Neighbours: The Story of a Murder by Lília Momplé

Author:Lília Momplé [Momplé, Lília]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780143527053
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2011-11-14T00:00:00+00:00

But now Mena, sitting alone on the kitchen bench, will never know that what made Zalíua an accomplice of the other two was a greedy thirst for revenge.

Romu

WHILE STILL A child, Romualdo already suspected that the mulatto, Mr Pugas, whom he called father, was not really his father. Not because, among all the siblings, he was the only one whose skin was very black, nor because he was discriminated against in any way. Rather, Mr Pugas, a man detached from the rest of the family, seemed to concentrate all his capacity for affection on Romualdo. He worried about his health, his schooling, and even his happiness. Occasionally he passed his rough, bony hand over the child’s face, in a gesture of affection. As far as the other children were concerned, their father limited himself to watching them grow up, as if they were domestic animals to whom it was enough to give only the necessary food. And when, sometimes, the others rebelled against his obvious preference for Romualdo, their mother, always an easy-going woman, tried to appease them, saying that their father liked all of them, and it was just that Romualdo was the eldest.

‘Even you have to have respect for him,’ she advised.

The others, though, were not eager to respect their brother – a bad student, a troublemaker, and above all, different. Secretly they despised him.

Romualdo grew up amid the conciliatory kindness of his mother, the jealous animosity of his brothers and the strange affection of Mr Pugas. Paradoxically, the more he realised that he was the sole object of the man’s affection, the more he doubted that he was his father. Finally, his doubts disappeared one particular morning, one that marked a new type of relationship between him and the rest of his family.

He had woken up with a sweet laziness of body and a nausea that seemed to jump from his stomach to his head but, encouraged by his mother, he managed to dress and go to school. He had never hated the classroom so much or the teacher who walked in a leisurely way from one side of the classroom to the other, dictating. Romualdo felt an intense desire to tell her to shut up. He concentrated so hard on restraining this desire that he did not notice the nausea rising from his stomach to his throat. Suddenly he vomited all over his exercise book. Then he began to shake, as the sickness was replaced by an unbearable cold.

When, shortly afterwards, Romualdo, authorised by the teacher, arrived home, the house seemed immersed in silence. His brothers were at school, but he found it strange that his mother was not working about the house, and went to look for her in the bedroom. The room was locked from the inside but, despite his knocking and calling, nobody answered him.

He decided to go and lie down as his body was demanding a bed. Walking away, though, he had the distinct impression of hearing hushed murmuring, which intrigued him and helped him to forget that he was feeling ill.

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