that surrounded them.
“Jack, you being a writer you are politically left-wing, you voted
for Obama and not Mc Cain right?” Maria asked suddenly.
“I’ll tell you one thing. The difference between left and right, or
the reds and the fascists as you call them here, is that…let me give you and
example. Imagine two people are staying
at the Palace Hotel or the Ritz and they are drinking expensive champagne and
eating caviar on the terrace, and one of them reads in the newspaper that a
raft with twenty or so sub-Saharan immigrants on board sinks and they all
drown. One says, “what a bummer, poor
black guys” and the other says “fuck ‘em, they should have stayed in their own
country!” The first is a red and the
other is a fascist, however both of them continue to drink champagne and eat
caviar. Basically that is the only
difference between the two.”
“Okay, but anyway, are you left-wing?
“I’m a writer…”
“I understand.”
“And you Maria?”
“I’m like you, other people’s problems affect me, but I like to live
well.”
At this
moment, Marta and Almudena returned.
They had managed to escape from the vultures and interrupt the political
debate.
“Maria, it’s nearly 4am, let’s go?”
Marta asked.
“It’s 4am already? Yeah we should go” said Maria.
“You’re leaving already? What
will become of me?” joked Jack. “Will
you be back tomorrow?” he asked, directing the question towards Maria,
“I suppose, after all, I’m on vacation!”
The four
of them went outside onto the street and Maria went up to the Afro-American
doorman.
“Hi Richard!”
“Hi gorgeous, you’re leaving already?”
“Yeah” answered Maria.
“I’ll accompany you” said
Jack.
“There’s no need” said Maria, “we live in the building across the
street and Almudena is going to stay with us tonight.”
The three
girls crossed the street just as there were no passing cars, while Jack watched
in silence as they went in through the main entrance of the building just
across the street from the club. He
found they way the girls walked very erotic, especially Maria.
“Cute eh?” said Richard.
“Excuse me?”
“They’re beautiful…”
“Very”
“…and friendly”
“Yeah”
Jack moved
aside a few meters and thought about Maria.
“What a beautiful creature. I
don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it.
She’s beautiful, she walks so sexily.
She’s impressed me. I think I’ve
fallen for her!” As he was contemplating
all of this, a taxi stopped right in front of him. A sculptured Afro-American woman got out of
the car. The doormen also stopped what
they were doing to watch. “Fuck! Naomi Campbell!” Jack said to himself. The photocopy of Naomi Campbell smiled at
them and went inside the nightclub.
“You going to have another drink?” Richard asked Jack.
“I think so!” he answered as he started to walk down the stairs of
the nightclub.
When Jack
arrived at the first bar, the supposed Naomi Campbell was already getting a
drink.
“Naomi, can I buy you a drink? Or even better, a bottle of
champagne?” Jack asked.
“Sure, but, what did you call me?” she asked Jack, in Spanish, with
a Brazilian accent.
“You’re not Naomi Campbell?”
“Ha! I wish!” she said laughing.
“Ah no?” Jack said confused.
“No. My name’s Adriana” she
said, holding out her hand.
“And I’m Jack, nice to meet you” he said shaking her hand.
“Nice to meet you too!” she
said.
Adriana
was pure sensuality, a couple of minutes ago, Jack had felt like Romeo, and now
he could only think about her. Jack
thought, “man, she is so hot! She’s amazing, the curves, her ass, she is to die
for!”
They had a bottle of Moet et
Chandon at the bar. Jack poured more
for her, to get her in the mood and so as not to get too drunk himself, he had
already had quite a lot to drink and wanted to stay lucid for the possible challenge that lay ahead. A crowd of inquisitive men began to gather
around Adriana. Jack went to the
restroom and when he returned, the vultures had gotten to her, practically
surrounding her. He could hardly make
his way through and had difficulty in retrieving his glass of champagne.
“Hey, let’s go somewhere less crowded” Jack suggested.
She
thought that Jack wanted to dance and headed to the dance floor. She began to dance sensually which made the
vultures glances move towards her. Jack,
seeing what was about to happen, managed to move her into a quieter
corner.
“Where are you from Adriana?”
He asked.
“I’m Brazilian, but I live in the States.” She answered in English.
“Wow! I’m from New York” Jack began to speak in English too although
Adriana’s English was about as bad as her Spanish. “Where do you live?”
“In Miami Beach”
“Miami Beach? My parents live there.
What part of Miami Beach?”
“South Beach”
“That’s where my parents live!
What street?”
“I don’t remember, I’ve only been living there for the past fifteen
or twenty days. We moved because of my
husband’s business. We used to live in
Las Vegas. I was a dancer and now I’m a
kept woman. And where do you live?” she
asked before Jack could ask any more questions.
“I live in Manhattan, more precisely on the Upper West Side, do you
know it?”
“That’s to the left of Central Park?”
“Yeah”
“I know it, but not very well.
I know the area from Central Park onwards, Midtown and Downtown.”
At that
moment, a reggaeton song started playing and Adriana grabbed Jack’s hand and
dragged him onto the dance floor where they began to dance sensually with each
other. The vultures’ senses were awakened again and began to watch them more
and more closely.
“Do you like dancing like this?” Adriana asked with one hand on the
nape of his neck, and the other hugging his waist, a little less than and inch
separated their mouths.
“This reminds me of when I used to dance with girls all the time at
parties, I must have been fifteen or twenty years old. I loved feeling their breath on my neck and I
would get really horny.”
