-Elías, be careful not to stain your clothes.
That sentence didn’t make sense to a child. Those words do not exist in the language of children. I guess if you don’t want children soiling their clothes you shouldn’t put them on in the first place. Initially I leisurely strolled along the sidewalk, but little by little I unknowingly got away and arrived at the park. The ground was wet and I could smell the humidity with every breath. The paddles were gigantic and to my child's eyes they appeared like lakes with calmed waters. They were like ponds, and even on occasionsI had played to fish in them. The paddlesproduced a hypnotic pull in me and without barely noticing what I was doing, I approached them. Then, when I reached the shore, the magnetic attraction of the centre increased, so that unintentionally I ended up with the water up in my ankles, and then with those wet shoes I could not turn back, so I forgot all about it and began to enjoy thoroughly jumping inside it, causing the water to splash all my clothes, making the mud reach my head. When I finished, I looked like I had just returned from a battlefield or from one of those resorts where they cover your body with mud. When my mother opened the front door, she yelled. At first, she did not even recognise her son, she thought it was some strange creature, a big dog or something like that, when I said:
Mom!
She reacted. Then the features of her face tensed and she shrieked:
-I’ll kill you!I’ll kill you!
She quickly approached me with her hand opened up in the air. I ran out and she began to pursue me - it was a stupid situation. I didn’t know what to do and ran as fast as I could. She pursued me closely, running after me for a few minutes until she finally got tired and said,
I will catch you!
I spent all day on the street until it began to get dark, then I had to go home. I knocked on the door, my mother opened it and said:
Come in!
As I passed by her, while she kept the door open and stood behind it, she showered my neckwith painfulsmacks. Then a good spanking, the subsequent reprimand and finally,the punishment.
I remember a time, when the country underwent a major economic depression andwork was very scarce. I was little then but I remember that period lasted several years. My mother was unemployed, she lost her job and could not find another one, besides she had to take care of me, which made her searcha lot more difficult. It must have been a very bad time for my mother, but the truth is that it was a wonderful time for me. As we had no money to eat, we had to rely on a NGO to supply us with food that used to last us for the whole week. They gave us cartons full of baby food and powdered milk for infantsthat could no longer be sold because they had expired. I was about six or seven years and at first I felt a little embarrassed about eating baby food at my age, but eventually I ended up getting used to it. We alternated a baby food diet with onion puréesand soups. Because of the precarious economic situation, farmers preferred to throw away their crops rather than sell them at low cost,so we took advantage of this by going to the orchards with a shopping trolley and loading it chock a block full of onions.
The situation continued getting worse and as my mother had to work, she managed to get me a grant so that I could eat for free at the school canteen -that’s where I met some very special children and made a good friend. He was my best mate at that time. Well, the truth is that he was the only friend I had. The child had a round face and huge cheeks that made him look quite funny. His family was worse off than mine so I guess being in the same boat we hit it off right away. His mother died when he was four – that must be one of the worst things that can happen to a child. He lived with his dad and he acted as father and mother at the same time because even though he had to work, he always seemed to find the time to make his son look impeccably dressed, well washed, his clothes ironed and even nicely stitched if needed.
As the financial situation of our families was so bad, they could not afford to buy us any toys,so we had tothink all sorts of ways to have fun, like playing marbles. Other children used to spend hours playing marbles and we spent hours watching them, learning the tactics and techniques of the game. Then we would make our own marbles with mud and practice but the other kids would not let us play with ourclay marbles, so we decided we had to get at least one marble to play with others and implement all the techniques we had learned observing them. So we made a small hole to play with our marbles in the patio of the dining room, in an area where the soil was not very hard. Later, using a branch, we createda cavitythe size of a marble. The cavity had a slight descending slope, ideal for a marbleto roll into. Then, using a little mud, we made a small ramp that guided the tinymarble into the downward roundedcavity, making the marble disappear. We left it there and the next day we duga parallel hole similar to the first one that reached the tubular cavity and there it was - we had our very own marble.
I guess, a lot of people considered our invention a fraud but we did not see it that way and although we were afraid that the police was to catch us in possession of the marble, we felt just like Robin Hood. The first game was decisive - we could not afford any mistakes. Head or tails were to decide who would be playing first - well, actually we spat on a flat stone: one side was meant to be the head and the other the tail. It was my friend’s turn first, and although we only had a marble and we played it all in a single game, I was not worried at all. He was a great player and I was fully confident in his ability to beat any of the children in the dining room. The game was intense, until finally one of the kids made a mistake and we wonhis marble. Now we had two, and from there it was all plain sailing because besides being very good players, we both played as a team, while the other children used to play solo. We helped each other and imposed ourselves victorious over other children. When that year finished, each of us had a glass jar filled with marbles.
