The House of Bonmati

by Claudio Hernández

Pedro was the first to enter the empty room, which was quite unusual for him, because he was not very impulsive when dealing with social matters.

  Pedro walked through the room flexing his biceps, like a water balloon, as if he was in front of a mirror. The wall was grey and the corner of the walls had loose soil on them.

  Antonia was the second one to enter there and she put a fearless expression when she saw the yellowish room. She thought that it smelled like shit.

  Pili came in slowly, as if she were dipping he toes in cold water. Her eyes were wide open in confusion. Juan simply jumped up to the center of the room, sending up a dust cloud. Then Angels went in too. She was complaining about the chip and watching the little black dot in her finger all the time, because it hurt her so badly.

  Valenti was the last one. It was quite a spacious place, with plenty of room for all of them, but it smelled ripe.

  Valentí’s blue suit did not sparkle under the 40-wat bulb, but one of the keys did. It started to glitter under the failing light, even though those keys were rusty and dark colored.

  The next door had no lock. Instead, there was a big latch consisting of a torn iron bar with a lever at the end. If the lever was moved, the bar would move inside a few dark rings, screeching like a wounded animal, until it reached the end of the line.

  “It is a little stiff because it has not been used for years. But there is nothing better than a drop of oil to lubricate it and make the latch work without any noise.” Angels said, because she had seen the new tenants frowning at the sound.

  “Yes, my sister is right.” Valenti gasped, sweating on his forehead, with his knuckles turning white while he was pushing the lever. A noise made him aware of the opening of the escape valve. Shit on shit wouldn’t be noticed.

  Finally the door opened and the smell of shit struck them, like a wave of heat, so strong they had to turn their heads and hold their breaths for a few endless seconds.

  “It smells like shit!” Juan exclaimed with a finger clip on his nose. His voice sounded weird. It was a stifled voice.

  “Son!” His mother ranted with her eyes wide open because of the persistent odor.

  His father gave him a slap with his hand and the boy’s head moved backwards like a ball.

  “Ouch!”

  “The barn is here” Valenti pointed out. “I guess you knew it before I said it. The previous tenant did not clean this part of the house.” He made a pause to cover his nose with a handkerchief and added. “Actually, he did not clean any part of the house.”

  He turned the barn lights on, and two bulbs illuminated weakly the large space of more than 100 meters wide. They watched in horror as hundreds of rabbit-sized rats ran on the wooden beams, one after another, revealing their huge whiskers and their long grey tails.

  Several snorts were heard, and, then some shrieks, similar to hungry cats’ cries. The dry rot wooden beams were full of bright eyes, hiding behind the straw.

  “Poor things” Angels said, as if she cared about those fucking rats. The truth was that she hated them, but she was playing her role.

  Antonia turned around to stare into her eyes.

  “Cows and sheep are raised here. Formerly horses were also staying here.” Valenti pointed at the feeding place and the different collectors’ items to dress a horse, items like a Baste or a Collaro, which were fastened to the walls with iron rusted grips.

  The foul odor still persisted around their heads, like a fluffy cloud.

  “Our grandparents used to keep their horses here at night” Angels corroborated, moving forward towards the room, which was in front of her, a huge room that looked like a shelter dug under the house, with many other room hiding behind the decayed wooden doors.

  Valenti moved his right hand to point towards the inside of the barn. He had already removed the handkerchief from his face and he was standing there looking at it, as if there was something interesting in it.

  Where had he read about it?

  His feet were carrying him towards the barn.

  There was a shadow on the wall, and it wasn’t Valenti’s shadow. But Pili had seen it too, and she stood there wide open, pointing at the wall.

  “Are you scared of rats?” Valenti asked, with that stupid smile on his face again. “They are no longer here. All of them are gone, and they will never come back.”

  Of course not, because that shadow or silhouette will gobble them all, Pili thought with a heavy heart.

  Her father caressed her hair.

  Valenti started walking around the barn and his steps sounded like nutshells rubbing the floor. He took a long and endless walk to the double door, where he stopped. His bald head shone dimly under the light of those bulbs that looked like bats with their heads on fire.

  Angels followed in her brother’s footsteps, limping slowly with one hand behind her back, and said:

  “You can come in. The smell here is more bearable. My brother is going to open the door so as to turn it into a distant memory.” Her hand moved like a paddle through the air, and her dark eyes sparkled with a mean light. She had her slippers sunken into shit and hay.

  Antonia pulled a face.

  “Great!” Shouted Juan, and started running across the barn. His shoes were full of shit and hay, but the boy was happy running around the place, as if he sensed he was going to spend long hours there.

  And he wasn’t wrong.

  “Juan! Keep still!” Antonia yelled rolling her eyes. She used to roll them when she shouted, and the vein in her neck tightened like a hose waiting to burst.

  “Let him enjoy himself” Valenti said, trying to pull the door latch out. His forehead was full of sweat, and his knuckles started turning white again. “I’m afraid you’ll have to help me.”

  Antonia looked at her husband.

  “Pedro! Help the poor man.”

  Pedro stood there for a while, without knowing why, but he finally reacted. He crossed the doorstep and his shoes stepped in the shit, like an angry snorting cat, chest forward.

