Beauty Salon by Mario Bellatin

Author:Mario Bellatin [Bellatin, Mario]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Deep Vellum Publishing

When I had my encounter with the boy who died of tuberculosis, I still hadn’t entirely perfected my technique. Although it isn’t good to say so, I regret having fallen in love on that occasion. I believe I never should have placed that tank of tetras on his nightstand. Never should have touched him for any motive unrelated to his hygiene. The instance could be considered a mark against my profession. There are some things I haven’t recounted, but despite the indifference I displayed when the boy entered the final stage of his disease, I must confess that I secretly worried what kind of burial he would receive. I think perhaps I did so moved by the considerable quantity of money that he’d turned over to me before being admitted as a guest. In this case his body wasn’t taken, like the others, to a common grave on the outskirts of the city. I took an interest in his receiving a more dignified burial. I went to a funeral home where I acquired a dark casket. I cleared the furniture from the shed where I sleep and improvised a wake where I was the only mourner. I also hired a black van and secured a burial niche not far from the ground. But I still don’t dare go—and I’m almost positive I never will—to the cemetery to decorate his grave with flowers. Like I said, the rest of the dead are taken to a common grave. Their bodies are wrapped in sheets I tailor myself from the fabric that was donated to us. There is no wake. They remain in their beds, until one of the men that I’ve hired carts them away in a wheelbarrow. I don’t accompany them, and when their relatives come to ask after them, I restrict myself to informing them that they no longer belong to this world.

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