An Open Secret Carlos Gamerro

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.Maybe looking at it like that there’s a positive side to it right? It was a price that had to be paid.Ezcurra was a sacrifice for the good of all.”ONE NIGHT OVER A FEW WHISKIES Guido and I stop up late talking, mulling over football matches in the church field, summers at the lagoon, games of hide-and-seek at siesta time in the empty factory … He goes quiet at one point, looks me in the eye for barely the time it takes to blink, then fixes his gaze on his glass so intently it looks as if he’s speaking to it: “I never told anybody,” he begins, “maybe that’s why I can remember it all so clearly.I’d found the best place to hide, somewhere none of you lot would dare come looking for me, and I’d just got settled behind the stairs to the mezzanine when the door opened and in came Grandpa followed by this big guy.Only after they closed the door did I see it was the Superintendent.I huddled down afraid they’d hear my heart beating, you know how Grandpa’d get if he found me in his office.From my hiding place I could see his face in the lamplight—set lips, frowning eyebrows, clasped hands resting on the glass of his desk, and the other’s back, the triple roll of his neck against the edge of his suit, a hairy hand clutching a collection of pasta samples that he pretended to study while he waited for Grandpa to start talking.I told you to come at this time Superintendent, he said eventually with a gulp, so we won’t be disturbed.I hope you don’t mind the dark, we’ll be cooler in here.How can I help you? It’s a delicate matter, Neri began, choosing his words carefully, and fell silent again.I knew Grandpa’s face so well, I could see how hard he was trying to hide his concern.What is it pray tell, he said to him.One of the lads from the factory’s got himself into trouble.If it’s a matter of a few pesos to bail him out … The back of the Super’s neck said it wasn’t.He paused before saying Don Genaro, please.Can you see me coming all the way over here over something like that? To collect a few pennies? Please, Don Genaro.Over one of your workers? Actually I find it less upsetting that you take me for a bent cop than a lightweight, and Grandpa goes What then? Come on, spill the beans Superintendent.Listen Don Genaro, Neri said to him, you know the score.The Province’s new police chief is an artillery colonel, a hard man, what more can I say? And I saw Grandpa’s moustache quivering with the effort to control himself and a dark circle appeared around each eye.It’s about my boys, he eventually stumbled out.What did you come to tell me? That one of my boys is in trouble with the military? They’re family men all three of them, they’ve never been involved in politics or anything of the sort, they haven’t the time with all the work they’ve got on.What’s there to explain? They aren’t even students, there’s only one of them’s finished high school, and the Superintendent goes Settle down Don Genaro, it isn’t about your boys.Who is it about then? My wife? Grandpa burst out laughing in relief and sat there with his mouth open, smiling.Let’s get down to brass tacks Superintendent.Tell me what you’re here for.Don Genaro I wanted to ask you about the Ezcurra boy, you know him, Señora Delia’s son, the Superintendent said to him and Grandpa goes That’s why you woke me up from my siesta? To talk about Ezcurra? I don’t know what kind of a mess he’s got himself into now but I’ve never had anything to do with him.I used to have dealings with the father true enough but never with the son.Nor did my boys thank goodness.They’re up and working when he’s on his way to bed.Ezcurra’s grandfather used to sell us flour but that must be more than forty years ago.So? That’s exactly what I’ve come to talk to you about, the Superintendent said to him.You, sir, are one of the distinguished citizens of Malihuel, your family’s been here since last century, your factory feeds many a family … Indeed, and we own half the town too, Grandpa interrupted him.You’ve probably heard, what they don’t say is that we earned it all by hard graft.Don’t tell me my family history Superintendent, I’m afraid I know it better than you do.Where does Ezcurra come into all this? And the Superintendent says, As you’ve just pointed out he’s from an old-time Malihuel family as well.And before I take a decision I thought it wise to talk to people whose opinion might tilt the scales if it comes to it.However, I will have to ask you to act with the utmost discretion on this matter.What we say mustn’t go beyond these four walls,” Guido says the Superintendent said, and his eyes widen as if he’s still hiding behind the stairs, spying on the broad shoulders of the deliberately spoken policeman and his grandfather’s growing confusion through the gap between the wooden steps.“I’d have nothing to tell even if I felt like it Superintendent,” continues Guido in his grandfather’s words.“Was it Ezcurra asked you to come and talk to me? If there’s one thing everyone knows about me it’s that I don’t like beating about the bush.If he’s got something to ask me why doesn’t he come in person? Please, said Neri, raising both palms towards Grandpa, if there’s anyone who mustn’t find out it it’s him.Not even Don Manuel can find out, and Grandpa goes Oh Jesus you should’ve said so in the first place.Listen, you know what I think about the quarrel between those two? I don’t give a tinker’s is what I think.They can kill each other for all I care.Ezcurra senior was a serious hard-working man who had some bad luck that’s all, but his son’s a loose cannon.Spent all the money his grandfather left him, conned half the town, and then to cap it all he went for Don Manuel quite unprovoked.Now he’s in trouble.Well if he’s in trouble he had it coming.And all I’ve got to say about Don Manuel is he’ll be calling the shots in Malihuel the day the cows get the vote.If the people in this town spent half the time working as they do sticking their noses into other people’s business we’d be up there with Toro Mocho or Fuguet instead of being where we are, off the map, if it weren’t for my factory and your headquarters, he said without pausing and fell silent.So I have a free hand do I? the Superintendent asked.Grandpa stared hard at him for a good while before answering if you ask me … Listen Superintendent, I won’t get in your way.If you get in mine, if it’s about my boys or my employees then we’ll stop and talk.Otherwise what Ezcurra, Don Manuel and you want to do with your lives is your own business.When they left,” Guido tells me, “I came out of my hiding place and went back to find you lot, you were all still looking for me.I reckon it must have been the last time we played hide-and-seek in the factory.We were getting too old for it.”While he’d been talking I’d been studying one of the old laminated plastic spaghetti catalogues that served as place mats.The specimens were classified with entomological rigour, yellow lettering on a blue background: Number Seven Hatchets, Number Twelve Friar’s Sleeves, Number Fourteen Gunshot, Number Fifteen Partridge Eyes, Number Twenty-Five Ave Maria, Number Thirty-One Pamperitos, Number Forty Argentinas alla Napoli.Above the list was a logo with a globe and a strand of spaghetti running around the equator.Over the North Pole ran a banner that reads “Round The World” and another under the South Pole that says “Tuttolomondo Spaghetti”.“There’s something I don’t understand,” I eventually say, far more disconcerted than I’d anticipated.“Why did Neri go and ask your grandfather of all people?”Guido looks at me for a second, perplexed, before answering.“He didn’t just ask Grandpa,” he says.“I thought you knew.Neri did the rounds of the whole town before he made up his mind.House by house.To see if people agreed with him wasting Ezcurra [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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