Ghosts Read Online Free PDF Page B

cable. That was all they
needed. There were two medium-sized rooms, plus the kitchen and
bathroom. All the furniture was borrowed and rudimentary. The children were
sitting around a homemade table, with chops and peas on their plates. They
didn’t want to eat, of course. In front of Patri were four glasses, a bottle of
soda water, and a carton of orange juice. She was looking severely at her
half-siblings, who were looking at the glasses and whimpering. The
idea was to make them understand that unless they ate, they wouldn’t get
anything to drink. They were dying of thirst, they said. Their mother was making
macaroons in the kitchen, and had switched off for the moment. Patri, being
younger, had more patience; in fact, since she was still a child in some ways,
she was patient to a fault, and rose to the children’s challenge, refusing to
yield a drop. Trying all their options with a wicked cunning, they cried out to
their mother. But Elisa didn’t respond, not just because she was in the kitchen;
her mind was elsewhere. All of a sudden Patri filled the glasses with juice and
soda and distributed them. The children drank eagerly. She finished her chop and
peas, and had a drink as well. The baby girl, sitting by her side, wanted to
leave the table. Patri picked her up and began to spoon-feed her. The
others started getting rowdy. Juan Sebastián, the eldest, had eaten more than
the others, but still not finished his meal. The older girl, Blanca Isabel,
hadn’t even started, and was already asking for more to drink. The heat in the
dining room was intense, but the light was very mild, because the window was
covered with a piece of cardboard. The sun was beating on the cardboard, which
was thick, but seemed to be slightly translucent. That summer light is
incredibly strong.
    What could you do to cool off up there? Well, nothing. It was pure
heat, perfectly real and concrete. Beyond the shadow of a doubt. And yet, if not
shored up by eternities of faith, it would have crumbled to a puff of
ice-dust. Having drunk a glass of soda water and juice, not so much
because she was thirsty, but to set an example for the children, Patri was
suddenly covered in perspiration. Blanca Isabel, who didn’t miss a thing, said,
Did you go for a dip? Thinking it wouldn’t have such a spectacular effect, Patri
helped herself to another glass. Feeling she had done it to taunt them, Juan
Sebastián leapt to his feet and ran to the kitchen to tell his mother, who paid
him no attention. They all started crying out for more to drink. You’ll have to
make do with tap water, because that’s all there is left, said Patri, showing
them the remaining soda. She gathered up the glasses again to make orangeade,
with the dregs, in equal quantities, but only for those who would eat. They made
an effort, and she even had to cut the remains of Ernesto and Blanca Isabel’s
chops into little pieces. Elisa looked out and asked if they had finished. The
meat, said Patri, but not the peas. Sebastián was the only one who had polished
off his meal, but what a performance it had been. His mother asked him if he
wanted any more. He replied with a groan: he had eaten so much, he was full,
stuffed. Patri distributed the glasses. The children emptied them in the blink
of an eye. She left Jacqueline on her chair and went to the kitchen to get the
grapes. It’s the same every day, she said to Elisa: they just don’t want to eat.
It’s because of the heat, Elisa replied, poor things. She asked Patri if she
wanted to finish the peas. Echoing the children, she said she couldn’t. But
wasn’t Elisa going to have anything? She hadn’t even sat down. No, she said, she
wasn’t hungry. Although, in the end, she ate the plate of leftover peas, because
she hated to waste them. Patri went back into the dining room with the grapes
and a clean knife, with which she cut them in half and took out the seeds. Each
child received one grape at a time, and Jacqueline’s took a bit