The Blind Masseuse by Alden Jones

Author:Alden Jones [Alden Jones]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press

Sarah stayed in the office to man the phones, in case someone called and needed something. This year, instead of teaching, I was program director. This meant I spent less time with the American high school students and more time with Darwin and the administration team. We spent hours on end in the office, sitting by the phone, waiting for someone to need us.

Darwin and I decided on lunch at the Rincón de Criollo restaurant, down the street from the hotel. Our other options in the neighborhood were the Italian restaurant and the Toro steak house, tourist restaurants owned by the same government chain as the Rincón de Criollo. The Italian restaurant listed mozzarella and tomato salads on the menu, though it was understood that mozzarella was one of those things you would never, ever find in Cuba, and we had gotten our fill of the greasy pizza with the mysterious, cheddar-tasting cheese that we almost always resorted to ordering. The Toro served unlimited roast beef, veal, lamb, and thick cuts of chewy steak. The Cuban government controlled the beef industry—in Cuba the jail sentence for killing a cow was longer than that for killing a human being—and the Toro was a mystery of indulgence, and very expensive. I always preferred the Rincón.

Darwin ordered the chicken soup and the roasted chicken. I ordered my usual: arroz a la Cubana, a small dish of rice and two fried, runny eggs, black beans, and lemonade. Darwin’s soup came first. There was a fatty piece of goosepimpled chicken skin floating on top of the bowl, which was not uncommon and was the reason I didn’t order chicken soup. I wondered if Darwin would eat it or put it on the side of his dish; he seemed to be eating around it. I wouldn’t have eaten it.

I made my utensils dance a few steps of salsa. Knife was more graceful at this than Fork.

“I hope they have flan for dessert,” I said. I didn’t know where to start. Every time I had asked Darwin about Angola, I was greeted with an averted gaze and the feeling that I’d overstepped my bounds.

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.