Hades, Argentina by Daniel Loedel

Author:Daniel Loedel [Loedel, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2021-01-12T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

At the end of May, my mother insisted on visiting. I tried to put her off, but I’d been doing so for two months already and hadn’t gone home for Easter, and she threatened to stop paying for my room at the pensión. “You either see me there or you see me here, Tomás,” she said with unusual authority, and I told her I’d see her here.

Among the complications it raised was that I knew she’d also want to see the Colonel. I hadn’t seen him myself since starting at Automotores. Partly I was avoiding it, afraid of revealing my state or making a slip in conversation. But partly it was his doing. No calls or invitations, only a postcard from Rio de Janeiro of the open-armed Christ Redeemer statue overlooking the city that read: Churchman beating freethinker here too, alas. It was dated May 24, and I hadn’t heard from him since.

But when I phoned, Mercedes picked up like nothing was the matter, saying simply that it’d been too long since I’d been in touch and going to get the Colonel.

“Why, if it isn’t Señor Shore,” he said. “And here I feared you’d died.”

“You feared I’d—”

“Kidding, Tomasito!” he exclaimed. “Joder. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“My mother’s coming to town,” I answered stiffly.

“Well, why so grim about that? We’d love to host her, of course.”

“She’s going to stay at a hotel—she insists,” I added honestly. My mother wasn’t the type to impose, except occasionally upon me. “We’ll make a dinner date. It’s just that she—she doesn’t know about what I’m doing, my job,” I faltered. “I’d appreciate it if—”

“Of course, Tomasito. You know I don’t like to worry your mother. Your secret’s safe with me.” He said it with such ease it threw me, and before I could thank him and hang up, he added, “How is it working out for you, by the way? That secret.”

I looked around the common area. A business student from Lima sat at the dining table, engrossed in a textbook. A kettle was whistling loudly from the kitchen.

“Aníbal said to tell you he was impressed with me.”

“Oh, did he? How nice. Especially for Aníbal. And do you feel you’re getting what you wanted out of it?”

“Getting what I . . . ?”

“You know, learning, worldly experience and the like. Didn’t you say you wanted more than money out of it?”

I breathed. Switched the receiver to the other ear to give myself more time, but I still couldn’t answer. If the Colonel knew why I’d wanted to work at Automotores, I assured myself, he wouldn’t have gotten me the job.

“Of course, we don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want,” he said at length. “Especially not on the phone! I should know better, shouldn’t I? I’ll let you be off. Just don’t forget, if you change your mind: I can always keep your secrets safe, Tomás.”

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