Departing at Dawn

15 Hell

83 15 Hell Aunt Avelina had looked at Mr. ThousandFive in her toadish way, ready for the attack, ready to spit straight into the horrible messenger’s eye. It infuriated her that a man so disreputablelooking and of such low social rank, who was dirty even when clean, could use her sister’s name and dare to converse with her niece, who by now everybody in the neighborhood knew was suchaproperyoungwoman.Bertahadcometobewithherand Uncle Tristán Nepomuceno because they were old and needed care; she was simply doing as her mother, Avelina’s fine widowed sister in Tucumán, had so thoughtfully asked her to do. Aunt Avelina was a confident author, and upon seeing her niece she had been able to imagine the plot for “Berta’s soap opera.” There had been no need to ask Berta any questions when she arrived because her story was of course no different from those in the graphic novels, printed in greenish gray on fully illustrated pages that the aunt was constantly reading. It might go like this: A beautiful young woman, inexperienced and naïve, flees a romance that did not work out and takes refuge with her 84 austere family in La Rioja, where she is able to recover her balance that was never really lost, because there is no doubt about her virginity. She has the heart of an innocent child and thus turns to her aunt, for it is like being in the arms of her own mother. Her aunt will guide her down the paths of religion and good sense and keep her safe until that day when “he” will surely arrive, the knight in shining armor, of course, with his entourage of angels and violins, riding on a white horse if possible. They will prepare flowers and her wedding veils: one to be kept in the aunt’s glass cabinet and the other for the Virgin, according to custom. And life will go on because that is the purpose of a woman, to have a family and an aunt such as this one, who asks no questions because it is obvious that what is hidden in the heart of a young woman who cries through the night are love’s secrets. Berta let her go on believing this novel that she had sketched out in her mind, for it did not seem possible to tell her the other story that in no way fit her aunt’s familiar grand myth. Immersed in her graphic novels, her aunt was an authority on happy endings that allowed for evil only so far as “every cloud has its silver lining.” That is how she nurtured her spirit with what she was lacking and had never had or had lost for good. The best part about these graphic novels is that they needed very few words; words often just complicated things. In them a young girl was a virgin, and a good man always respectable; a religious woman, a saint; lawyers, all bad; but doctors, good. Characters always claimed their rightful inheritance and true 85 identities were revealed. And then finally, at the very end, heroes and heroines were reunited amidst copious tears of emotion , love, and hope. The life of Berta’s aunt consisted of a wide variety of boleros and tears, and the novels she fantasized out of her everyday world served as a screen to hide any plots that did not conform to these. That way, through the precious moments of her reading, true stories could be turned into something that helped her survive, because of the hope and expectation for never-ending hugs and happiness shared forever , sealed with engagement rings that would never lose their connecting power. Armed with that predictable paper world, in two colors only, easily accessible with pages that could so effortlessly be turned during siesta time, one certainly could go on smiling at life, face misfortune as if it did not exist, and see that everything makes sense. Even Berta’s current situation, which in reality made no sense whatsoever, could be forced into the same framework. Because of all this Berta understood why her aunt retreated angrily into the house with an expression of disgust at seeing her treat Mr. ThousandFive like an old friend. Before leaving, she made it quite clear that the man should not be invited inside; indeed, she seemed to think he would do well...