“Do you want me to make you horny?” she asked.
Jack,
seeing that there could be some conflict with the vultures said:
“It’d probably better if we leave, don’t you think?”
Adriana
agreed and shortly afterwards they left the nightclub.
“Bye now, have a nice night!” Richard the doorman said cheekily.
Jack and
Adriana limited themselves to a smile and a handshake and began to walk in the
direction of Jack’s hotel.
“Do you want to get a cab Adriana?”
“There’s no need, my hotel is really close”
They
walked playfully until they arrived at the NH Alcala Hotel, on 66 Alcala St.
“Here it is!” said Adriana.
“You’re kidding!”
“What’s wrong?”
“This is my hotel too!”
“Wow! What a coincidence! We’ll have to celebrate!”
“Of course!”
They went
upstairs to room 111, Adriana’s room.
Once they were inside Adriana threw herself towards Jack and started
kissing him passionately. It was the
beginning of a chain reaction, the Goddess of Love had lived to reign another
night. It was as if a gale force wind
blowing, a cyclone, a hurricane a huge storm with thunder and lightening were
all about to come together…They kissed, licked and sucked every inch of each
other’s bodies in an immeasurable frenzy almost with the rock n’ roll rhythm of
Chuck Berry and Van Morrison. They made
love in every possible place, in the bathroom, on the bed on the floor, up
against the walls.. it was like a Karma Sutra practical class.
Exhausted after so much sexual
hustle and bustle, Jack fell asleep on the bed lying completely naked on his
back. Suddenly, something that he first
thought was Adriana’s hands and then realized was probably some kind of whip
moved between his legs and inner thighs and then up to his genitals and slowly
over his stomach up to his chest. Jack
smiled and out of curiosity opened his eyes to see exactly what was moving over
his body.
“Get it off me!” he screamed, as he saw a snake approaching his
face.
“Her name’s Salisa” said Adriana smiling as she took the snake away
ably with one hand on it’s neck and the other on it’s torso. She took it off
Jack’s body and gave it kisses. “She’s
not poisonous, she’s really friendly!”
Jack
jumped up and away from Adriana and the reptile.
“Fucking hell!”
“What, don’t you like these little creatures? They’re really sensual.”
“ I prefer traditional sensuality” Jack said as he got dressed
quickly.
“You’re leaving?”
“I’m going to bed. I have a
busy day ahead of me. I’ll call you
tomorrow.”
“Don’t I get a kiss?”
Jack went to
kiss her, but on seeing the snake still in her hands he decided instead to
throw her a kiss from the doorway.
“Goodbye Salisa!” he said, trying to sound amusing as Adriana’s
sides were splitting with laughter.
2
Jack woke up in the same position he
went to bed in. He opened one eye for a
few seconds and then the other then closed both and remembered what had
happened. Images of the orgy came to his
mind. After he thought “It must be in my
nature, my first night in this city and I drink and I have an affair!” He
opened his eyes and looked at the time on his cell phone.
“Fuck! It’s already 1pm! I’m so dead!”
He said aloud as if there was someone else in the room. “What will this chick be up to? I’m going to call her” he thought.
He lifted
the receiver.
“Reception, how can I help?”
“Can you put me through to room 111
please?”
“One moment sir”
After a few seconds someone in room 111
answered the phone, Jack, without waiting for Adriana to say anything, began to
speak…
“Adriana…”
“This is Paco”
“What?”
“My name is Paco!” declared a
clearly homosexual voice.
“But is Adriana there?”
“I’m all on my own, but if you want
you can come and keep me company”
Jack hung up and called the reception again
“Reception, how can I help?”
“I’m looking for Adriana please, the
lady who was staying in room 111.”
“That guest left her room today
sir.”
“Well do you know if she’ll be
back?”
“We don’t know sir”
“Okay, thanks.”
He thought for a moment. “What a bitch!” Her
husband probably wasn’t here yesterday, arrived today got a whiff of the party
that went on last night and taken her to a different hotel. “Oh well, what are
you going to do? At least I had a good
time…” Jack decided to get up and
prepare himself for the plan that he had for the day. He was going to go to the
Prado Museum and after if he had time to the Thyssen and the historic
center. His cell rang, it was his agent.
“Hey Salomon” he said smiling.
“Hey Jack, how are you? Writing
much?”
“For now I’m dedicating myself to
living the good life!”
“Listen Jack, we’re going to be in
Madrid tomorrow.”
“What?”
“Yeah Esther and I are going to
Europe. We arrive in Spain tomorrow.”
“Why?” Jack asked suddenly.
“We were jealous!” Jack didn’t
answer. “”Hey, you there? Have you been to Toledo?”
“No, not yet”
“Don’t go, wait for us, we’ll go
with you! I’m going to be tough on you, you’re there on holidays…”
“What’s up? Been partying a lot? You
bastard!”
“When do you arrive?” Jack asked, to
avoid answering.
“Tomorrow at 2pm, Spanish time. I’ll call you when we get in, and the day
after we can go to Toledo.
“Okay, fine Salomon, see you
tomorrow then”
“You’re a man of little words Jack,
see you tomorrow”
Jack was still feeling exhausted and
hungover. He had lunch at the hotel,
fried eggs, bacon, a burger and salad, followed by a strong coffee. Later, he went for a quiet walk through the
Retiro park until he reached the Prado museum.
