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truth!’
    ‘The mare? What’s happened to the mare?’
    José realised Oscar really knew nothing about what had happened. He scratched his neck and glanced around, studying the undergrowth. He thought he saw a tree moving swiftly, but no wind was shaking its branches and besides trees do not wear hats.
    ‘Has someone killed the mare? Tell me, José.’
    ‘You know what, Oscar . . . I think someone doesn’t like you.’
    Oscar asked more questions but José had already turned on his heel and was walking quickly back to his house. At that moment Ester’s voice came from inside the shack.
    ‘Six weeks, Oscar.’
    Both men turned.
    ‘Congratulations,’ said Ester.

Oscar’s Nightmare
    The two men rushed inside and found Ester washing her hands and Malena with a smile on her face.
    â€˜What does she mean?’ said Oscar.
    â€˜You know the old saying: it’s too late to eat green guava when you’ve already got the shits,’ said José, laughing.
    Oscar nervously asked Malena how she could be pregnant and demanded that Ester check again, explaining that Malena had taken to fainting a lot recently and that besides her predictions were frequently inaccurate. Ignoring Oscar’s concerns, Ester walked to the door. ‘Take good care of her. She’ll need it. I recommend she eat lots of meat and vegetables to increase her blood supply because we never know how much she might lose. You’ll find me at my house when you’re ready to pay.’
    â€˜Wait there! I’ll pay you right now.’
    Oscar went out into the back yard and grabbed the chicken he had bought a few days earlier to make sacrifice to Olofi. Looking into the midwife’s eyes, he said that he hoped she was certain of her divinations because this was a very serious matter, and if this were a joke he would not let it pass. Ester nodded, grabbed the chicken by the legs and left. Oscar stared after her, dazed, as though her coal-streaked smock were some spectre disappearing into the underbrush. Then he stumbled back into his shack, its walls green with moss and mould, still in a deep trance.
    â€˜Cheer up, hombre , it’s not the end of the world,’ said José. ‘Eventually we all die, and that’s the end. Everything we are dies with us. Some day, even your name will have vanished from the earth. “Oscar Kortico?” people will say. “Who the hell was he?” When you think about it, children are the only proof that we ever existed. You’ll see, you’ll come to love being a father.’ Oscar ushered his friend out, saying that he and Malena had a lot to talk about. José walked down the path, skipping for joy, greeting everyone he passed along the way. He had completely forgotten about the dead mare, her tongue poking out. Oscar and Malena were going to have a child, that was all that mattered. A child would bring the two families even closer together and would finally root out the bitterness lodged in his friend’s heart. This is what children did, they brought happiness into a home, something Oscar had rarely experienced. That day, the Mandingas celebrated Malena’s pregnancy in secret while the Kortico cabin remained shut up as though there had been a death in the family.
    Unlike Betina, who scarcely believed in her own shadow, Malena was fiercely devout and visited the church of Our Lady of Charity in El Cobre at least once a week in addition to the three prayers she made daily. I know this doesn’t mean anything because there are lots of people who claim to be Christians when actually they’re complete bastards who would sell their own mothers. But Malena was not like that. Oscar thought that perhaps this was why the gods had bestowed on her the gift of pregnancy because, truth be told, during their marriage they had had sex only once a month and each time he had tied a string around his enormous penis in accordance with the traditions of his