your silence will be your triumph … What’s more, it would be good for you to bring your suitcase as if to say that you plan to stay there until she comes to you, even if it takes one or two days, and nights, or more. Just remember, if you send her a message you’ll spoil everything.”
Obedience—just like that? without a hint of recomposing. Hrumph, sleeping outside wasn’t that bad, although … In 1948 in Sacramento there was only one policeman, and he had a pistol but no uniform; a sixty-something señor who wore a cowboy hat instead of the official cap. A fetid cubicle, fifteen by fifteen, located in back of the council house, had been used only twice as a jail cell, when the then-fifty-something señor recruited four volunteer deputies to trammel just one prisoner in said cubicle. We bring up these two incidents because both times the confinement lasted one night and was due to a minor infraction: spending the night on the bench in the plaza. Both were outlanders who couldn’t find anywhere better to sleep and had planned to leave at the break of day. A crime, though—which one? This was brought up by Doña Zulema, who went on to say that for ten years nobody had been incarcerated, not even for more weighty infractions. So, Demetrio need not be concerned about sleeping in the spot previously suggested. He might be reprimanded by the policeman (now in his sixties), but that’s all. A reprimand without consequence—right? a tenuous prohibition, that’s all; moreover, Sacramento was so peaceful that the only dubious deed could be the commotion the bees made when they built their hives, to wit: a stinging attack if some birdbrain dared venture near where they labored. Such was Doña Zulema’s hyperbole, wishing (in addition) to make herself agreeable. Bear in mind the look in her eyes, just like in Doña Telma’s, which was to push Demetrio to “not think so much, just do it,” because he—oof!—with his yeses and his nos … It’s just that, how long would he have to stay on the bench? And he wouldn’t be able to change his clothes, or bathe … Then: would they bring him food?
“I don’t think it will take Renata long to show. You’ll soon see,” Doña Telma said.
And now, yes: obedience—just like that? It was the following day in the afternoon that Demetrio—suitcase in hand—walked toward the trysting bench. There he brought his silent veneration, his sweet resentment, to magnify what would be, in the end, forced humility. In fact, he didn’t sit but rather partially reclined, wishing to feel the hardness as if he were lounging in a pretend hammock. He made not the slightest gesture toward Renata’s house, or rather the stationery store, where people came and went (not many, not even that), and hopefully the green-eyed gal would soon notice him … Others did. The sixty-something policeman did, that sharp observer simply shaking his head back and forth … We must add that the policeman continued to shake his head on several occasions and every so often. That is, he paced back and forth through the town center without straying far from his object, for he suspected the stranger had decided to sleep right there where he’d already found repose. True, a reprimand, evidently quite respectful, would not be uncalled for, but he would have to wait until later at night to see if yes or if no. And he insistently remained: with foreseeable consequences. Well, his sweetheart simply didn’t show. Stubbornness, dignity. In a roundabout way the policeman had found out about the possible romance, just a bit and nothing more, and anyway the outlander was not wholly unknown to him, but it was the first time the one under consideration had settled down in the spot in question with his suitcase … If at least his beloved appeared at that moment—at nine-something at night? Perhaps. And thus the minutes passed and nothing or just the same, and so the man with the cowboy hat turned to said spot to address the problem with a mere warning or the mere threat of jail … However, at that very moment the outlander got up and began to walk toward Renata’s house. Pursuit and premonition, said in both ways: pursuit from the side—right?, when he heard footfalls? and the other, frontal: Demetrio saw a light on in the house’s largest window. Renata and her mother appeared from the waist up: maneuvering? let’s