On his way he passed by a lake where loving couples rented rowing boats
and went from one side if the lake to the other. This made Jack think about Maria. He felt that because of the affair with
Adriana he had somehow betrayed her.
After, he thought “so Mimi has taken second place?” This kept him
distracted as he watched a squirrel pick up an almond from the ground and take
it up to the top of a pine tree. He was
shocked at himself, if the affair with Adriana had made him feel that he had
been unfaithful to Maria and not Mimi, that meant he was more in love with
Maria than he was with his wife. But how
was that possible? He had only just met
Maria. It was probably just a crush, he
thought. Or was there more? He arrived at the Prado museum and looking at
the paintings made him forget about Maria for a while. He was there for two or three hours looking
at the paintings in the gallery and didn’t have time to go to the Thyssen
museum, which annoyed him. However he
strolled down the Paseo del Prado through Neptune square and Cibeles square,
thinking again about Maria. Later, he
went to the historic center, Sol, Plaza Mayor, the touristy area. Jack was so tired that he decided to have
some dinner and go to bed early and wait for the arrival of his agent and his
wife. Anyway, he didn’t think he was
going to go to Gabana that night to
see Maria, he preferred to leave the nighclub for another night.
3
Jack slept until midday. He felt better. He made all sorts of noises and movements when
he woke up and he slowly went to the bathroom and took a shower. He got dressed in sportswear again and
plugged in his laptop and read his e-mails.
After, he looked at the weather forecast; it was going to be another
very hot day in Madrid.
“Fuck!” he mumbled as he saw the
forecast. “This is like Manhattan!”
Afterwards he turned off his computer and left
his room. He went straight to the
reception.
“Good morning”
“Good morning sir” answered the
receptionist without looking at him, he was busy doing something on the
computer. After a few seconds he looked
up and said “what can I do for you today sir?”
“I’d like to rent a car”
“Certainly. What type of car would
you like?”
“A compact please. Which rental companies to you work with?”
“Practically all of them sir” the
man at the reception looked at his computer. “Look, we have an offer from Avis for a compact, €240 for a week.
“And how much is it for two days?”
The receptionist looked at his computer screen
again and said
“It’s not worth it, two days will
cost you €220”
“Well it’s obvious then, I’ll rent
it for a week. Can you make all the
arrangements?”
“No problem, and your room number
is?”
“506”
“Mr. Nicholason” he said looking at
the computer screen again.
“That’s right, I’m going to have
some breakfast” he said walking away.
“One moment sir! What make of car
would you prefer?”
“What makes have you got?”
“You can choose between VW Golf an
Alfa 147 or a Fiat Bravo.”
“The Golf, preferably not the Fiat”
“Very well sir”
Jack ate in the hotel dining room. After, while drinking coffee at the bar he
received a call on his cell.
“Hey Salomon”
“Jack…We’re at the airport now”
“Do you want me to collect you?”
“No, we’ll get a cab”
“Listen, I’ve rented a car”
“Really Jack, there’s no need. Listen, we’re going to the same hotel as
you. We booked it online. Are you there now?”
“Yeah”
“We’ll see you in while then. Bye
jack.”
“Bye Salomon”
Jack went back to the reception.
“Is the Golf ready?”
“No, I’m afraid there aren’t any
left sir.”
“Well I’ll take the Alfa then”
“I’m sorry sir, there aren’t any
left either, it will have to be the Fiat Bravo”
“The last one I wanted!”
“That’s all they have sir”
“Typical, Murphy’s law!”
“Excuse me sir?”
“Nothing, I was talking to myself,
that’s fine.”
A quarter of an hour later, Salomon
and Esther arrived. Jack was waiting for
them in the hotel lobby flicking through the Madrid newspapers, El Pais and El Mundo. He was so absorbed
in his reading that he didn’t notice his agent and his wife arriving.
“Jack!” Salomon said
enthusiastically, hugging Jack before he had a chance to get up.
“Jack!” Esther said equally
enthusiastically. “How are you? You look great! And Mimi?”
“She’s still in New York”
“She hasn’t come?” She answered her
own question before Jack had the chance to say anything. “Well, she must be really busy working on
television.”
“Yeah that’s it Esther” Jack replied
“What a pain for her…well and for you,
here alone. You must be so bored”
“Yeah, I miss her, but hey, that’s
life!” he lied.
“Of course, you don’t stop! Visiting
monuments, thinking about your next book” Salomon said.
“Hey, how are your parents?” Esther
asked.
“They’re fine, going strong.”
“Good old Claudia and Nicholas” said
Salomon, “you look so much like Nicholas, except he’s bald of course!”
“He also has some of Claudia’s
features” Esther said, “well Jack we’re going to go up to our room, we’re going
to rest for a while, a long while, and then we’ll come down for a walk and
dinner. Or do you have better plans?”
“No, I’m all yours” Jack
said smiling.
“Good man, and tomorrow we can visit Toledo. I’ve reserved this great restaurant, it’s
fucking excellent!”
“Fuck, what are you like Sal?”
Jack used the time that
Salomon and Esther were in their room to sleep.
He was really tired, he didn’t know if it was the jetlag the going out
or both. In the end they didn’t go for a
walk or dinner, Esther and Salomon were very tired. They were around the same age as Jack’s
parents, around sixty-five. The only
difference was that while Jack’s parents were both retired and living in Miami,
Esther and Salomon still worked in Manhattan.
