THE WEEPING WOMAN

…As for the women in the tribe, they cooked pots and pots of food as if all Hungary was invited to the feast. There was music and dance; there were clarinets, guitars, tambourines, saxophones and accordions. The gifts to the newlyweds were presented in front of the tribe. Especially significant was a loaf of bread filled with small pieces of gold, part of the family’s tiny treasure. This loaf meant future abundance for the couple. Before the party started, the crowd beat Bela with repetitive soft punches, as a reminder that he had to gather enough strength and resistance for dealing with the usual problems of marriage. His mother in law gave them additional pieces of bread with sugar, so that life could be long and sweet. In order to make it sweeter since the very first day, Bela was told to kiss Maria with a piece of bread in his mouth. …The commander got to the “Pink Panther” bar at almost three o’clock. There were already two patrol cars and four officers standing at the crime scene. According to one of the waiters, the crime had been committed around two. There was a dead man sitting on the sidewalk, with his back against the wall and his beard over his chest. As Mancilla kneeled down he could see at once that the victim was slashed all over, as if being treated with anger and fury. -What happened? Mancilla asked. -Well, the waiter said, there were these two fellows chatting with a pretty woman. Apparently they both wanted to hit on her, but she was just sitting there with a… with such… -With what?, Mancilla said. -With such a strange stare, as if fearing something, or just wondering about what the two men wanted from her, I don’t know. -Yes that’s true, another waiter added. The woman showed a strange countenance, as if waiting for the two men finish their conversation. -Then she stood up, continued the first waiter, and came outside followed by the two men… and moments later we heard her screaming. * … Like a ghost lost between the here and the beyond, Olivia enjoyed the freedom of the control of her family giving those Sundays the best meaning they could have. However, all this was incomplete without a partner. So many things to imagine and not a single soul to witness them; too many characters brought to life without another person to idealize them. That’s when she decided to choose a mate among her cousins. It had to be someone docile and able to discipline, someone eager to learn and easy to be guided (or rather misguided) through all those paths not available through the common senses. So it was you, my dear Oliver, the diligent and responsible son; the natural heir of a store that was bound to prosper under your close surveillance. The look of your sad eyes had to be set elsewhere though. And so, my dear, with the typical intelligence used for these occasions, I took you to the well known predicament of choosing between hard work… and passion. It wasn’t hard at all to invite you to visit my world; and so, during one of those spring afternoons I made the first attempt at trapping you with my net. * ... According to an urban legend of the 1990’s, calamities began the moment the dwarf set foot in that house. All he brought with him was a strange book under his arm. As soon as one member of the family read the chaotic pages of that text, he or she suffered an inexplicable fatality: Piradio Garces, Susana’s fiancé, died of meningitis after having read the section called “Fire”; Susana Gonzalez died of hydrophobia when she read the “Water” section; Hermes, Susana’s brother, died when a whirl of leaves made him crash his car a couple of days after he had read the “Wind” section; and finally, Socrates Gonzalez, the head of the family, died when a bust of Athena fell on his head during an earthquake, precisely when he finished reading “Earth”, the last section of the volume. Socrates Gonzalez had not believed that the book had anything to do with those calamities, until he saw Athena’s bust coming down on his head. * … Someone said it was not a Gypsy demon, but an evil dwarf, the one who was finally described by the haunted girls. The twins talked about a very small man with a reddish face and a horrid smile. He was chubby and his hair was greasy, his eyes were full of blood and his teeth as sharp as those of a dog. The girls said that he was wearing an elegant suit and a white cane, with which he used to beat them in the middle of the night. They could even smell his putrid vapors whenever he approached. At first, the dwarf visited the girls while they were sleeping, putting Bela and Maria on the alert, though neither of them was able to see him. They simply watched their granddaughters exchanging horrified glances, while being alternatively attacked by the invisible creature. The dwarf grabbed the girls by the hair and dragged them all around the house and making them bump against the walls. This situation made Jonas mad at his daughters. He didn’t understand that they needed urgent help, and all his yelling just made things worse. * … Jack turned around to see where the voice was coming from. He had never heard such a fine use of female vocal cords. It was a young woman, probably in her mid twenties, sitting over a bucket placed upside down. And she was so gorgeous, but not because of a beauty parlor session or for spending hours in front of the mirror. With a very simple yellow dress and a pair of sandals, she looked so naturally attractive; magnetic, irresistible, like the queen he was missing in his imaginary chess set…