Almost Never A Novel

36


The first (long, celebratory) kiss after the wedding would hopefully be on Renata’s marvelous lips, those two little round sausages, ah. Then let’s imagine all the prohibitions, every detail spelled out on the train: frenetically: in blurts. We could say that it was a question of verbal regression, clamorous, on Demetrio’s part, which gave too much importance to the embrace that the green-eyed gal definitely refused to give him. He had nothing to lose—or did he? Finally Demetrio came out with something he thought Doña Telma would like to hear. I didn’t talk to you because I didn’t want to hear from Doña Zulema at all. I don’t want any advice from you, either. If that’s what you’re going to give me, not even one little bit, so I’d rather keep quiet. Whereby we see the mother listening, until she got fed up. The big guy was fed up, too. The list of restrictions was too long and irksome, but to give her opinion on anything—humph! not on her life! Rather, she stifled herself, the good lady didn’t utter so much as an ahem, and thus they traveled for hours, lulled by the train’s seeing and sawing. Until Demetrio himself, in contradiction to his fed-uppedness, asked his mother for her opinion, one, the first, because he was very frustrated, he had been going down a path full of confusion that had led him to offer her the ring. A bond forged in darkness—right? There was no retreat, because then—what manner of man would that make him! You’re trapped, all that’s left for you now is to feel fresh when you reach the peak of love. That’s what you’ve been struggling so hard for. And so, what was wrong with a kiss?, one on the cheek?, a small, decent kiss?, a hug, too. Renata will give you everything you want, just wait. The wedding will be soon. The wedding, the culmination of a process, the vertical path, always exhausting. Now would come the ruddiness of pleasure that would never fade. In the meantime that inflated hope that helped him know how to live out the illusion. It was worth waiting for what would come, for the fulfillment bit by bit of the best of the best. Doña Telma was more prodigious than necessary; Demetrio found no way to silence her. An opinion transformed into a speech, but also a litany of ideas that were worth listening to. Philosophy of the lowlands made to sound highfalutin. Even once they’d arrived in Parras and boarded the horse-drawn carriage that would take them home, Doña Telma continued speaking with inspiration. Overflowing eloquence—to be believed?