4
The Fiat Bravo left from the NH
Alcala Hotel at 8am Sharp. Jack drove,
beside him was Salomon and Esther sat in the back. They took the A42 highway to Toledo. They estimated it would take them fifty
minutes to complete the journey. Jack
thought about Maria in the few moments when Esther and Salomon weren’t making
small talk. Exactly fifty minutes later,
they arrived to Toledo at the Bisagra
gate. They parked near the San Martín
Bridge and began their visit of the imperial city.
“I love this city, I came here
thirty years ago. I hope I like it as
much, or more this time!” said Salomon.
The three of them liked the church very much as
well as the San Juan de los Reyes cloister with its Elizabethan-style
architecture and they commented on them as they left the monastery.
“It’s beautiful” said Esther.
“Anyway the prettiest part is the
city itself” said her husband, “these types of buildings with old red brick,
the medieval doors, the towers” he said admiring them.
They continued their walk and went to the
synagogue where the old couple were amazed by the beautiful Greek paintings and
inscriptions in Hebrew as well as its interior.
They were still amazed when they arrived to the synagogue of Santa María
La Blanca. This is where they were
really impressed. Salomon and Esther
looked around them in awe like little children at the painted arches and
splendid woodwork.
“This is majestic!” Esther
exclaimed.
“It gives me goose bumps! This is
our history!” Salmon concurred.
Afterwards they went to church of Santo Tomé
and saw the most famous painting by El
Greco “The burial of the Duke of Orgaz”
Later they visited the Mosque of the Light of Christ where they were
amazed by the Visigoth capitals and the domes of various styles.
“Are you taking notes for your book
Jack?” asked Salomon.
Jack limited himself to a smile while Esther
proceeded to give out to Salomon.
“Leave the kid alone Sal!”
“Thanks for the “kid” part!”
“But you’re only a baby! What are
you, thirty…?”
“Thirty-five”
“Exactly! A baby. Why don’t we go eat? I’m tired,” she said
with a yawn and looking at her watch, “it’s 1.15”
“I don’t mind” said Jack.
“Where’s the restaurant?” asked
Esther.
“Fifteen minutes from here” answered
her husband, “I’ll take you there. Jack,
you’re going to be licking your fingers!”
“What? You made a reservation?”
“Leave it to good old Sal! We’re
going to a place that Robert Parker spoke wonders about”
“Robert Parker, the famous New York
food critic?”
“The very same”
They walked through the narrow streets and
passageways of Toledo admiring the buildings and above all the doors and balconies
that they saw. Salomon suddenly turned
and went into what looked like a house which eventually turned out to be the
restaurant.
“Good afternoon” said the waiter.
“Good afternoon, I have a
reservation for three people” Salomon said in bad Spanish.
“Under what name sir?”
“Salomon Newman”
The waiter escorted them to the table where
they sat down.
“Do you like it Jack?” asked
Salomon.
“I love it!”
“And you honey?”
“Me too!”
They had entered the Adolfo restaurant, right in the city center. It was a beautiful place, an old 12th
Century mansion with beautiful handicrafts from the 13th and 14th
centuries. They ate until they reached bursting point. Stuffed partridge, zucchini with tomato sauce
and saffron, roast deer in a mushroom sauce and puréed potatoes, pigeon salad
with brine, roast lamb and nuts, a cream cheese cake with pumpkin, saffron
sponge cake with orange and chocolate ice-cream and sorbet, French toast with
cinnamon, basil and marjoram, a chocolate and orange mousse, all washed down
with some excellent Castilian wines. And
they ate everything. After almost three
hours in the restaurant, they went and saw the cathedral, the culmination of
Spanish gothic architecture. The Newmans
loved the cathedral. Salomon liked the
baroque style, Esther liked the choir stand with the renaissance railings and
Jack liked both. When they finished,
they sat on some wooden benches to rest for a bit and digest some more. This is
where the Newmans started to go downhill.
“I don’t think we should see
anymore. I’m really tired” said Esther.
“To tell you the truth, so am I” her
husband agreed.
“Whatever you want” said jack.
“It’s a shame not to see anything
else but…”
Half an hour later they headed back. The Newmans were not as chatty anymore and
Jack’s subconscious driving back returned to thinking about Maria. “I’m going
to go to Gabana tonight. I need to see her. This creature has me hooked!”
“Let’s go to the Prado and the city
center tomorrow Jack” interrupted Salomon.
“I’ve already been to the Prado…and
I want to go to the national library to look at some books” Jack lied, “You
don’t mind if I don’t go with you?”
Salomon was about to say something but his wife
interrupted him.
“Don’t worry Jack we’ll go
alone. You do what you have to do.”
“Fine” said Salomon giving him a pat
on the knee.
The journey back took slightly longer than the
journey there. As soon as they arrived
at the hotel Salomon and Esther went to their room and Jack, after parking the
car did the same. None of the three had
dinner, they were still full after their massive lunch. Jack took a shower and lay on his bed
thinking about Maria, and without knowing why he looked at the phone in the
room and remembered Mimi.
“Fuck! I forgot to call her. I’ll do it later, I’m too tired now” he thought.
Just then his cell rang, it was Mimi.
“Jack!” she said, clearly annoyed.
“Hey Mimi! You must be psychic, I
was just going to call you” Jack pretended.
“You used to lie better…Like Ingrid
Bergman says in Casablanca” she said,
totally pissed off.
“Mimi, it’s true!”
“It’s true that you haven’t called
me back since you arrived”
“Come on Mimi, I can’t be calling
you every hour”
“You got to Madrid three days ago!”
