Conversation in the Cathedral Read Online Free PDF Page B

the sidewalk. The sun was shining, the express buses went by loaded, men and women fought for taxis on the corner of Shell. Why had they waited until now to throw her out, Skinny? Santiago shrugged his shoulders, his folks didn’t want him to think that they were firing her because of the business of the other night, as if he was so stupid. He seemed even thinner with that mournful face, his jet black hair raining over his forehead. The waiter came over and Santiago pointed to Popeye ’s glass, vanilla too? yes. After all, it’s not so bad, Popeye cheered him up, she’ll get another job soon, they need maids all over. Santiago looked at his nails: Amalia was a nice person, when Sparky, Teté, or I were in a bad mood they let off steam abusing her and she never told the folks on us, Freckle Face. Popeye stirred his milk shake with the straw, how can I convince you to go listen to records at your place, brother-in-law ? he sucked in the froth.
    “Your old lady made her complaints to the senator’s wife about the San Marcos business,” he said.
    “She can take her complaints to the King of Rome,” Santiago said.
    “If San Marcos upsets them so much, enroll at the Catholic University , what difference does it make to you?” Popeye said. “Or are they tougher at the Catholic University?”
    “My folks don’t give a damn about that,” Santiago said. “They don’t like San Marcos because there are half-breeds there and because there’s a lot of politics, only for that reason.”
    “You’ve got yourself into a bind,” Popeye said. “You’re always against everything, you put everything down and you take things too much to heart. Don’t give your life a bitter taste just for the hell of it, Skinny.”
    “Put your advice back in your pocket,” Santiago said.
    “Don’t act as if you were so smart, Skinny,” Popeye said. “It’s all right for you to be a grind, but there’s no reason for thinking that everyone else is a half-wit. Last night you treated Coco in a way that made me wonder why he didn’t kill you.”
    “If I don’t feel like going to mass I don’t have to make excuses to that sexton,” Santiago said.
    “You’re playing the atheist too now,” Popeye said.
    “I’m not playing the atheist,” Santiago said. “The fact that I don’t like priests doesn’t mean that I don’t believe in God.”
    “What do they say at home about your not going to church?” Popeye asked. “What does Teté say, for example?”
    “That business about the Indian girl has got me all bitter, Freckle Face,” Santiago said.
    “Forget about it, don’t be a fool,” Popeye said. “Speaking of Teté, why didn’t she come to the beach this morning?”
    “She went to the Regatas Club with some girl friends,” Santiago said. “I don’t know why you haven’t learned your lesson.”
    “The redhead, the one with freckles,” Ambrosio says. “Senator Emilio Arévalo’s boy, sure. Did she marry him?”
    “I don’t like people with red hair or people with freckles.” Teté made a face. “And he’s both. Ugh, it makes me sick.”
    “What upsets me most is that they fired her because of me,” Santiago said.
    “You should have said because of Sparky,” Popeye consoled him. “You didn’t know what yohimbine was.”
    Santiago’s brother was only called Sparky now, but before, during the time he decided to show off at the Terrazas Club lifting weights, they called him Sparky Tarzan. He’d been a cadet at the Naval School for a few months and when they expelled him (he said for having struck an ensign), he drifted around for quite a while, given over to gambling and drinking and playing the tough. He would show up at San Fernando Square and go over menacingly to Santiago, pointing to Popeye, Toño, Coco, or Lalo: come on, Superbrain, with which one of them did he want to match his strength. But since he went to work in Don Fermín’s office he’d become very proper.
    “I knew what it was but I’d