At that time I had no dog, neither the means to take care of it, because I would wake up very early, even more than my husband, I would prepare his clothes and make breakfast, we had breakfast together and then he went to work at the factory and I to the hairdressers.
The amount of hairs that I had cut, unraveled curls and dyed wicks, this despi-te occupying a large part of the day made me happy, because that was where I would talk to my friends, also when I was fortunate of having a cheerful cus-tomer that made the hours shorter.
This is how I learnt how to find out people’s secrets by their faces, since this after all is a reflection of who we are, what we want and also what we hide.
So many hours listening to the customers, observing their faces in the mirror to see if I made a straight cut, that it made it easier for me later to guess if they had a good or bad day as soon as they entered the door.
Later on, my subtlety increased and I could know without her telling me anything, if she had quarrelled with her husband or son, if she had a new love or if he had left her.
It’s so much that my colleagues named me little witch and it was me who so-me customers came looking for, even if they had a beautiful hair, they wanted me to take care of their hair and thus use the opportunity to tell me about their lives.
Little by little I acquired that skill also on the street, although I never wanted to ask people if what I saw in them was true.
In spite of that, it has given me great joy to know that it still worked for me, to be able to know what was going on with this girl that I crossed in the elevator and that she later confirmed.
To tell the truth, at first I did not expect someone so young could be, but I had seen it so clear, I am truly happy for her.
With this joy in my body I kept walking my dog , focused in my thoughts, when it finished running around a bit and doing it’s business, I tied him again and we went up to the apartment. The dog despite being small made me feel quite big, though sometimes I had wanted to move and leave this place, I thought it was more about cowardness than a necessity.
I knew that in any other place I would find myself better than where I was now, but I also knew that I would miss it so much that I didn’t want to live far away.
It was the house that we had when we got married, the only one we have ever lived in after leaving my parents’ house, I had always wanted to travel and know the world before getting married, studying and having a good job were my goals in life, but circumstances ruled and they were very different from what I wanted.
A good man one day came to me after mass, he told me that he had been wat-ching me and that he wanted to meet my parents. In spite of how unusual that was it did not bother me, so I introduced him to them, the man after making himself known, said he was interested in me and asked for permission to talk to me.
That was a great joy me, because although I had fantasied a lot and flirt around with one boy or the other, never before had a man noticed me as a partner.
My parents, at first suspicious of his young age, asked him about his studies and his family. As best as he could, he got out of that trap and did it quite well, as he was then given permission to see me.
Those were difficult times for a relationship, not like now that you just agree to meet and that is it, then, a family member or a friend had to join us so that we would not be alone and so we would not misbehave.
But after seeing each other two or three times, we figured out a way to be out alone, he brought a family member and I brought a friend as companions and they fit and got along so well that one day we told them,
-If you like we can give you time to be alone while we leave.
And that’s how we got to have our first moments alone, by the way, my friend and her husband are happily married, although it’s been long I heard of them since they moved out of town, but last time we saw them, they had two pre-cious children.
I went to the kitchen to get something to eat, the truth is that I hardly ever felt like eating anything, despite forcing myself every day, because on more than one occasion I had to be hospitalised as a result of anaemia.
After having dinner while watching the television, I put on the radio for a whi-le, although I did not listen to it too much because I was not interested in what was said, it serve me as a company.
It was nice to hear human voice in that house, although I did not get to do as others did, talk and reply the radio announcer as if he were there.
We shared many years and also much suffering here was contained, some of my friends told me it was like a mausoleum, because I kept almost everything just like when my husband was still alive, but what they did not know is that in one way or the other I was still waiting for him.
After the car accident and the subsequent rehabilitation, my husband had been affected by a concussion, from time to time he had memory gaps, as the doc-tors said, and he did not remember the past, but the most serious thing was when the time lapse started in the present, he forgot where he was or who he was with.
That was very hard, because it was a daily struggle for him to remember me, renewing the love with someone who barely recognised me.
I suffered a lot in silence, thanking God for the luck of having him by my side despite his sickness, but one day he did not return. He walked out the door one weekend when we were about to eat and I didn’t hear anymore of him, a few hours later I called his friends and nobody knew where he could be and I be-come afraid, I called the police, hospitals and all the places that occurred to me but nobody knew anything about him.
A day without him, then a week, a month, a year and that’s how my life has been since then, waiting for him to come back, hoping he would say that “ho-ney, I’m home”.
With time I got used to being alone, until a friend gave me a puppy, it was so small and so beautiful that I could not say no and so I looked after him as the child we never had wishing that my husband would see it if he ever returned .
The truth is that I did not feel sad, that stage of my life had already passed, now I was quite calm, full of vitality, I don’t know why that girl had filled me with love, I think that was it, what she herself felt for her son, it was what I had in me.
I turned off the radio and lay down to rest with a big smile on my face, the truth is that it was the best ending of day I had ever had in many years and with a smile I fell asleep.
CHAPTER 2. SECOND DAY
I knew that I only had two days left before leaving the city, and yesterday I had done very little, only get on a bus to explore its streets and know the place.
Now I had the most difficult task, to reach the largest number of people, befo-re leaving, so that the effects on these people would expand as if it were a vi-rus, but this time it would be a positive virus, happiness.
I knew that my mission was important and that time played against me so I left the motel and went to the bus stop. After waiting for a long time sitting down, a labourer passed by who was holding a wheel rim and he said,
- You are waiting in vain, haven’t you heard about the riot ?, The the whole centre has been shot down, no vehicle is going to pass by here today, it is bet-ter you stay at home.
That seemed incredible to me, I do not know why whenever I went to a city, for one reason or another, it seemed that the circumstances were allied to ma-ke my job difficult.
I still remember when in a city there was a Tsunami simulacrum, it was a very quiet coastal city where there was little to no chance of such a situation to happen, but for the first time in the history of that city, they chose the day I was in the city to do the simulacrum.
Like that time fire broke out in the old part of the city and a good part of the main artery remained closed for circulation, as a result of the fear of the fla-mes spreading through the adjoining wooden buildings.
There has almost always been an understandable motive, but unexpected, as if someone didn’t like the work I did, or that one time a group of motor riders, as if it were a pilgrimage, collapsed the entire city .
Personally, I did not care if there were a lot of people, because it made my task easier, because it expands the effects earlier, but it’s a different thing when I cannot touch anyone because they are on a motorcycle.
Then I can not start my task, it is like a piece of domino that transfers one af-ter the other, and the more people, the more people get infected.
I just needed to touch someone who voluntarily accepted my gift, and then all is settled, because that person would transmit his or her happiness to everyone they find or was close to them less than a metre of distance. I was surprised but the fact that I could not reach people, but knowing that my fate was to walk, I decided to do so when I heard,
-Don’t act like that, the man said, dropping the tire on the floor. If you’re such in a hurry you just have to tell me, and I’ll take you.
-You would? I asked in amazement.
-Of course, that’s what people of good will are for, to help each other when they need it, wait a minute.
Right after he went down a narrow street, and after a while he came back with a pretty old car, which was falling apart. The man opened the passenger door from inside and said,
-Excuse my oldie, is just that I am repairing it little by little, but don’t worry in a few years I will be just as new.
- I hope it does not go very fast - I said to him jokingly.
- Don’t worry that it doesn’t go over forty, otherwise it starts bringing out smoke, and we will not be able to see anything, by the way, where are you going?
-I am looking for a church that is open, do you know of any?
