Juan and Pascal were shipped to distant relatives on Delvina’s periodic hospitalisations. For smoking and breathing difficulties. She had been warned but could not stop. They did not understand the illness or the connection. Pascal stayed with cousins who rented an old colonial mansion with gardens and a view of the bay. Lots to explore.
When Oscar died suddenly, they grew up poor. One day, Padre Francisco dropped in; they were very glad of his company. He noticed they had not been out to the movies since they were little, ten years now. He offered to take them but somehow it did not happen. The idea of going to the movies was wonderful. Disneyland on Sunday afternoon was their high point; the family was swept away by magic and dreams.
Cartoons were favourites too. When The Adams Family burst onto TV, they did not understand it. It was witty American humour somehow. Seventy-Seven Sunset Strip was slick and bouncy.
School on scholarships served them well. Juan was bright. Pascal dreamed of being a skier or roving camera man. On the way to mass, they quarrelled loudly and often. About nothing. It was a wonder that passersby did not tell them to stop, and it was always Juan’s fault.
Years later, Pascal was a winter sports commentator, traveling the world. He stayed long in Rome until a hard man persuaded him that the affair with a married woman must end. Back home, the brothers met in one of the old, crumbling railway stations in the capital. They barely recognized each other. Juan immediately begged for forgiveness, forgiveness for their quarrels. There is nothing to forgive, said Pascal.
When Juan slipped and fractured his arm, he lost the use of his right hand and wrist too. It was slow to repair. He was a carer, cook and cleaner now, just call me slave, he joked, so he asked Pascal and his wife Elena to come and stay for a while. How the tables had turned!
Pascal and Elena soon found fault with everything Juan did, A to Z. There was only one way to do things. After two weeks, Juan wanted to catch the first bus to Bamako in West Africa and never look back. Was this revenge for the teenage years?
On top, Elena insisted Juan make some arrangements for his wife Mari, should he die leaving her alone. But that was impossible. Pascal lived far away in the country, so did Enrique Mari’s brother, when he was not at work in China. There was no one else. What was he supposed to do? Call the Pope or the King? Elena did not accept a word of that; she believed all problems are solvable and Juan’s duty was to find the solution. Bamako is not so far away.
The visitors left. A medical appointment called: heart treatment for Elena who loved butter, cheese, omelettes and the like. Then there was the car accident. It was an accident, wasn’t it? A split second to die. Pascal, Enrique and Nelson the cat inherited it all.
Bio
A man’s a man wrote Berthold Brecht. That covers it for Peter Wright, now writer.