the European emigres were arriving, King Carol and Madame Lupescu with valets and Pekingese, and for the first time Mexico City felt itself to be an exciting cosmopolitan capital, not a petty town of Indians and military coups. It was inevitable that it would impress Evangelina, a beautiful girl from the provinces whoâd had a gold tooth when he first met her, one of those girls from the coast of Sinaloa who become women while still very young, tall and fair, with eyes like silk, and long black hair, whose bodies hold both night and day, Plutarco, night and day glowing in the same body, all the promises, all of them, Plutarco.
Heâd gone to the carnival in Mazatlán with some friends, young lawyers like himself, and Evangelina was the Queen. She was paraded along the seawall called Olas Altas in an open car adorned with gladiolas, everyone was courting her, the orchestras were playing âLittle sweetheart mine, pure as a newborn child,â sheâd preferred him, sheâd chosen him, chosen happiness with him, life with him, he hadnât forced her, he hadnât offered any more than the others, the way the General had with your grandmother Clotilde, who had no recourse but to accept the protection of a powerful and courageous man. Not Evangelina. Evangelina had kissed him for the first time one night on the beach, and said, I like you, youâre the tenderest, you have handsome hands. And I was the most tender, I was, Plutarco, thatâs the truth, I wanted to love. The sea was as young as she, theyâd been born together that very minute, Evangelina your mother and the sea, owing nothing to anyone, no obligations, unlike your grandmother Clotilde. I didnât have to force her, I didnât have to teach her to love me, as your grandfather had to teach his Clotilde.
In his heart the General knew that, and his veneration for my mother Clotilde pained him, Plutarco, he was like the old saying, he never lost, but if he lost, he took it with him, my mother was part of his war booty, no matter how hard he tried to hide it, she hadnât loved him, she had had to learn to love him, but Evangelina chose me, I wanted to love, your grandfather wants people to love him, and thatâs why he determined that Evangelina should stop loving me, the reverse of what happened to him, do you understand? all day long he compared her to his sainted Clotilde, everything was my dear dead Clotilde wouldnât have done it that way, when my Clotilde was aliveâmy Clotilde, may she rest in peaceâshe knew how to run a household, she was modest, she never raised her voice to me, my Clotilde was so well-mannered, sheâd never had her picture taken showing her legs, and the same, even more, when you were born, Plutarco, take my Clotilde, now there was a real Mexican mother, there was a woman who knew how to care for a baby.
âWhy donât you nurse Plutarco? Are you afraid itâll ruin those beautiful boobs? Well, what do you want them for? To show the men? Carnivalâs over, miss, itâs time to be a decent mother.â
If my father succeeded in making me hate the memory of my mother Clotilde, imagine how it exasperated Evangelina, itâs no wonder your mother felt isolated, and then driven out of the house, going to the dentist, looking for parties to go to, looking for another man, my Evangelina was so simple, leave your father, AgustÃn, letâs go live by ourselves, letâs love each other the way we did at first, and the General, donât let that woman get on your back, you let her get her own way just once and sheâll dominate you forever, but in his heart he was hoping she would stop loving me so I would have to force her to love me, the way it had been with him, so I wouldnât have any advantage he hadnât had. So no one would have the freedom heâd missed. If heâd had to work hard for everything, then weâd have to, tooâfirst me
Kat Richardson
Celine Conway
K. J. Parker
Leigh Redhead
Mia Sheridan
D Jordan Redhawk
Kelley Armstrong
Jim Eldridge
Robin Owens
Keith Ablow