Orphans of Eldorado - Milton Hatoum [26]
He found out from me, said Estiliano. You also mentioned the plantation and led him to understand that you were going to sell it.
It’s a very low price for the two properties, I protested.
Becassis is the only one who can pay. He wants to sign two promissory notes that can be cashed in Belém. And he even agreed to pay your fare.
Without the two properties, I would have nothing left. There was Florita, whom I was supporting. I thought of a plan, and told no one. I couldn’t . . . I agreed to Becassis’s offer, and told the lawyer I would only sell the properties if Florita stayed in the white palace.
Do you want to sell the house and abandon Florita? asked Estiliano.
Abandon Florita? How could I abandon the interpreter of my dreams, the hands that prepared my food and washed, ironed, starched and perfumed my clothes? I’d been fond of her from the first moment I saw her in my room: the girl with the round face, full lips and smooth bowl-cut hair, the tender and sad look which acquired cunning and toughness living with Amando. Florita was jealous of me because I’d only slept with her once in the hammock: the game she’d taught me, saying: Do this, touch me here, squeeze my bum, don’t do that, put your tongue here and lick me now: the game that was my farewell to my virgin youth, and which led to my punishment in the Saturno pension and the four or five years of Amando’s contempt. I thought about all this and asked Estiliano:
Wasn’t it my father, your friend, who brought Florita to work in the house?
In Amando Cordovil’s house, not in a house of strangers.
I tried to convince Florita that when I came back from Belém I’d buy a house in the Santa Clara neighbourhood, where we’d live together. Becassis said that an employee from Salomito’s pension was going to work in the house.
You’ll have a family until I come back, I said to Florita.
She came up to me with a friendly look and tenderness in her eyes, brushed her lips across the back of my neck and licked my ear till I shivered. Then she whispered, with hatred:
You’ll come back from Belém with the devil in your heart.
Becassis didn’t hear the whispered words, but he saw my face yellow with fear. And my fear increased when I saw the stamp of an English bank on the promissory notes. I remembered the loan, the firm going bankrupt; my hands turned cold at the bad memory. Becassis questioned me apprehensively, as if I wasn’t going to go through with the deal.
That’s money, he said, pointing to the promissory notes.
The same bank, I said, thinking aloud.
But this time they’re not going to take your money; this time they’ll pay you, said Estiliano.
By chance I looked at Azário and grew irritated. Becassis reprimanded his grandson, who was pulling a devilish face. Estrela’s face cheered me up. That woman’s beauty didn’t diminish my longing for Dinaura, but the idea of losing the white palace was disorienting me. Becassis seemed enthusiastic about buying the property. The matter-of-factness of our first encounter had gone. I’ll not say the old man melted like butter, but he’d warmed up a bit; he was an honest buyer, and a vocal one. He even revealed the name of the perfumery: Tangier. He was going to buy the Bonplant perfumery and gather leaves and roots from the jungle at Boa Vida. He wanted to sell the scent of the forest to the whole of Brazil. If it worked, he’d export to Europe.
I put the notes in my pocket, imagining the flasks of aromatic oil at the back of the white palace. As I said goodbye to Estrela, I touched her delicate hand, then squeezed it, lingering, conveying infinite promise. And I forgot the widow’s son, a strange boy, with a rigid body and hands too big for his age.
Estiliano and Florita couldn’t understand my mood: I had just sold the last two properties and I wasn’t depressed. Estiliano wanted to know what I was going to do afterwards.
Afterwards?
You’ve no longer got a floor or a roof for shelter.
I’ve got Florita. And a friend, who was my father’s only friend.
He guessed that I was scheming something, and came to visit me in the last week I