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57 • after war, peace During the spring of 1946, life in the Finca was running smoothly. Mary liked her new maid Marta, and Papa Hemingway was hard at work early every morning. Justo was working well and not causing any problems. Ramón had been with us for over a year, and Fico had learned much from him and was also behaving himself. There was even a certain peace between Justo and Ramón. Justo simply didn’t address Ramón, and Ramón couldn’t have cared less. He performed his job with expertise and was given constant praise by Papa, Mary, and their dinner guests. Then everything changed. Early one morning, I noticed that Justo was particularly agitated, pacing back and forth around the house. I went into the kitchen to see if there had been a confrontation with Ramón, but Ramón and Fico were going about their business as usual, unaware of Justo’s agitated state. By lunchtime Justo was a bomb ready to explode. Hemingway and Mary were swimming in the pool when Justo went into the kitchen to confront Ramón, who was slicing lettuce. “Today is the day!” Justo said defiantly, following it up with a crude derogoratory comment about Ramón’s manhood. “We’re going to see who leaves and who stays.” Ramón continued slicing the lettuce, ignoring Justo. But after Justo fired off another insult, Ramón banged the knife on the counter and faced Justo, ready to fight. He took a martial arts stance, eyes serene and alert. Justo turned and ran down the kitchen steps and outside. 58 rené villarreal and raúl villarreal Fico and I had some difficulty restraining Ramón, who wanted to end the feud once and for all. This is how we learned that Ramón was a martial artist. From the first day Ramón began working at the Finca, he proved himself to be a respectable, honest, hardworking man. He didn’t drink and was never late or absent. He spent his free time downstairs in his room or at the Chinese laundromat in the pueblo, where he talked with the proprietors for hours and where his old school friend worked. In the year we had known each other, Ramón and I had become good friends. I often accompanied him when he went to the pueblo. So I was very sad that day when Ramón told us he would be leaving after he’d cooked dinner and spoken with Papa and Mary. He said he couldn’t take Justo’s hostility anymore. Papa and Mary ate their lunch completely unaware of the morning ’s excitement. But at some point during the meal, Justo went into Hemingway’s study, where he took a handgun from the closet and hid it under his jacket before returning to the kitchen. There, Fico, Ramón, and Marta were cleaning and preparing their own lunch when Justo threw open the kitchen door and pulled the gun out, pointing it at Ramón. Instead of retreating, as Justo expected he would, Ramón grabbed a large kitchen knife and confronted him. Terrified, Justo turned and ran out of the kitchen into the dining room, where Papa and Mary were finishing their meal. Fico, Marta, and I held Ramón back in the kitchen and begged him to wait for Papa or Mary to settle this. I then went out to the dining room and saw that Hemingway had disarmed Justo. “You’re fired! Take your things and go!” Papa screamed at Justo and called me over. I didn’t see Mary. She must have left the room. “René will accompany you to the gate to make sure you leave.” He told Justo to give me all the keys to the house and warned him that if he ever saw him around the Finca, he would shoot him on sight. He then ordered Justo to wait for him in the living room and went into his workroom. He returned and handed Justo a check. When Justo went to collect his belongings, Papa whispered to me, “Be careful. Walk him all the way to the bus stop and don’t leave until he gets on the bus. I think the syphilis has made him loco.” I met Justo outside by the front steps of the house, and we walked without saying a word. At the bus stop in the Carretera Central, he [52.14.8...

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