Read No One Writes to the Colonel for Free Online

Sepulcher,’ he protested. ‘If they see me in the street with a showpiece like that, Rafael Escalona will put me into one of his songs.’
    But this time, too, his wife convinced him. She herselftook down the clock, wrapped it in newspaper, and put it into his arms. ‘Don’t come back here without the forty pesos,’ she said. The colonel went off to the tailor’s with the package under his arm. He found Agustín’s companions sitting in the doorway.
    One of them offered him a seat. ‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘I can’t stay.’ Alvaro came out of the shop. A piece of wet duck hung on a wire stretched betweentwo hooks in the hall. He was a boy with a hard, angular body and wild eyes. He also invited him to sit down. The colonel felt comforted. He leaned the stool against the door-jamb and sat down to wait until Alvaro was alone to propose his deal. Suddenly he realized that he was surrounded by expressionless faces.
    ‘I’m not interrupting?’ he said.
    They said he wasn’t. One of them leaned towardhim.He said in a barely audible voice: ‘Agustín wrote.’
    The colonel observed the deserted street.
    ‘What does he say?’
    ‘The same as always.’
    They gave him the clandestine sheet of paper. The colonel put it in his pants pocket. Then he kept silent, drumming on the package, until he realized that someone had noticed it. He stopped in suspense.
    ‘What have you got there, colonel?’
    The colonelavoided Hernán’s penetrating green eyes.
    ‘Nothing,’ he lied. ‘I’m taking my clock to the German to have him fix it for me.’
    ‘Don’t be silly, colonel,’ said Hernán, trying to take the package. ‘Wait and I’ll look at it.’
    The colonel held back. He didn’t say anything, but his eyelids turned purple. The others insisted.
    ‘Let him, colonel. He knows mechanical things.’
    ‘I just don’t want to botherhim.’
    ‘Bother, it’s no bother,’ Hernán argued. He seized the clock. ‘The German will get ten pesos out of you and it’ll be the same as it is now.’
    Hernán went into the tailor shop with the clock. Alvaro was sewing on a machine. At the back, beneath a guitar hanging on a nail, a girl was sewing buttons on. There was a sign tacked up over the guitar: ‘ TALKING POLITICS FORBIDDEN .’ Outside, thecolonel felt as if his body were superfluous. He rested his feet on the rail of the stool.
    ‘Goddamn it, colonel.’
    He was startled. ‘No need to swear,’ he said.
    Alfonso adjusted his eyeglasses on his nose to examine the colonel’s shoes.
    ‘It’sbecause of your shoes,’ he said. ‘You’ve got on some goddamn new shoes.’
    ‘But you can say that without swearing,’ the colonel said, and showed the solesof his patent-leather shoes. ‘These monstrosities are forty years old, and it’s the first time they’ve ever heard anyone swear.’
    ‘All done,’ shouted Hernán, inside, just as the clock’s bell rang. In the neighboring house, a woman pounded on the partition; she shouted: ‘Let that guitar alone! Agustín’s year isn’t up yet.’
    Someone guffawed.
    ‘It’s a clock.’
    Hernán came out with the package.
    ‘It wasn’t anything,’ he said. ‘If you like I’ll go home with you to level it.’
    The colonel refused his offer.
    ‘How much do I owe you?’
    ‘Don’t worry about it, colonel,’ replied Hernán, taking his place in the group. ‘In January, the rooster will pay for it.’
    The colonel now found the chance he was looking for.
    ‘I’ll make you a deal,’ he said.
    ‘What?’
    ‘I’ll give you the rooster.’ He examinedthe circle of faces. ‘I’ll give the rooster to all of you.’
    Hernán looked at him in confusion.
    ‘I’m too old now for that,’ the colonel continued. He gave his voice a convincing severity. ‘It’s too much responsibility for me. For days now I’ve had the impression that the animal is dying.’
    ‘Don’t worry about it, colonel,’ Alfonso said. ‘Thetrouble is that the rooster is molting now.