  Here I am, Muscles man. This latch is just a toothpick for me, he probably thought, judging by the remarkable swiftness with which he got to the door where Valenti was, still wiping his forehead sweat with the same handkerchief.

  “As you can see, apart from the latch there is a wooden board across the door.” The plank was crossed as if it was a concrete beam between the two doors, fitted inside two holes, one at each end of the wide wall.

  Pedro touched the board with his thin fingers and edged it as if it was a sword. He inflated his lungs and pulled. The board scrolled up and left the holes through the wall guide. Then, after puffing and showing his inflated muscles, he left the board next to the door in an upright position, leaning against the wall.

  “Thank you.” Angels said.

  Pedro made a gesture but he didn’t say anything. He was shy and a henpecked husband.

  Pili was standing next to him, as always. She was the apple of his eye, always moving around him like a shadow in the middle of the night.

  Valenti took out the bunch of keys again. They jingled again like dungeon chains. He picked up one of the keys, which was as big as the main door key, and put it into the keyhole after two failed attempts.

  He smiled again, turning his eyes towards them, and then he turned the key again, twice. But it did the same noise, a squeaking and maddening noise.

  Antonia had never set foot on shit before, and she got hay in her high heeled shoe, between her toes, which had red toenail polish. She was so kitschy.

  Then he opened the double door, leaving the keys in his pocket. The light got in, but the sun rays didn’t. The sun was shining on the other side of the house, and this was the dampest spot in the house, even in summer. But, still, it was better than the poor electric light they had had before.

  “This is the rear of the house” Valenti explained, looking at the wet grass that had come up under the door.

  Once he had opened the door, the shit smell spread, like a silent and e
xtremely long fart.

  “Wow! Awesome! ” Juan shouted, dashing toward the exit really fast.

  “Juan!” Antonia put her hand to her mouth under the watchful eye of Angels.

  Outside the house, a mountainside could be seen on the left, humid and mossy, with hundreds of twisted trees that looked as if they were hunched and tired. The driveway looked like a green rug, as if someone had wept thousands of tears of heartbreak. The grass was damp.

  “As you can see, you are in the midst of nature. This is the most desirable area for summer. It is a cool part of the house where the sun never shines. There are some rooms facing this side of the house.” Valenti added, raising his head.

  And it is also full of shit, Antonia thought with a bitter gesture. But no one paid heed to her.

  Angels reached the door shuffling grievously, complaining about her backache.

  “There is a river down there” She pointed to her left with her chubby finger. “Can you hear water flowing?”

  Valenti put a new smile on his face. He was always smiling. This new smile was a smile of satisfaction, as if he was shitting and he had let an enormous turd out of his ass.

  “It is an affluent of the River Ter” Valenti explained, and added: “And right in front the river Ter itself.” Now he was smiling as if he had just wiped his ass.

  He crushed some grass with his feet and showed them the path to the back of the house, to the woods and to another back road that led to the river.

  There were three paths.

  Pili saw a dark silhouette again, moving around, as if it was hiding. This time she realized that the figure had long and thin fingers. She started pouting, pointing to the trees.

  “There is something out there...”

  “Look at the big woods!! You can play there!” Angels interrupted, smiling again and patting the girl’s head.

  Pedro caressed her daughter’s hair.

  “This path leads to the back of the house, as I have already said” Said Valenti hastily. “There is enough room there to plant anything you want, the trees are further up. There are two rooms facing this side of the house. It is a short path, but it is also steep, or narrow, whatever. It is nothing serious for your energetic kids.

  Juan smiled and went towards the damp and narrow path.

  “Juan!” His mother yelled.

  The little boy turned around obediently.

  “A bit naughty, isn’t he?” Valenti looked at her with a new smile on his face. This time the smile was cynical. “You should put a door or something here” he explained while pointing behind him, toward the corner of the house, where there was a slanted roof. “Anybody could climb on the roof from there and fall into pieces if he slips off.”

  “But don’t worry about thieves” Angels intervened. “Nobody has ever tried to steal here.”

  Antonia looked at her sideways.

  Afterwards Valenti pointed his finger at the third path, wider than the other two, leafy and slippery.

  “This path goes to the river I mentioned before. The house’s well comes from it. It is safe to drink water from the river, as it is fresh and perfectly drinkable.” He said it emphasizing the last two words, pointing at the branches of the trees and drawing a circle in the air.

  “You can go down the path to see it” Angels invited them reaching out to them with one hand.

  “No, thank you. We will see it later.” Antonia said stiffly.

  Angels watched her askance.

  They looked like two cats about to spit.

  “But we should see that part of River Ter” Valenti promptly said, with a new smile on his round face. He was the man of a thousand smiles. “We just have to cross this narrow road.” His index finger pointed out again. This time, he was pointing at the other side of the winding road. The entrance to the house was that way and there was a blind curve with no visibility.

  “Be careful, brother.” Angels said, raising her hand. “Be careful with the cars.”

  “Cars hardly come up here, sister. This is a quiet place.”

