I didn’t understand any of this and I asked:
“Wait, what’s going on? I didn’t do anything to him.”
“How have you not? Look at what’s happened to your brother, he hasn’t done anything and look,” my mother told me, and I still had no clue what she was talking about.
I looked at her, then I looked at him, and I still wasn’t getting it. “What a mess!” I said to myself. I couldn’t figure any of it out, so I asked:
“Okay, well, can either one of you please tell me what’s going on? What have I done that’s so serious? Because I don’t think I’ve done anything, and I can’t work out what’s happened to him. He was out playing on the street!”
Barging angrily past me, Tono said:
“I’m never talking to you ever again in my whole life,” and with that he left for his room, where I heard him locking the door with the key from the inside.
“Mom, please, tell me what’s wrong, what has he told you?” While I asked, I looked at her and I could see her getting angrier.
“Look, do you see what happens by being the way you are?” she said to me very seriously and then she fell silent.
“Me? And what is the way I am? Let’s see, now what on Earth do I have to do with whatever might have happened to the kid on the street?” I was asking her slowly, because I did not want her to get any more upset.
“Listen!” said my mother, when she had calmed down a little. “He told me that the children he was playing with told him he was going to hell.”
“And, what about it?” I asked. “What does that have to do with me?”
“What does it have to do with you? Well, I don’t know how they would have heard about your little thing,” she told me.
“But what is my little thing? Please explain it to me, I still have no idea what you’re talking about, it’ll just be kid stuff,” I said a little irritated, because she insisted on focusing the blame on me for something I didn’t understand.
“Look Manu, this has to change already, I can’t deal with this situation any longer either. Look, my Spiritual Advisor…”
“Who?” I asked a little confused. “Your whaaat?”
“My Spiritual Advisor,” she repeated.
“Wait, what’s that?” I asked again.
“Well, Don Ignacio, the priest, have you forgotten already?” she asked me. “You have to see how you’ve changed son.”
“Yes, the priest, but what you said before, I don’t know what an advisor is. And I haven’t changed at all, I’m still your son, the same as always.”
“Well, the Advisor is another matter, you don’t understand that.”
“Okay, what did that good gentleman tell you?” I said a little irked.
“Don’t call him that! It’s disrespectful,” she said angrily.
“But Mom…, I’m imagining that with him being a priest, that’s proper, is it not? So what should I call him then?” I asked a little more calmly, to see if she finally realized what I had said.
“Look, let’s get on with what we were talking about,” she said getting more and more angry.
“Yes, so he said something, but can you explain it to me just once? What did he say? What do I have to do with all of this? And what does it have to do with what happened to Tono?”
“Well son, you’re coming off like a fool, it’s very clear, it’s all the same thing.”
“But what is it?” I said impatiently, because the issue was becoming increasingly complicated.
“Be quiet and let me finish, and don’t interrupt me every two seconds. Your brother has been told by his friends that he’s going to hell, because he has a brother who’s an atheist.”
Opening my eyes wide, I said:
“Whaaat? Is that what this is all about? I don’t believe it.”
“Of course, I’ve talked about it several times with my Spiritual Advisor, and he has always advised patience, but I’ve had enough. Either you change, or I don’t know what I’m going to have to do with you!” she said staring firmly at me.
“But Mom… It’s not like it’s a dirty shirt that I can take off and put on a clean one.”
“Enough nonsense. I’m having a serious discussion with you, and you, as far as I know, have other shirts. I’d like to be able to take a hold of you and wash you like I do with dirty clothes, and rinse those ideas out of your head. We’d all be better off for it.”
“But Mom… Let’s see, what harm am I doing to anyone by thinking what I want to think? Everyone has their own life to live, the way I see it,” I told her trying to calm her down.
“But don’t you realize? Don’t you see what just happened to Tono?” she told me, her anger not abating and there was no way to change it.
Suddenly we heard Dad at the front door saying:
“Honey, I’m home now.”
Wiping her eyes, my mother said:
“When he finds out…!”
“But Mom…, I haven’t done anything wrong. Calm down!” At that moment, my father came into the kitchen and when he heard me say that he immediately asked:
“Honey, has something happened to you?”
“No,” she replied, approaching him to give him a kiss.
“So, why is Manu telling you to calm down?” he asked again.
She lowered her head and said:
“Go on, tell him! The sooner this is cleared up, the better.”
“Well, what’s all this about? Let’s here it Manu, tell me what’s going on,” my father asked impatiently.
I told him everything that had happened. Then, going out into the hall, he called Tono. From his room with the door closed, he asked:
“Is Manu there? Tell him to leave, I don’t want to talk to him.”
With an authoritative voice, my father said:
