Captains of the Sands by Jorge Amado (Translated by Gregory Rabassa)

Author:Jorge Amado (Translated by Gregory Rabassa)
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Mystery, Urban Life, Urban, Thrillers & Suspense, Thriller & Suspense, Literary, Literary Fiction, Crime Fiction, Crime, Genre Fiction, Literature & Fiction
ISBN: 014310635X
Publisher: Penguin Classic
Published: 2013-06-25T04:00:00+00:00

Events moved quickly because Raul had to take a trip to Rio de Janeiro on important legal business. And Legless thought there was no better time for the raid.

On the afternoon he left he looked all over the house, petted Trinket the cat, chatted with the maid, looked at the picture books. Then he went to Dona Ester’s room, said that he was going to take a walk to Campo Grande. She told him then that Raul was bringing a bicycle back from Rio for him and then every afternoon he could ride in Campo Grande instead of walking. Legless lowered his eyes but before going out he went over to Dona Ester and kissed her. It was the first time he’d kissed her and she was very happy. He spoke in a low voice, pulling the words out of himself:

“You’re very good. I’ll never forget you…”

He left and didn’t come back. That night he slept in his corner in the warehouse. Pedro Bala had gone with a group to the house. The others had surrounded Legless admiring his clothes, his neat hair, the perfume that evaporated off his body. But Legless shoved one of them away, went mumbling to his corner. And there he stayed, biting his nails, not sleeping, in anguish until Pedro Bala returned with the others, bringing the results of their burglary. He told Legless that no one was the wiser in the house, that they’d all kept on sleeping. Maybe the next day they’d discover the robbery. And he displayed the gold and silver objects:

“Tomorrow González will give us a pile for this…”

Legless closed his eyes so as not to see. After they’d all gone to sleep he went over to Cat:

“Do you want to make a deal with me?”

“What is it?”

“I’ll swap these clothes for yours…”

Cat looked at him in surprise. His clothes were the best without any doubt. But they were old clothes, far from being worth as much as the fine cashmere clothing Legless was wearing. “He’s nuts,” Cat thought while he answered:

“Swap? Don’t even ask.”

They exchanged clothes. Legless went back to his corner, tried to sleep.

On the street Doctor Raul was coming along with two policemen. They were the same ones who had beaten him in jail. Legless ran but Doctor Raul pointed him out and the soldiers took him to the same room. The scene was the same as ever: the police who amused themselves by making him run on his gimpy leg and beat him and the man in the vest who was laughing. Except that Dona Ester was also in the room and looking at him with sad eyes and saying that he was no longer her son, that he was a thief. And Dona Ester’s eyes made him suffer more than the soldiers’ blows, more than the man’s brutal laughter.

He woke up bathed in sweat, he fled from the night of the warehouse, dawn found him wandering over the sand.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.