This Is The Walk Of Life

-Two young men speak with each other while drinking their 800 peso caldo-

See Panchito this is the walk of life, you drink your caldo, you go Salsa dancing with Fernanda, she likes the way you dance, she knows you are jodido, she is dating a guy that is attending La Javeriana, but he doesn’t know how to dance Salsa, All Colombian chicks know that men that don’t know how get Fernanda preganat don’t know how to dance Salsa, Panchito her parents have to adopt you and hate you, and you just keep on dancing that Salsa with Fernanda and drinking her aguardiente.

-Panchito laughs histerically, moving his head towards left and right as in a negative stance, while his facial gestures and hands with shot glass spilling aguardiente are confirming his buddies machinations-

-It is late, the padres will be sleeping, Panchito gets to his inlaws, house, the father is in a little bedroom, next to the alberca, adjacent to the kitchen and hears him come in, he quickly zips his pants and fixes his shirt, abandoning husky and healthy Blanquita, the maid, on his way he stumbles into a flower pot with pretty red flowers and green leaves hidden in the darkness and his toe aches the evening for three days hence.-

-Catching Panchito in the living room-

“Where have you been boy, you been drinking, here we don’t have enough money to feed the baby and my daughter and you gaming… -The TV is on, it has been on, there is no one in the living room, the perspiring father was suppose to be there watching the lonely TV, the lonely TV, Panchito, eyes the TV, sees that there is nothing on, it has gone off the air, looks, at Pepe, straight in the eyes, “better drunk than fucking the maid,” The father looks at himself, detecting that he isn’t a beleiabable statement for uprightness “he deviously points his eyes downward and corners Panchito with a whimsical gaze, “you say the truth Pancho, you say the truth, ah come off it and have a drink with me bobo tonto.” –the two do not bother turning off the signaless TV, and enjoy a few aguardientes, and crawl later than night, to bed-

Morning at the Camargos, always rose early, Camargo was a dutiful husband, even as he was a bit of a drunkard and his womanizing was limited to the maid of the time; he climbed out of bed properly early, he shaved, while Maria, helped by blanquita nursed the eggs in the changua. Maria had been a lovely women in her time, sported the look of a fallen baroness, she loved her husband, but had sworn off the carnal life after her seventh child, she was fond of saying, in front of Pepe, and with dignified pride, “Its been a long time since a man has touched me and I aint foolish enough to have it happen again.” The seven children, all still living at home, all, shared one car, and all worked for their father’s business including the daughter, they all loved their father, though they thought him overly nice, overly kind, “not a fool in the world that can’t fool my father” was a legendary family saying. Pepe, didn’t really get it, so he laughed, Pepe was clearly a man of god, a church attending member and a member of a group of catholics that were doing much, childrens events, marriage counceling, in order to keep the faith going and going.

At breakfast, the entire family sat, almost at the same time, some came and went, for an instant, but it was a point, unlike the rest of the meals, where for an instant they were all together, this was the family moment, that moment, and there they all were, and besides that, there was nothing else, the entire world, when the nine members of the Camargo family came together, the entire world including Panchito was for an instant excluded from any excursions into that Camargo world, you could see them all blink at that moment in perfect unity, blank, blink, and off to work or school or to run errands for sure to be busy, because they were all good children doing something, one was an intellect, politically able to criticize the system, one was a genius of detail, meticulously dressed, emphatically untouchable but he was pregnant with various illnesses all the time, and new ones, too, people had not heard of most of his illness, if it wasn’t for that, he sure was the most perfectly groomed and most cordially sound of the bunch; but they were all fine boys, and Fernanda was too, Fernanda was a darling you know, she was academic in high school, and would have gone far, with that boy from the Javeriana, but for one little problem, she got hooked on dance just like all Colombian girls, and Salsa and Panchito ruined her chances of ever majoring beyond motherhood.

But Maria was in love with the child, so was Pepe, a darling of a little girl, a darling indeed, the father was meaningless and worthless, and he was just a hangover in their home, but they loved the little child Mirabella, her curly hair, her darling ability to make any red dress humble, and her smile, why kid ourselves, the father was inconsequential, both Maria and Pepe had decided to have another child, and the only way to get to that, was to get Fernanda pregnant, of course it was never said that way, but you don’t let your girl go dancing so late and with such loosed moral boys, and there you have it, the helpless and useless father, would certainly be void of responsibility, they called them “our son” to neuter the father in him, they adopted him like one accepts a useless son, and in return for his daughter, a place to sleep, hostile family warmth he gave them Mirabella.
Maria and Pepe were always complaining about Panchito, how they did everything for him and the child, how he never contributed money, or even cared much for Maribella, she was left mostly to their care, he was a terrible father, not he just wasn’t a father at all, if it wasn’t for Maria and Pepe, said the chorus of their friends.

RC