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Authors: Roberto Arlt
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you come to my house?"
The other man vacillated, then said:
"I was eager to meet you."
"Sounded like it might be fun?"
"No ... I swear that's not it."
"What, then?"
"I wanted to meet you out of curiosity. Your wife told me so much about you lately. Besides, I never figured on getting into such a weird situation ... . Well, really, I'm not too sure why I came."
"See? These inexplicable things really happen. I've been trying for some time to think why it is I don't shoot you dead seeing that I've got a gun right here in my pocket."
Elsa looked up at Erdosain, who was at the head of the table ...
The Captain asked:
"What's stopping you?"
"Really, I don't know ... or yes, I'm sure that must be it. I believe each one of us bears in his heart a destiny cut to a certain measure. It's like a way of knowing things through some mysterious instinct. This thing that's happening to me now, I feel, must fit within the measure of my destiny ... it's as though I'd seen it somewhere before ... where I don't know."
"How so?"
"What?"
"It wasn't that you gave me a motive ... no ... I tell you ... a remote certainty."
"I don't follow you."
"I follow me fine. Look, it's like this. Suddenly you see in a flash how particular things have to happen to you in life ... so life can be changing and always new."
"And you?"
"You think that's your life?"
Erdosain, ignoring this question, went on:
"And this thing here doesn't surprise me. If you told me I was going to buy you a pack of cigarettes, by the way, do you have a cigarette?"
"Here ... and so?"
"I don't know. Lately I've been living an incoherent life, just numb with unhappiness. You see how calm I am talking to you here now."
"Yes, he was always expecting something extraordinary."
"You were, too."
"How's that? You, too, Elsa?"
"Yes."
"But, you?"
"All right, Captain. I see what you mean. You mean something extraordinary is happening to Elsa right now, too, right?"
"Yes."
"Well, you're wrong, isn't he, Elsa?"
"You think so?"
"Tell the truth, aren't you really expecting some extraordinary thing besides this business here?"
"I don't know."
"See, Captain? That's just exactly how it always was with us here. The two of us sitting at this table in silence—"
"Shut up."
"What for? We'd sit here and grasp, with no need to put it in words, what we were, two losers, one too much more passionate than the other, and when we went to bed together—"
"Remo!"
"Mr. Erdosain!"
"What's this absurd prudishness? By some chance, maybe, you two aren't going to bed together?"
"We can't go on in this vein."
"All right, when we separated we'd have this same idea: all the joy of love and life, and now it's come down to this? ... And, without saying it, we knew we were thinking the same thought ... but to change the subject ... do you two plan to stay on in the city?"
Suddenly Erdosain got that cold good-bye-forever feeling.
He envisioned Elsa on a ship's rail, under a line of round portholes, peering off toward the blue horizon. The sun splashed onto the yellow wood of masts and black handles of the winches. Dusk was falling, but they stayed there with their minds in some other clime; while waitresses flitted by, they stayed there leaning against the railing. The salt breeze fluttered the waves and Elsa looked at the water from whose ever-changing interstices her shadow took heart.
At times she would turn her pale face to look back and then both of them seemed to hear a reproach that welled up from the depths of the sea.
And Erdosain imagined it asking them:
"What have you done to the poor boy?" ("Because, despite my age,. I was really just a boy," Erdosain was later to tell me. "You see, a man who just stands there while another man takes his wife ... he's a wretch ... he's really like a kid, see?")
Erdosain came back up out of this vision. The question that had popped up was then stamped into him quite against his will.
"Are you going to write to me?"
"What for?"
"Yes, of
The other man vacillated, then said:
"I was eager to meet you."
"Sounded like it might be fun?"
"No ... I swear that's not it."
"What, then?"
"I wanted to meet you out of curiosity. Your wife told me so much about you lately. Besides, I never figured on getting into such a weird situation ... . Well, really, I'm not too sure why I came."
"See? These inexplicable things really happen. I've been trying for some time to think why it is I don't shoot you dead seeing that I've got a gun right here in my pocket."
Elsa looked up at Erdosain, who was at the head of the table ...
The Captain asked:
"What's stopping you?"
"Really, I don't know ... or yes, I'm sure that must be it. I believe each one of us bears in his heart a destiny cut to a certain measure. It's like a way of knowing things through some mysterious instinct. This thing that's happening to me now, I feel, must fit within the measure of my destiny ... it's as though I'd seen it somewhere before ... where I don't know."
"How so?"
"What?"
"It wasn't that you gave me a motive ... no ... I tell you ... a remote certainty."
"I don't follow you."
"I follow me fine. Look, it's like this. Suddenly you see in a flash how particular things have to happen to you in life ... so life can be changing and always new."
"And you?"
"You think that's your life?"
Erdosain, ignoring this question, went on:
"And this thing here doesn't surprise me. If you told me I was going to buy you a pack of cigarettes, by the way, do you have a cigarette?"
"Here ... and so?"
"I don't know. Lately I've been living an incoherent life, just numb with unhappiness. You see how calm I am talking to you here now."
"Yes, he was always expecting something extraordinary."
"You were, too."
"How's that? You, too, Elsa?"
"Yes."
"But, you?"
"All right, Captain. I see what you mean. You mean something extraordinary is happening to Elsa right now, too, right?"
"Yes."
"Well, you're wrong, isn't he, Elsa?"
"You think so?"
"Tell the truth, aren't you really expecting some extraordinary thing besides this business here?"
"I don't know."
"See, Captain? That's just exactly how it always was with us here. The two of us sitting at this table in silence—"
"Shut up."
"What for? We'd sit here and grasp, with no need to put it in words, what we were, two losers, one too much more passionate than the other, and when we went to bed together—"
"Remo!"
"Mr. Erdosain!"
"What's this absurd prudishness? By some chance, maybe, you two aren't going to bed together?"
"We can't go on in this vein."
"All right, when we separated we'd have this same idea: all the joy of love and life, and now it's come down to this? ... And, without saying it, we knew we were thinking the same thought ... but to change the subject ... do you two plan to stay on in the city?"
Suddenly Erdosain got that cold good-bye-forever feeling.
He envisioned Elsa on a ship's rail, under a line of round portholes, peering off toward the blue horizon. The sun splashed onto the yellow wood of masts and black handles of the winches. Dusk was falling, but they stayed there with their minds in some other clime; while waitresses flitted by, they stayed there leaning against the railing. The salt breeze fluttered the waves and Elsa looked at the water from whose ever-changing interstices her shadow took heart.
At times she would turn her pale face to look back and then both of them seemed to hear a reproach that welled up from the depths of the sea.
And Erdosain imagined it asking them:
"What have you done to the poor boy?" ("Because, despite my age,. I was really just a boy," Erdosain was later to tell me. "You see, a man who just stands there while another man takes his wife ... he's a wretch ... he's really like a kid, see?")
Erdosain came back up out of this vision. The question that had popped up was then stamped into him quite against his will.
"Are you going to write to me?"
"What for?"
"Yes, of
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