I liked going to buy the things my mother needed in a drugstore/perfume shop close to home. Nowadays, there are plenty of shops with stuff for kids everywhere but I remember when I was little there was only a toy store in the whole city, and it was located right in the centre, so we rarely passed near it except when my mother had to sort out her paperworkin the bank. So, while she was in the bank I waited for her outside carefully watching the window displays of the toy store. The drugstore near home also had a few toys displayed in the window and I liked staring at them, but what I liked most about the drugstore was going in and ask questions. The shop belonged to a married couple approximately the same age as my mother’s, and the fact is that neither of them were physically very attractive, but something very strange happened to me with that woman.I used to enter asking for prices with the sole intention of hearingher voice, I don’t know why, but as she spoke I felt a tingling in my stomach, as if butterflies were fluttering about. It was a nice feeling so I often entered the store with new questions, only to hear the woman. I definitely could not figure out what she was saying because the moment I heard her voice, I plunged into a kind of trance and all I did was nod so that the woman continued talking.
I have strange memories of those years when it felt like we were always going against the grain. I remember my mother could not find work and left early in the mornings to go for interviews. Those were hard times and although a lot of places needed workers, most of them preferred not to hire anyone to avoid increasing costs. It didn’t matter one’s qualifications or experience, being rejected was the norm. So my mother spent the little money we had going from place to place, from one interview to another without being able to find any jobs. But finally, one day they called her for an interview: the neighbour knocked on our door and told us we had a call. The next door neighbour and my mother were good friends and even though the woman didn’t have a very good life, in part because of how impossible her husband made it, she helped us as much as she could. So, because we had no phone, we used the neighbour’s as ours and received all calls there. It was good news indeed. The job was in a factory where different types of cleaning products were being produced. The problem was that sh
e had spent every last cent we had in previous interviews and could not even pay for public transport to attend this one. While she was a close friend of the neighbour, she would never ask anyone for money, so she had to find another solution.
Then she told me I had to lend her the money I had set aside in my piggy bank. I had long been saving the little money our family members had given me throughout the year and had planned to use it to buy a toy for Christmas. So without really realising the extent of the situation, unable to fully comprehendthe difficulties my mother was undergoing, I hid the little piggy behind the curtains in my room so that she could not take my money. Very early the next morning while I was still asleep, my mother crept into the room and went straight to where I had always kept my piggy bank, but she could not find itand had to keep searching for a while. She was late for the job interview because of this. Fortunately, the factory’s manager could not refuse her the job; it was clear the woman needed it and was keen to work. Now I realise I made a big mistake by hiding the money but at least fate began to change for us that day and things started to work out.
When Christmas arrived and I had no money in the piggy bank and my mother had only very recently started working, and with all the payments we owed our landlord, we could barely subsist with the money she made. My mother’s first priority was to pay off her debts so she told me Christmas was just for young children. I was only five years oldso I had to put up with the truth about Christmas but it didn’t served me well because, although no one came bearing gifts down the chimney, a child still wants to be given toys just like all the other children. That year we used a branch of a pine as a Christmas tree, sure it wasn’t a fir, but hey! It was a pine and it worked for us. Since we had no Christmas decorations, we looked for small cardboard boxes and then covered them with coloured paper. We also hung a fake pearl necklace that my mother had. The truth is that looking back now, I think it was pretty nice. My mother could not get me anything that Christmas and family gifts were limited to socks - I needed them -, but from a child’s point of view toys are a much bigger necessity. My mother came into some money the month after Christmas and although the festivities were over, she took me to a toy store and said I could choose a toy.
Although everyone had a colour TV, ours was on old black and white set, but I remember somehow I could seeeverything on that television in colour. I recall telling one of the kids at school that colour televisionswere silly becauseif you looked carefully at a black and white television you could clearly see the colours in things.
When she started working our economic situation began to improve. The main problem now was that her work schedules were not compatible with my school hours so I had to spend a lot of time by myself. I have never been a very sociable person and, as I explained before, I enjoyed being on my own but, as always, everyone else had something to say about this. I spent most of all my moments of solitude in the fields because, although we lived in a city, you just had to cross a street and found yourself in a field. During one of my walks in the outskirts of the city, while playing among piles of earth that formed a ridge, I decided to liedown on the grass. It wasn’t spring yet but the sun was shining high in the sky and I was wearing the kind of coat with a waterproof cap that almost all children used to wear in those days, a coat with a large hood and soft-hair edges likethe ones Eskimos wear. Although the grass was wet, I felt very comfortableas my coat covered me up to my knees, so I enjoyed lying in the sun and watching that bright blue skyoccasionally criss-crossed by flocks of sparrows lying very low, almost touching me. Often I used to do simple things like this and I always felt comfortable being alone. That day, I was almost asleep when something moved behind a nearby bush. I focused my attention on it but for a few seconds nothing happened. Then,the movement became more intense and it made me stand up quickly.