“Really? Then time has flown by!”
“What have you been doing?”
“I haven’t stopped since I arrived. Seeing Madrid and Toledo, Today we went
to…Did you know that Esther and Salomon are here? They said to say hello to
you.”
“Hello to them too” she said dryly.
“”Don’t worry, I’m going to call you
more often. I’ll have to put it in my diary so I don’t forget”, Jack thought.
“What are you thinking? You’re not
saying much” asked Mimi.
“Nothing in particular. What are you doing now? What are you working on?”
Mimi was going to give a sarcastic answer, but
decided to relax a little.
“I have to interview a woman who was
married to a firefighter who died in 9-11.
Then she married another firefighter, a buddy of the first guy, and he
died in an accident. After she married a
third firefighter, who when he found out about what had happened to the last
two guys, freaked out and left her!”
“Fuck! That’s some matrimonial
drama!” And didn’t she get a bit depressed after the third marriage rejection?”
Jack asked jokingly.
“Well, yes she’s depressed…Jack?”
“What?”
“Don’t cheat on me” she said
suddenly
“But I don’t even have time!”
“And the necessity?”
“Not even”
“I’m sure when you are fooling
around with some bimbo you completely forget about the hottie you have waiting
back home.”
“I don’t need to fool around with
bimbos to know how great you are”
“Until next time Jack, kisses!”
“Muah”
He continued to think about Maria and sometimes
mixed images of Mimi with images of Maria and of Toledo and ended up imagining
walking through Toledo with Maria like teenage lovers. He waited impatiently for it to be night
time, the perfect time for him to go to Gabana
to have a drink and wait for Maria. As
he was walking to the nightclub he thought “this is crazy, it’s just a crush…I
think it’s simply a question of my hormones, and her hormones and something in
both that creates an enormous attraction between us. It’s something that grabs us and subjects us
to each other. I think it’s true
love. None of the conventions, marriage,
dating, time to get to know one another, all this philosophizing about love and
relationships are of the highest importance to humanity, and it all comes down
to hormonal attraction.” After all this
thinking, he eventually arrived to the door of the nightclub to where the same
two doormen stood.
“Evening!”
“Good evening” they both said in
unison.
He went down the stairs and ordered a Black Label from the American girl at
the bar closest to the entrance. As
there weren’t many people he began to chat to the barmaid for a while. Little by little, the club began to fill, but
there was still no sign of Maria and company.
Jack started to get impatient, images of the night he met her came to
mind. She continually appeared in his
head like a scene from a movie. He would
sometimes smile, but this soon disappeared as his impatience grew. Some girls tried to flirt with him, but Jack
didn’t even acknowledge their presence and he left the club annoyed. It was already a quarter to three.
“What’s up? Leaving already? No nice
ladies?” asked Richard at the door.
“Not the one I like anyway”
“You mean Maria and the other girls?”
“Yeah”
“It’s no surprise they’re not here”
“No surprise, why?”
“Didn’t you hear about her father?”
“What?” he asked, a little
surprised.
“Her father died”
“What? Was he sick?”
“No, he died in an accident. I don’t know much more than that. It must be in all the papers”
Jack stuttered but was unable to speak.
“When did this happen?”
“Yesterday, I think, or the day
before. The doorman at her apartment
told me that the funeral is tomorrow at the San Manuel and San Benito church
just around the corner from here.”
Jack’s mind suddenly went clouded as if a
weight had been put on his shoulders, thinking about nothing in particular,
just emptiness. His Mind had gone
blank. He got to his hotel without
realizing he had walked all the way there with one intention, to ask the
receptionist for the newspapers to see if there were any articles relating to
the death of Maria’s father.
“Do you have yesterday’s papers?”
“Excuse me? We have today’s” said
the receptionist pointing to the pile of newspapers.
Jack didn’t say anything and went
and looked through the papers. He didn’t even know Maria’s surname, but in all
the papers was the same funeral notice saying that “the funeral of Francisco
Javier Castelló Ruiz would be held tomorrow at 7pm in the San Manuel and San Benito
church. Jack went to his room and began
to drink the different liquors that he found in the minibar, whisky, champagne,
cognac until he ended up snoring on his bed fully dressed. During the short time that he slept, Jack
dreamt about of Maria. He dreamt that
she was crying with her sister and her relatives and that he would go and kiss
her and hug her and she would smile.
Jack spent the rest of the night reading and thinking about death after
taking a shower for almost half an hour.
At 8am Jack was already in the hotel bar drinking coffee after coffee
trying to wake himself up. An hour
later, he went to the Thyssen museum. He
only paid attention to the most important paintings, and when he saw a painting
that didn’t interest him, he would think about Maria. After, he went to the city center and went to
various bars to have a beer and tapas. He spent a few hours there until he decided
to slowly make his was to the San Manuel and San Benito Church to attend the
funeral of Maria and Marta’s father.
5
The church was so full that many
people had to stay outside, and being early August and 7pm, the sun was melting
the mercury of the thermometers. But
they soldiered on. That’s the thing
about funerals, people attend them with respect and loyalty. Jack joined the crowd, from time to time he
thought he could see Maria and Marta but he wasn’t able to locate them with so
many people. This is how he spent the
hour-long funeral mass. Only when the
church began to clear was jack able to see Maria and her sister. There she was, between her mother and Marta,
all dressed in black from head to toe.
