Page 65 - I Live in the Slums: Stories (The Margellos World Republic of Letters)

Father’s eyes, she was almost an irresistible spirit. And so Father sacrificed
himself early.
It was a pleasant morning when Father and I went to the playground together.
The ground was damp from an earlier shower, and from a distance we saw the
school gardener digging there. I was touched, thinking that she was really
considerate of us. We flew over and saw the school gardener remove her red-
orange work hat and raise it to the sky when she stretched. She looked at us out
of the corners of her eyes with a jeering expression. But that lasted only for a
split second; then she put on a poker face. On the alert, I put some distance

between her and me. As I looked for insects, I kept stealing glances at her. She
was so hot that her body was radiating heat. I wanted to run over and peck at her
butt! But Father wasn’t the least bit alarmed by her. He followed close behind
her, as if he were her pet. On the other side of the playground, children were
shouting; they were apparently fighting. Several children fell to the ground,
while another group continued fighting. I didn’t like seeing bloody scenes, so I
turned my back.
Later on, I ate too much and got sleepy. I lay down under a bush and dozed
for a short time. When I woke up, Father was no longer there. The school
gardener was gone, too. The red-orange hat had been placed on the bush. I
thought Father had gone home, and so I flew back. But Father wasn’t there.
The strange thing was that Mama knew Father had disappeared from the
school gardener’s side, yet she kept complaining that Father had “gone off to
live a comfortable life alone.” She was rather angry but not at all sad. I didn’t
understand why. I unintentionally mentioned the red-orange work hat to Mama. I
didn’t expect that Mama would grow excited:

“Oh, that’s it! That hat! Oh, that’s it! That hat! Oh . . .”
She screeched on and on—repeatedly making the same irrelevant point. All I
could do was leave.
Later, when I told my wife about this, her reply was also irrelevant. This was
the first time I had felt alone.
My wife, however, said something that made me uneasy. She said, “You need
to take better care of your mama.”
I felt she was implying more than she said, and so I had to be more careful
just in case.
The next day, I went to the school again. The school gardener was still
weeding and acting as if nothing had happened. I put a lot of distance between
us. In the entire morning, only a few neighbors came by. My ma didn’t show up
at all.

When I went home near evening, my wife told me that my ma had
disappeared.