Tender is the Flesh(25)
He swallows what he believes to be vegetables. He can’t tell what he’s eating, not by its colour nor its flavour. There’s a sour smell in the air. It could be his food or the house.
“Are you listening to me?”
He looks at her for a few seconds without answering. It occurs to him that since he got there, she hasn’t asked him about their father.
“No.”
“That’s not what the secretary at the plant said.”
He decides it’s time to end the visit.
“Dad’s fine, Marisa, in case you were wondering.”
She lowers her eyes and recognizes the sign that her brother has had enough.
“That’s wonderful.”
“Yes, it is wonderful.”
But he decides to take it further because she crossed a line when she called the plant to ask about things she shouldn’t have.
“He had an episode a little while ago.”
His sister leaves her fork suspended in the air, halfway to her mouth, as though she were genuinely surprised.
“He did?”
“Yes. He’s doing fine, but it does happen from time to time.”
“Right, of course.”
He points to his niece and nephew with his fork and, raising his voice a little, says, “Have the kids, his grandchildren, gone to visit him?”
His sister looks at him with surprise and contained fury. Their tacit contract implies not humiliating her, and he’s always respected it. Until today.
“Between school, homework, how far away he is, it’s really tough. And then there’s the curfew.”
Maru is about to say something, but her mother touches her hand and keeps talking.
“You have to understand that they’re enrolled in the best school—it’s an excellent school, a state school, of course, because private schools are terribly expensive. But if they don’t keep up, they’ll have to transfer to one with a fee and that’s not something we can take on.”
His sister’s words are like dry leaves piled up in a corner, rotting.
“Of course, Marisa. I’ll send Dad regards from everyone, okay?”
He gets up and smiles at his niece and nephew, but doesn’t say goodbye.
Maru gives him a defiant look. She takes a bite of special kidney and says, her mouth open, almost shouting: “I wanna go visit Grandpa, Mum.”
Estebancito looks at her, amused, and follows this up with: “Come on, Mum, let’s go visit, can’t we go visit.”
His sister looks at them with confusion; she doesn’t pick up on the cruelty of the request, doesn’t see the suppressed laughter.
“All right, all right, I guess we can go.”
He knows he won’t see the twins for a long time, and he knows that if he were to cut an arm off each of his sister’s children and eat them at this very moment on the wooden table, they would taste exactly like he predicted. He looks them right in the eye. First Maru and then Estebancito. He looks at his niece and nephew as though he were savouring the taste of them. It startles them and they lower their eyes.
He walks straight to the door. His sister opens it and gives him a quick kiss goodbye.
“So great to see you, Marquitos. Take this umbrella, do me a favour.”
He opens the umbrella and leaves without answering. Before he gets into his car he sees a bin. He tosses the open umbrella into it. His sister is watching from the door. She closes it slowly while lowering her head.
21
He drives to the abandoned zoo.
Lunch with his sister always puts him on edge. Not to such an extent that he stops going, but he feels the need to collect himself afterwards, in order to understand why this person who’s part of his family is the way she is, why she has the children she does, why she’s never cared about him or their father.
He walks slowly past the monkey cages. They’re broken. The trees that were planted inside them have dried up. He reads one of the signs, its letters discoloured:
Howler monkey
Alouatta caraya
Class: Mammals
Next to the word “Mammals”, there’s an obscene drawing.
Order: Primates
Family: Atelidae
Habitat: Woods
Adaptations: The females have golden or yellowish fur, while that of the male
The words that follow are worn away.
They have special features that enable them to produce sounds. Their larynx and hyoid bone in particular are highly developed, the latter forming a large capsule that amplifies their vocalizations.
Diet: Plants, insects and fruits
Conservation status: Out of danger
The words “Out of danger” have a cross through them.
Distribution: Central zone of South America, from eastern Bolivia and southern Brazil to northern Argentina and Paraguay
There’s a photo of a male howler monkey. The monkey’s face is contorted, as though the camera captured the moment it was caught. Someone has drawn a red circle with a cross in the centre.
He goes into one of the cages. There’s grass growing up between cracks in the cement, cigarettes and needles on the floor. He finds bones, thinks they could be the monkey’s. Or not. They could be anything.
There are trees outside the cage, and he leaves it to walk beneath them. It’s a hot day and the sky is clear. The trees provide a bit of shade. He’s sweating.