The Wanderers Read Online Free PDF Page A

he never finished what he had started. But from that day on, his mother and he had lived elsewhere, and he never again saw or asked about his father.
    Thirty years later, when his mother was exhaling her last breath, she looked up and whispered to Cripple, “There’s another.” Cripple did not immediately know what she meant, but he gave it thought because it seemed to him that words said while slipping into the oblivion of death must be important. He conjectured that it might have well been a sibling; his mother’s life had been very unorganized when she was young, but it could also be another father, a biological father. He did not care much either way. His family environment had not helped him value blood ties, but on several occasions he surprised himself by toying with the idea of having a brother, someone like him, someone who understood the inherent darkness of his genetic legacy that was so hard for him to control.
    “ I may have a brother,” he told Moses one day on the jail’s patio. “Out there, somewhere.
    Moses reflected on his words for a few moments. “A brother is a brother,” he finally answered. “Don’t even think twice about it, and look for him when you get out of here. Look for your brother.”
    Cripple had nodded without lifting his gaze. “I think that’s what I’ll do.”
    The two of them were silent for a good while. Cripple gave himself to the sweet daydream of thinking where he would start his search: his mother’s old neighbors, the old neighborhood, and the old friends who were lost in the bends of life. He was outlining the draft of a plan, and it produced a warm feeling inside him. He smiled, unknowingly, with small, absent eyes. Moses on the other hand, was thinking about how much he would have liked to have a family, even if it were only a sibling, a cousin. Someone.
    A few weeks later, freed from his sentence and sitting on a step on San Juan Street at about 3:30 in the morning, Moses found Jesus at the bottom of a cheap bottle of wine. In fact, it was strange because after that night, Moses didn’t ever feel the need to take drugs. He released himself from the jones ; he stood up clean, feeling clearheaded and well. He told himself that he had finally made peace with the Boss.
    When it was Cripple’s turn to get out of jail, Moses was waiting for him. The ex-convict immediately detected the change: something about Moses’ tidy appearance and smile brought him promises for the future. Moses helped Cripple get back on the social train: an apartment, a job, and responsibilities. He found him a job as a salesman at a well-known fabric store, and he kept him off the streets. It was there, shrouded by the dark night and evolving like dull ghosts, where that type of people moved.
    As Cripple adapted to his new existence, Moses began to think about the search for his lost brother. He begged to God for Cripple’s brother to exist, for Moses to be able to find him, and for him to be a good example for his companion, someone that would make sure that Cripple would not make another descent on the rapids of life’s sewers. It took him several months, but he finally found out that Mrs.Vaello, Cripple’s mother had actually given birth to two sons: Alejandro and Josue Vaello, better known as “Cripple”.
    Moses learned that Mama Vaello had had Alejandro when she still was not of age. He turned out to be a chubby and healthy baby with beautiful, round blue eyes. She was a drug addict, in addition to being a human ruin, so her parents had entrusted the child to their Argentinean side of the family, who were quickly captivated by Alejandro. The couple, who could not have children, took him with them and cut all ties. Mama Vaello didn’t miss him until many years later, when she was pregnant again. The father wasn’t a bad guy, at least not in the beginning, but the arrival of the baby’s had invoked an unsavory change in him: he turned intransigent, foul-tempered, and selfish.