The Robber of Memories by Michael Jacobs

Author:Michael Jacobs
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781619022621
Publisher: Catapult
Published: 2018-04-27T00:00:00+00:00

The first slight feelings of unease came during our mid-morning lunch. Alfredo, after crossing himself as usual before eating, launched into a subject he thought appropriate to the mood of good cheer that had infected the boat: women and sex. We were due to stop that night outside a town whose name sounded suitably vice-ridden: Gamarra. ‘The women of Gamarra,’ sighed Alfredo, ‘you’ve never met any women like them.’ ‘Better than the ones of Calamar?’ I asked. My irony went undetected. ‘They’re in a category of their own,’ confirmed Diomidio, who now appeared set on taking Julio and me to a special place in Gamarra where we were bound ‘to have lots of fun’.

The prospect of a night of prostitutes with Diomidio and Alfredo did not have the effect on me the two men had anticipated. I became hesitant and awkward. I was going to tell them that both Julio and I had partners, but I began thinking instead of some of my father’s more embarrassing diary confessions: his frequent resort to prostitutes throughout his Italian years; his need to have his intense physical urges satisfied before being able to concentrate on ‘higher matters’; his naivety and self-delusion in believing that several of the women to whom he turned would have happily slept with him for free.

‘We’ll try and find you a fifteen-year-old,’ announced Diomidio, thinking that this would clinch the matter. He said I was completely wrong to be attracted to women more or less in my age bracket. ‘Instead of one forty-five-year-old you could have three fifteen-year-olds,’ he argued, bursting into a laugh. ‘I make a point of never looking at any woman much over the age of twenty, other of course than my wife. Being with old women makes you feel old. Being with young ones always makes you feel young and fit. The demands of a fifteen-year-old keep you in better shape than any workout at a gym. Take a look at Alfredo. He’s in his early fifties. But doesn’t he look much younger than his age?’ We then learnt the secret of Alfredo’s supposed youthfulness. Alfredo happily told us that he had eight children by five different women, ‘each one younger than the last’.

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