Andean Express by Recacoechea Juan de & Althoff Adrian

Author:Recacoechea, Juan de & Althoff, Adrian [Recacoechea, Juan de]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: ebook, book
ISBN: 1933354720
Publisher: Akashic Books
Published: 2009-04-02T04:00:00+00:00

*Russian expletive.

The train came to a halt at the Campero station—another abandoned settlement in the middle of the Andean plain. It was drizzling, and aside from the railway building there was no other light in the area. The train woke the dogs, eliciting a chorus of barks; the local railway employee was sporting a rubber poncho and a sombrero. The engineer, Quispe, got out to stretch his legs and inspected the engine with a lantern. Meanwhile, the card game continued amid misunderstandings, arguments, and caustic remarks. The group had finished a bottle of Scotch and everyone was a little tipsy. Alderete won some hands, lost others, and the plot to clear him out had not yet acquired any momentum.

This was because he hadn’t yet consumed enough whiskey to lose control of his emotions, at which point he would become dangerous and vulnerable. With the alcohol rising to his head, however, Alderete, the ex-accountant-turned-bourgeois-gentleman-miner, was beginning to uproot hidden feelings from deep inside his tension-ridden soul. He was returning to his humble origins, not with nostalgia or tenderness but with rage. He was becoming sharp-tongued and sarcastic. This is what his tablemates were waiting for, except for Petko, who remained focused on the game and unaware of what was being stirred up around him.

“Why are we stopping?” asked Alderete.

“The engine has to rest,” said Ruiz.

“What the hell do you know about engines?” Alderete countered mockingly.

“I travel to Chile and Argentina all the time.”

“Just to rip off idiots on the train. People know about you. One of these days the police will catch you.”

“I don’t do anything illegal,” said Ruiz.

The Marquis sent the cards flying gracefully down onto the table. Alderete drew four jacks. Before he could pull them up against his chest, Anita glimpsed his hand—Alderete would bet until the bitter end. Anita Romero had not only worked as a hostess, a whore, and a madam, she was also a bit of a magician. When she saw the Marquis’s troubled gaze, she worked out a way to tip him off to Alderete’s hand. The Marquis made use of his knee and Durbin took the hint. He in turn passed the warning on to Tréllez, who at that moment was deep in the red. They needed four queens, four kings, or four aces to beat Alderete’s four jacks.

Ruiz got the message as well and four majestic queens sprung forth under the table for precisely the person who needed them. Tréllez already had two queens and tacked on two more as a gift. The smoke from Petko’s cigar was a formidable curtain that helped shroud hand and eye movements.

In a ploy to confuse the others, Alderete asked for a card and started mixing it with the rest of his hand. He trusted that another player would open the pot; his hope became reality when Petko, who had garnered a three-of-a-kind, opened with a bet of five hundred pesos, setting off the boom of the night—and everyone got into the mix.

“One thousand over his five hundred,” said Alderete.

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