PINNICK KINNICK HILL: AN AMERICAN STORY

Chapter Eleven

PINNICK KINNICK HILL Alfredo spotted Cata first as he, Paulo and Ramon ran down to meet her. Cata’s hair was disheveled, her dress was torn and her face was dirty, but she ran up the hill to meet Alfredo, who embraced her so tightly that her rib cage hurt her. This was the moment of truth for her. Now she was certain of his love for her; and she knew she loved him. But marriage to him? She couldn’t think of taking her sister’s place in the family. But from that day on, they were lovers. They tried to keep it a secret from everyone. They thought they were successful, but eventually the children became aware of their relationship. First it was Paulo. He would come home in the wee hours of the morning from his moonshine operation, and one night he wanted to tell his father something that couldn’t wait until morning. Alfredo wasn’t in bed. As Paulo started to go downstairs to get a bite to eat, he saw his father sneak quietly out of his aunt’s room and hurry to his own room. Chapter Eleven A rmando Belmonte was the owner of Belmonte’s Cafe. It was almost identical to the Cafe Colon in Aviles, Spain, where most of the men who came to work in Glenncoe had spent many an enjoyable day playing brisca or dominoes. On the side of the cafe there was even the metal frog like the one in Spain. The amphibian stood about three feet high, and as it sat on its hind legs, staring straight up with its mouth open wide, the men would toss metal discs, hoping to land one in the frog’s mouth. The first player to score the necessary points would be the winner, while the loser would pay for coffee or chocolate or ice cream. On the opposite side of the building there was a metal bar, also about three feet high. This bar had three metal rings with arms extending one below the other about three inches apart. This game was called La Llave. The same size discs as were used for the frog game were used for this one. The object was to toss three rings. Scoring was so many points for hitting the bottom bar, so many for the second and so many for the top. It was a game that required concentration , and like the frog, some of the men were very good at playing, especially if it was being played for stakes. La Loteria Nacional, Spain’s National Lottery, was conducted for this area by Juan Belmonte. He would receive books of tickets and sell them to the townspeople . Each book contained twenty coupons. Juan Belmonte would get one free ticket every time he sold nineteen. Every time tickets would arrive for the next lottery, men and women would stop by to purchase them. Sometimes they would send their children to get them for them. Juan had been selling the tickets for several years without having any winning tickets in town. Everyone always hoped to hit with “La Gorda,” the big one. Then it happened! “La Gorda,” worth 166,000 pesetas, was won by each of the tickets in a certain book of twenty coupons. My father had one ticket; he had 89 PINNICK KINNICK HILL told me to buy it for him several days earlier. Word of the winnings came from the agent in New York City and was also published in La Prensa, the weekly paper printed in New York and subscribed to by a number of Glenncoe residents. Word spread like wildfire throughout the community. All the winning ticket holders hurried to Belmonte’s Cafe that day. There was a meeting, and everyone was urged to return in the evening to decide how to handle the situation. One man living in Coalton had purchased three coupons; there were three people in Glenncoe with two each, Juan Belmonte being one of them; then there were single ticket holders. There was fun and rejoicing at the cafe all evening long. Everyone was trying to figure out how much money would be realized in dollars . They didn’t know the exact exchange value at the time. All they did know was that they would have more money than they had ever had. It was decided that Juan Belmonte would go to Spain to collect the prize money. The lottery winners weren’t going to trust...