Distant Relations Read Online Free PDF

morning—he was alarmed by the kinship that seemed to him in danger of closing a too-perfect circle, the union of alpha and omega. He replied with equanimity, not totally immersed in the game, nor totally outside it.
    â€œNorth of Paris.”
    â€œIs it easy to get there?” Victor asked.
    â€œYes, you take exit 3 on the A-1 highway to Beauvais and Chantilly.”
    â€œPapa, I want Etienne to take me there!”
    â€œThat would be a waste of time. There’s so much to see in Paris.”
    â€œBut you lost, Papa. I want my prize.”
    â€œIsn’t it enough to beat me?”
    â€œNo. I want my prize. I want to go there. You promised. We promised we’d give each other prizes, don’t you remember?”
    â€œBut wouldn’t it be a good idea to telephone your Victor Heredia first?” Hugo suggested with a certain resignation.
    â€œRemember how surprised the old man in Monterrey was when we showed up without warning?” Victor parried. “Remember?”
    With his arm still around his son’s shoulder, Hugo cupped his chin in his hand and forced the boy to look into his eyes. “No. I don’t remember. You went alone.”
    The boy hung his head and his ears flamed crimson.
    â€œHe thought we were some long-lost relations coming to claim part of the inheritance,” Victor added weakly, a tremor in his deliberately lighthearted voice. “The hereditary Heredias.”
    â€œVictor,” Hugo said severely. “I’m delighted to play these games with you, but if they are to have any value we must never lie. Neither of us. Yes, we both looked up the name in the Monterrey directory.”
    The boy, with a hint of desperation that alarmed my friend, quickly explained that in Mexico the people of Monterrey have the reputation of being misers, like the Scots in Europe. That was the joke, did he see?
    â€œBut we did not go to his house together,” his father said with a tone of finality. “You went alone. I allowed you to go alone. That was your prize.”
    Victor looked at my friend beseechingly and Branly said that of course one would have to telephone first; he would be happy to do it. He got up to avoid Victor’s pained expression, and with the directory in one hand and his spectacles in the other walked to the library adjoining the great salon. He left the door half-open as he called the number in Enghien-les-Bains and heard first the firm but calm voice of Hugo, then the reproachful voice of Victor, followed by the angry voices of both and simultaneously the voice of the person who lifted the receiver to answer. As my friend spoke, the quarreling voices of the Heredias were stilled.
    â€œMonsieur Heredia? Victor Heredia?” my friend asked, and the voice replied, “Who wants him?”
    It is an old man’s voice, my friend thought, and he says that in that instant he wondered if the Heredias were playing a game within a game, seeking, in addition to their names, and complementing that game, a correspondence between ages as well. He had just learned that the Victor Heredia in Monterrey was an old man; he guessed that the Victor Heredia of Enghien was also old. Had the names and ages of the Hugo in Puebla and the Victor in Mérida coincided, so that the father, who was the loser in names, was winner in the category of ages? Or it could be, ironically, that the ones with Victor’s name were to be old, and those with the father’s name young. The inherent nonsense of these combinations piqued Branly’s curiosity and his sense of humor; it also occurred to him that this might be the reason for Hugo’s unexpected irritation. Was my friend going to reward him with the news that this time the person who bore his son’s name was a young man? He disliked having to disillusion him.
    â€œI hope you will accept what I am going to say in good humor. Two foreign friends of mine looked up your name in the telephone