Andean Express Read Online Free PDF Page B

town. He fell for her their first night together. People who knew the girl—her name was Tomasita—say that she sucked him dry like a stalk of sugar cane. She was a human sponge.
    â€œCarletti stopped going to the mine,” Tréllez continued, “and left everything in the hands of his accountant, Alderete. He dedicated himself to copulating as if his life depended on it. The half-breed girl drove him crazy. He bought her a house and a car. Since she didn’t know how to drive, Carletti hired a chauffeur and the guy ended up bedding her. The two of them fled to Venezuela together. Carletti started drinking heavily, and by the time he bothered checking up on the mine again, it was about to be foreclosed. Alderete had forged Carletti’s signature and taken out a million-dollar loan from the bank. Instead of using that credit to work the mine, the little accountant acquired property in La Paz in his cousin’s name. On the verge of losing the mine, Carletti sold it for pennies to a guy who turned out to be a pawn of Alderete’s. He went home to La Paz with little more than the shirt on his back.
    â€œDoña Clara, who spent all her time back then playing rummy, listened to his entire confession one night and forgave him. Carletti forgot about Tomasa’s thighs but he wasn’t able to lay off the booze. He turned into a high-class vagrant and died of cirrhosis. Gulietta was at his side until the very end.”
    While telling the story, Tréllez didn’t once take his eyes off Alderete, who was stuffing himself with peanuts.
    â€œDoña Clarita went through difficult times at first, but she toughened up with the passing months. She had sworn to get revenge on Alderete, but didn’t know how. The opportunity began to present itself when she bumped into him at the Max Bieber café. Gulietta was with her. It was the fatal moment for Alderete. Just as the late Genovese guy had hitched up with the lady from Potosí, the social-climbing Alderete had fallen like a schoolboy for Gulietta’s good looks. No one knows the details of how they arranged the marriage, but Doña Clara did benefit from it financially.”
    â€œAnd Alderete didn’t go to prison for forging the signature?” Ricardo asked.
    â€œThe Bolivian justice system is truly blind,” Tréllez said.
    â€œPoor girl.”
    â€œAlderete and Gulietta got a house in Obrajes and a pension for Doña Clara. They just got married. This is their honeymoon.”
    â€œAnd why did they bring the old lady along?”
    â€œShe’s not so old. A night with her wouldn’t be such a sacrifice,”
    Tréllez said. “I imagine it’s part of the arrangement; leaving Gulietta alone with that gargoyle would be dangerous.”
    â€œI still don’t understand how Doña Clara could sacrifice her daughter like that,” Ricardo said.
    â€œYou’re too young to understand these things,” Tréllez replied, signaling the end of the story.
    The train slowed to a crawl; a pack of llamas was crossing the tracks. Despite the shouts of the peasant who was herding them, the animials blocked the train’s path and paid no attention to the blaring horn. The train had to wait until the last llama had passed over the railroad tracks.
    As the train resumed its forward march, the waiters began serving in the dining car. During lunch, Gulietta and Ricardo exchanged glances. Her glances were not casual ones; rather, they seemed to seek him out. Ricardo didn’t know what to think. An erection that had begun as a light tickle was taking shape. Within minutes, he was at the mercy of the pole stuck inside his pants. Never before had a society girl turned him on like that with a simple stare. Using his left hand, he straightened out his “little friend” and trapped it with his belt.
    â€œIs something wrong?” asked Tréllez.
    â€œIt’s nothing,