Jack thought it almost as if her suffering made her even more beautiful. When there were few people left in the
church, Marta gestured towards her sister signaling that Jack had come. Maria was moved as she looked at him with a
sweet and melancholic smile. Jack was
even more moved as her saw her smile, his eyes began to well up and a few
bitter tears rolled down his cheeks. He
turned to wipe his tears as if he was ashamed of his emotions, but then faced
her directly so that Maria could see that he was suffering for her although she
was unable to appreciate Jacks empathy as there were still a lot of people,
then suddenly, someone took Jack by the arm.
It was Almudena.
“Hi Jack” she whispered as she
kissed him on both cheeks.
“Hi Almudena” he muttered.
“Let’s go outside”
Jack thought she wanted to tell him something,
so he followed. Outside, Almudena gave
Jack a piece of paper with Maria’s name and cell number on it. Jack was about to speak but Almudena beat him
to it.
“We’re going to the cemetery now”
“To bury him?”
“No, to the crematorium, and in a
few days time they are going to spread his ashes at their country farm, it’s
what he wanted.”
“I think it would be better if I
called tomorrow or the day after then.”
Almudena said nothing, she simply nodded with a
smile. Jack left to go back to his hotel
as he walked feeling burdened. He
thought he had to control his feelings better, she was only some girl that he
had met one night at a club. However, on
the other hand, some interior force made him unable to forget her. It was then that he heard a voice.
“Jack!”
It was Salomon who was walking behind him with
his wife. They all went inside the hotel
together.
“You look tired Jack, are you sick?”
Esther asked.
“No, it’s just that I’ve hardly
slept”
“Really? Having problems?” Salomon
enquired.
“No, I had too many coffees and
started reading and thinking about death”
“About death? Ha-ha! When you have the first draft, give it
to me! I can’t wait! That’s my boy” said Salomon mistakenly thinking Jack had
started his new book.
“You look exhausted Jack. Come on, let’s go for dinner” said Esther.
They went to the restaurant. As they ate, the Newmans didn’t stop talking
about their visit to the Prado museum, the Thyssen museum and the historic
center. They even suggested Jack
accompany them the next day to El Escorial.
Jack declined in case he saw Marta and Maria. The pretext was that he had an appointment
with a librarian who was going to give him information for his new book. Esther and Salomon complained a bit but ended
up accepting his excuses. That night
Jack slept better than the night before.
He was very tired and his subconscious had probably dealt with the shock
of the death. After all, it was someone
he didn’t even know, his only link to the man was his flirtation with
Maria. This made him think that maybe it
would be better to pay his condolences to Marta and Maria and forget about
them, as was the norm in these cases.
The next day as he was having
breakfast, Jack continued to think about the same thing. He should cool his relationship with Maria…Or
maybe it would be better if she was the one to make the first move. His head was a mess. As soon as he thought one thing, he would
think the complete opposite. Amidst all
of this thinking he finally decided to call her. It was 10am.
“Maria” he said with his voice
trembling as she answered.
“Hi Jack” she answered sweetly. Jack imagined her beautiful sad face and it
fascinated him.
“When can I see you? Do you want me
to call over?” he asked without knowing what he was doing.
“Of course Jack, thank you”
“I’ll be there in half an hour”
Jack went up to his room, brushed his teeth,
applied some face cream, dressed in his best clothes and in half an hour was
speaking with the doorman at Maria’s building.
He went up to the second floor and rang the bell. A few seconds later a
maid in uniform let him in and brought him into the hallway to wait for Marta and
Maria. A couple of minutes later the two
sisters appeared.
“Hi…I’m so sorry” Jack said in a
serious tone.
“Hi” they both answered.
Maria and Marta kissed Jack on the cheeks and
Jack hugged them close to his chest. He
was going to say something but one of them suggested they go into the living
room. They entered the beautiful
enormous living room which had been decorated with mahogany furniture, a
Persian rug that covered most of the floor and a gigantic antique chandelier as
well as silk embroidered curtains that hung on the windows with balconies. It was clear that the apartment was enormous
and that it’s owners were very well off.
There was also an old grand piano in one corner of the room. This was precisely the first topic of
conversation and Maria, when she saw Jack admiring the piano she began to
speak.
“My grandmother Paloma (my father’s
mother) had her first lessons on that piano.
She gave it to me when I made my first holy communion because she knew
how much I lived classical music. I had my first lessons on it too”
“How nice” said Jack
“Would you like some coffee, tea?”
said Marta.
“Thanks Marta, I’ll have whatever
you’re having”
They talked for almost an hour about the death
of their father, childhood memories, and their father’s personality. Jack didn’t ask many questions. He thought it probably wasn’t the right time
to be asking about details of the accident or anything else that might be
sensitive to the young ladies. After
all, he had just met them. As he was
leaving, Maria told him:
“Tomorrow afternoon we are going to
spread the ashes in Matoso, the farm
that has been in our family for generations, it’s was my father had always
wanted…”to fertilize the plants” is what he used to say.” A warm smile came
across her face as she remembered her father’s words.
“Where is the farm?” Jack asked
“In Oropesa, in the province of
Toledo”
Marta and Maria’s mother, a woman of about
fifty-five dressed in black interrupted suddenly looking for her daughters and
when she saw Jack she said
“Oh, excuse me. Good morning”
“Good morning Ma’am” he
answered. Jack was impressed by the
beauty and style of the girls’ mother.
“That was our mother” Maria said
after she had left the room.