  “That’s true. There were many horses around in the old days, but nowadays there are not many cars coming.” She looked Pedro in the eye and he blinked. “This is a quiet place.”

  Pedro did not answer.

  “I don’t like quietness. I like being around people and noise.” Antonia explained with her lively attitude.

  “Then you will enjoy that annual race car.” Valenti took a pause to think and then he added: “What was that? Race car or ...

  “It is a rally.” Antonia said.

  “Yes, that’s right!” Valenti exclaimed, moving his neck as if it was a spring. “They pass by every year. A lot of people come near this curve to watch the race.” He pointed to the right, towards the blind curve. There is a hundred meters embankment hiding behind those branches. That’s why it has been called the death curve.

  Juan looked at the curve with wide eyes. He thought it would be nice to go all the way down. One of these days he would, he said to himself.

  Valenti watched the curve silently. Once he had crossed it he stopped and turned around them.

  “Can you hear the running water? Can you see it?

  Antonia crossed the road too, but Juan had run to get there before her. His heart was pounding due to the emotional turmoil.

  “Look, mum! It is true. There is a river with plenty of water.”

  Valenti burst out laughing, but then he stopped doing it immediately.

  Pedro crossed the empty road too, and the only sound that could be heard was the sound of water running.

  Pili couldn’t stop looking into the woods, and the silhouette seemed to be a few meters below now. It seemed to be spying on them.

  The water was flowing down through the ditch and all of them were absorbed in watching the water lapping, with their heads bowed, as if it was the first time they saw a river, well, a ditch.

  “This water joins the main river farther down. I’ll show you the junction later, if my feet don’t kill me.” Valenti touched his knee with his small fingers. “The tributary I mentioned before, I mean, the small river that feeds the well and supplies water to the house, keeps a parallel path to this one. But in the end all of them meet together joining River Ter.

  “If you look at the bottom of the berm you can see both rivers, or waterways, or whatever you want to call them.” Angels could not find the proper word, as it had happened to her brother, and she finally added to get away from it: “If you look closely, there is water running along the road, next to the house. It runs slowly, but there is water. It waters the fig tree located at the entrance of the house.” She seemed satisfied with this explanation, with a pink color in her cheekbones and the same grin she had been showing them all morning.

  “Mom! There is water everywhere! I will be able to swim!” Juan exclaimed while he was crossing the road again. He wanted to check with his own eyes that there was water in the ditch surrounding the house.

  “Juan! What did I just say to you?” His mother’s voice was the only voice they heard, like a siren with an increasingly high pitch.

  “It is true. There is water here too, but not too much.” The boy grumbled.

  Pili, in the meanwhile, kept looking at the lush forest. She was sure she had seen the silhouette hiding now behind some branches, a few feet away. She felt her little heart throbbing in her temples, and she grabbed her father’s trousers closing her eyes.

  2

  “We are not alone.” Antonia said, pointing at a house in the middle of the woods, similar to a white vessel.

  “Well, that’s true, but they are not too near.” Valenti explained. Sweat ran down his forehead towards his cheekbones.

  “How many people live there?”

  “There is just a woman living there at present, and she is now elderly. But she can manage on her own at the moment.”

  “Well, the house seems too big for just one person” Antonia said, staring at the house, which was on a plain covered w
ith brush.

  “I guess she only uses the part of the house she needs.”

  “What’s that, further up, behind the trees?”

  “Oh, that’s an abandoned house. Nobody lives there. Miquel used to live there, but he died two years ago. He had been a widower for thirty years, and he had no kids. The house is closed. And usually nobody camps out there.” Valenti stopped to think for a moment and subsequently added: “They don’t even camp to see the Rally.”

  “Why?”

  “I guess that it is because no cars or roads can be seen from there.”

  Pedro looked at his wife sideways and frowned. Pili kept grabbing his trousers, her eyes wide open. She was not looking at the road, or the house her mother and the fat man were talking about.

  She was scared because she had seen another silhouette, a figure that changed colors, from grey to black, who was watching her from its empty eye sockets or whatever it was.

  Juan crossed again the road, and the lack of car noises was evident. It was a very lonely place.

  Too lonely for Antonia, but good enough for Pedro, who wanted, above all, to take over the house and live in nature. He imagined himself picking up chestnuts in October or mushrooms throughout the whole year, as he had seen that the trees surrounding the house were mostly pines and oak trees. And they were exposed to sunlight and humidity.

  There were two different paths to get to the top. And there were two urban myths related to them too, one for each path. But he would discover it later on. Actually, there were many paths and woods surrounding them. And there were also many silhouettes that only the little girl could see, but that wasn’t all.

  There was something in front of them.

  “What are those houses up there, among the dark trees?” Antonia asked frowning. Maybe finally there was anybody else living in that fucking place.

  “Those are not houses.” Valenti said.

  Angels stared at her brother, while water roared under their heads, at their feet.

  “What are they then?”

  “They are graves” Valenti said, taking his white handkerchief out of his pocket.

  Antonia’s face spoke a thousand words.

  3

  They crossed the road again, entering the dirt track. They walked for about thirty feet, alongside the house, and they stopped in front of an old door with no locks. Valenti was the first to head towards the door.