What could it be? A boa constrictor? A forest troll? I looked around, and searched for something to tackle it with but only found a dead thistle branch, one of those very light ones that break very easily but, I thought to myself, better this than nothing. So I stealthily approached the bushes armed with the twig. When I was only a few steps away, I stopped and moved the scrub with the stick. Suddenly, a black furry thingpranced at me. I fell back as I tried to move away and the hairy beast that had jumped on me. My heart was pounding as if rushing to exit my chest, and then I closed my eyes. I waited to be devoured by the beast but instead noticed something wet rubbing down my face. I opened my eyes and the furry monster turned out to be an abandoned puppy. It was very dirty and, as it was a fluffy hairball,it was hard to tell whether it was thin or not. I took it home and held it inside my coat so that my mother could not see it. As soon as I opened the door, I ran in and went straight to my room to hide. Instantly my mother knocked on the door wondering what I was carrying, what I wasup to. I left him hiding behind a cushion, I opened the door and told her I had nothing. Then, when it seemed I had managed to convince her, the fur ball ran towards her. My mother squealed and the puppy began to lick her ankles.
Can we keep him? Pretty please, mom! I’ll take care of it.
I'll have to double check with the landlord and if he doesn’t object, you'll be able to keep it, but of course you’ll have to take care of it.
We prepared a bath with hot water and a lot of foam and gave it a good wash. It was a beautiful animal, with black fur and a white spot on the neck under the jaw -it was a mutt. The landlord told my mother there was no problem and that it would also be good to have someone to keep me company. When hesaw it, the landlord told us it was a cross between a Belgian shepherd and a wolf. I don’t really think the man knew anything about dogs, but neither did we so we believed what he said.
We called it Tarzan, like the King of the Monkeys. It soon became huge, or so it seemed to me, for I had not grown much since I found it, barely a few inches from the last mark made with pencil on the wall of my room, and the dog had become enormous. I took it out every day to the field after it was freshly washed and then its black hair shone in the sun casting bluish gleams. We shared countless adventures together. I took care of it and cleaned it when it came home muddy so my mother would not to beat it up. It took care of me and defended me from any threat. We were a good team - I wasn’t very communicative and neither was it but when I had something to tell, it always listened carefully tilting its head slightly in order to listen better.
One of the adventures I can recall more clearly took place one day in autumn. The sky was clear, but the days had become very short and night soon fell. I was always very wary of the time and tried to get home before dark so as not worry my mother. We were playing in the hills - Tarzan was a bear and I was a Native American. We had to hide so that the hunters could not catch us. Before sunset, as if a cloud had landed on the hill, this was suddenly involved in a thick, dense fog through whichone could not see anything. I tried to make my way home but it was very difficult to know what direction to take since I could hardly see anything. I walked along a path that led me to a kind of rocky gorge. I couldn’t see the bottom. Tarzan followed me making whining sounds. I then bent down, picked up a stone and threw it into the abyss under my feet. There was no sound to be heard until a few seconds later. Then, a distant echo rose when the stone hit the bottom of the ravine. The fog had dampened the rocky path and it was very slippery. I was very scared until I got out of the rocky area and returned to the small path. By this stage night had fallen upon us and with the fog it was impossible to even see my own feet unless I crouched. Then I told Tarzan:
-Home, home!
And he began trotting ahead of me, turning occasionally to make sure I followed him. After walking for a while, we finally left the hill and after crossing an open field, we finally made it to a suburban street.
The years went by and while I was growing up, Tarzan seemed to be shrinking. Its hair started losing that splendidglow. How many adventures had my old friend and I lived together! I guess it realised its time was coming, and the wolf blood runn
ing through its veins made him take the decision one day to leave to die with dignity. I remember that day. I took it out for a walk and it left never to return. I saw Tarzan walk away with the red collar around its neck with its nameon. No matter how much I called it and searched for it, I never found it again. I guess if there is a heaven after death, Tarzan will be there waiting for me.
The Relic
“HAZEL EYES”’ CHILDREN began selectingdifferent grains and cultivating fields. Where before there were only barren plains, now vast fields of grain grew at the rhythm imposed by the sun and the water. The immense growing areas formed a yellow sea, the grain swaying with the wind’s waves. The Gardeners tilled the land and worked it with their hands. Before planting the crops, “Hazel Eyes'” children came to me and offered me flowers and songs and left bowls of fruits at my feet, begging me for favourable weather, and pleading that their crops be abundant. I felt good to be able to be of service, to feel useful for something -besides, this was the only way I could interact with them. It wasn’tdifficult for me to provide them with the right climate for their crops to grow plenty and tall since,at the end of the day, it was part of my program, the only difference being that now, for the first time ever, I was asked to make use of it. When the grain had ripened in the sun, they all gathered by working together. After the harvest, the celebrations - people came up to the meadow located right next to me, each one of them carrying their best produce such as sweets, beverages, and prepared dishes that filled the air with a sweet caramel scent and a hint of spice. Children ran and people frolicking through the meadow danced to the sound played by the musicians who sang and played their entire repertoire.
The Relic Page 4