“A great woman, to have such great
daughters” the three of them smiled. “She
seems to be handling it well don’t you think?”
“On the contrary, she’s distraught,
but she hides it very well” said Marta.
“It’s as if as a child she was
thought to hide her problems. She
suffered a lot during the Argentine dictatorship. Many of her friends disappeared or died”
Maria explained.
“And one of them was more than just
a friend” Marta added.
“Wow… well I should get going” said
Jack.
They accompanied him to the door and said their
goodbyes. That evening Jack was in no
mood to go out. He had dinner with the
Newmans and told them that the next day he had to make a trip to gather
information for his new book. He went to
bed early and slept peacefully like a baby, his conscience was finally calm.
6
Jack arrived in Parador de Oropesa
in the late morning. He had taken the
A-5 highway, then exit 149 and detoured to Oropesa, just as the instructions he
printed off internet had said. He booked
a room for the day. He took a small
suitcase out of the trunk of the Fiat Bravo and went inside. Then he had a beer in the café which looked
out onto the Gredos Mountains where he could see the peak of Mount
Almanzor. It was a clear day and the
view from the balconies was beautiful.
As he drank, the waiter that had served Jack passed.
“Excuse me…” said Jack, “I seem to
have lost the piece of paper where I had directions to a farm in the area on
the way to the Gredos Mountains.” Jack lied.
“Do you know the name of the farm?”
asked the waiter.
“Matoso”
“There are a few farms with that name
in the area. Do you know the owner’s
name?”
“Yes, Mr. Francisco Javier Castelló
Ruiz” Jack said remembering the funeral notice in the papers.
“Ah Javier Castelló!” The waiter thought for a moment. “Mr.
Castelló’s farm is on the road to Gredos about five kilometers down, take a
left and then a right. It’s fenced off
with a metal fence with barbed wire on the top, the prickly kind.”
“Okay, got it!”
“The house and the stables are on
the left-hand side. You can’t miss it!”
“Thank you very much.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Can I get another beer please?”
A few seconds later the waiter had returned
with a beer and some chips. He was
accompanied by a waitress, a brunette with green eyes, very pretty.
“My colleague here wanted to ask you
something, if you don’t mind”
“Go ahead!” said Jack.
“Is this you?” the waitress asked
holding out one of Jack’s books pointing to his photograph on the back.
“It sure is!” he said smiling.
“Ah!” she exclaimed with excitement.
“Would you like me to sign it for
you?”
“Yes please!”
“What’s your name?”
“Pilar”
“To Pilar, best regards, Jack
Nicholason” he said as he wrote in the first page of the book.
“How exciting!” she said.
“Did you like it?”
“I love it! I’m halfway through.”
“Then I won’t give away the ending
then”
“No, don’t! Thank you very much” she
said hugging the book to her chest as she left.
Jack and the waiter smiled.
“My name’s Enrique” said the waiter.
“Ah, nice to meet you”
“Mr. Nicholason, any doubts or
problems that you may have you can count on me…well and Pilar. It would be our pleasure to help in any way
we can.”
“Thank you very much” said Jack,
slightly taken aback by all the attention.
“You’re welcome”
The waiter was about to leave when Jack stopped
him.
“Hey Enrique”
“Yes Mr. Nicholason?”
“What time does the restaurant open
at?”
“In about fifteen minutes sir”
“Thanks Enrique”
“You’re welcome sir”
Jack hurried his beer with the intention of
leaving as soon as possible to go look for the farm according to Enrique’s
directions. He was so distracted that
Enrique startled him when he said
“Mr. Nicholason, you can go into the
restaurant now”
The food was very good. He had scrambles eggs with pisto to start,
followed by flame grilled steak with peppers and sea-salt and a good bottle of Rioja wine. After he had a coffee while looking at the
beautiful gothic arches in the restaurant and out onto the view of the Gredos
Mountains and the area more or less where the farm would be situated.
7
After having a long nap and drinking
the strong coffee that Pilar served him at the bar, Jack got into the Fiat
Bravo and headed in the direction of Matoso.
He didn’t get lost on the way. He
followed Enrique’s directions to the letter and after a few minutes he came
across the farm. Jack drove down a long
dirt road on the left and stopped the car.
He looked to his right and saw a herd of sheep that was taking shade
under the hundred-year old oak trees, some of them couldn’t take it anymore and
went out into the sun to graze. He
turned to look the other way and saw a herd of black, white and brown
cattle. Some of them were grazing by the
edge of a stream and others were eating the leaves of the ash and willow
trees. There was a calf feeding with its
mother, the other cows mooed and swung their tails trying to get rid of the
flies. The farmhouse could be seen in
the distance, so Jack decided to get back in the car and drive some more. Before he continued, two dumper trucks passed
on the same dirt road as Jack, which caused an enormous cloud of dust to cover
a large part of the area. When the dust
began to settle Jack started the car. He
lost the trucks a few kilometers down where they turned off into a quarry or
mine that was in the area.
Jack stopped about five-hundred
meters from the houses. He couldn’t see
very well as there was a kind of thick fog. Jack thought “how is it possible
for it to be foggy in summer on such a hot day like this?” After, he realized, what he had first thought
was fog, was actually a dust cloud that was being made by a John Deere tractor
that was ploughing a nearby field not far from where Jack had stopped. The tractor then headed towards a group of
houses and Jack could finally see the distribution of the farm buildings. The big main building was made of stone and
was surrounded by a fence, this was probably where Maria, Marta and their
mother were staying. Surrounding the
main house were smaller white-washed buildings as well as garages and
stables. Geese moved between the
buildings with their chicks as well as ducks and chickens. Two big sheepdogs were chained near the main
house. Suddenly, the door of one of the
stables opened and the Maria and Marta came out on horses. The first horse was probably their father’s
thoroughbred and the second a black mare.
The girls had chosen their father’s favorites.
When they arrived to the entrance of
the main house, their mother appeared at the door with what looked like an urn
which probably had their father’s ashes inside.
Maria took the urn, still on her horse and spread a fist of ashes along
the ground and alternated with Marta who repeated the process. They did this for a few minutes while their
mother watched the ceremony unmoved.
They rode quite close to Jack, but they didn’t see him as there were
lots of bushes and trees. Maria’s horse
startled, perhaps because of a snake or lizard and she shouted
“Easy Fabrizio!”
“Fabrizio…fuck! He has the same name as my grandfather” Jack
thought
The girls continued their path. Jack was
completely enthralled watching Maria, so much so that he didn’t notice a Land
Rover pull up beside him.
“Hey you! This is private property!”
shouted a man from the other side of the fence in a Peruvian accent.
“Oh sorry, I was just leaving!”
Jack left and on the way back to the guest
house he thought about how beautiful Maria was.
At one point Jack even got jealous of Fabrizio. After parking the car, Jack went up to his
room and called Maria who had just gotten off Fabrizio when her cell rang.
“Hi Jack…”
“Hi Maria..”
“Where are you?”
“I just saw you spreading your
father’s ashes with your sister”
“What?” she demanded
“I saw how you spread them riding
Fabrizio…” There’s silence. “Are you
still there?”
“Yeah..But…how?”
“Let me buy you..the two of you a
coffee in the Parador de Oropesa” Jack said changing the subject.
“So you are here in Oropesa?”
“I couldn’t resist the temptation”
“Didn’t you have anything better to
do?”
“Of course not!” they both laugh,
“so do you accept or not?”
“We’ll be there in half an hour” she
says, without consulting with her sister first.
Three quarters of an hour later, Enrique was
serving coffee to Jack, Maria and Marta.
Pilar was very happy to see Jack again, but when she saw the other two
girls she got jealous and avoided their table.
“Do you want to tell me slowly what
happened? What do you know about your father’s accident?” Jack began.
“Why do you want to know? I’d prefer
to let sleeping dogs lie” said Maria.
“I don’t know, to see if there are
any loose ends”
“What do you mean?” asked Marta.
“I don’t know, forgive me. Maybe it’s the writer inside me that needs to
know all the details.”
Both girls looked at each other as if to ask
who was going to start talking. Marta
began.
“My father had gone to the province
of Soria and was found in a place called the Ríos Lobos Canyon, and for whatever
reason he fell to the bottom of the canyon and was bitten by a snake in the
neck…He could have died either from the fall or the snakebite, it’s impossible
to say.”
“How do you know?”
“That’s what the autopsy report
said”
“And do you trust this report
one-hundred per cent?”
“One of the forensics was a cousin
of my father’s”
Jack thought for a moment. “I’d like to see this place and draw my own
conclusions”
“What conclusions? What does it
matter to you?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know..maybe it’s
writer’s morbidity. Besides, it might be
good material for my next book.” He lied.
“Oh really?”
“Could you tell me where it is and
how to get there?”
“I don’t know the area very well”
said Maria.
“Me neither” said Marta.
“But we can find out can’t we?”
“And when were you thinking of
going?”
“Tomorrow or the day after”
“Now I remember, Almudena has been
there. I´m going to call her.
Maria takes out her cell and calls, Almudena
takes a while to answer.
“Hey Almu….”
“Hi Maria…” sounding as if she has
something in her mouth, Maria guesses she is kissing someone.
“Did you get back together with
Javier? Didn’t you say that that was
water under the bridge and that you weren’t going to suffer anymore because of
him?”
“I’m hooked, I’m only human you
know, I have my needs!”
“That’s your problem, whether I
understand it or not. Hey Almu, how do
you get to Rìos Lobos?”
“Why are you going there? To suffer
more?”
“You’re asking me?”
“Oh fine, do you have a pen? Ok you
take the A-1 in
going in the direction of Riaza, then you pass Ayllón, then El Burgo de Osma
and well, from there you ask for directions.
I know how to get there but I can really explain it very well, you know
what we girls are like with directions!”
“Okay”
“Did you get all that?”
“Yeah, say hi to Javier!”
She hangs up.
“Well, now we know how to get there”
said Maria.
“Listen Maria, I think you should go
with Jack” said Marta.
“What, and mom?”
“I’ll stay with her”
“And what do we tell her?”
“We’ll lie, we’ll say you’ve gone
somewhere with Almudena. We’ll let Almu
know first so she doesn’t put her foot in it.”
“But…” Maria doubted, she wasn’t
sure if she wanted to go see her father’s death place or go alone with Jack.
“I think it’s better if I go alone”
said Jack.
Maybe it was Jack’s sensitivity that made her
change her mind.
“No, I’ll go with you Jack” she
said.
Jack called Pilar over to the table.
“Can we have the bill please?”
Now Maria was the jealous one, however Pilar
was still annoyed and told Enrique to get them their bill. When Jack was paying, Maria gave Pilar a look
of jealousy. They went outside onto the
renaissance style patio and decided to plan the trip.
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