LITMIR.BIZ

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got it wrong, wrong, wrong. You’re the one who was right. As for my future – no problem at all. You guessed it: what I want is a woman to love. I didn’t like to say so, on account of I’m rather shy.’

      ‘That I don’t believe, Papillon.’

      ‘OK. Go and fetch the blonde, and just you see if I’m not happy when I have a girl of my own.’

      ‘I’m on my way,’ she said, going into the bedroom to change her dress. ‘Oh that Mercedes, how happy she will be!’ she called. Before she had time to come back there was a knock at the door. ‘Come in,’ said Conchita. The door opened and there was Maria, looking a trifle confused.

      ‘You, Maria, at this time of night? What a marvellous surprise ! Conchita, this is Maria, the girl who took me in when Picolino and I first landed up in El Callao.’

      ‘Let me kiss you,’ said Conchita. ‘You’re as pretty as Papillon said you were.’

      ‘Who’s Papillon?’

      ‘That’s me. Enrique or Papillon, it’s all one. Sit down by me on the divan and tell me everything.’

      Conchita gave a knowing laugh. ‘I don’t think it’s worth my while going out now,’ she said.

      Maria stayed all night. As a lover she was shy, but she reacted to the slightest caress. I was her first man. Now she was sleeping. The two candles I had lit instead of the raw electric light were guttering. Their faint glow showed the beauty of her young body even better, and her breasts still marked by our embrace. Gently I got up to make myself some coffee and to see what time it was. Four o’clock. I knocked over a saucepan and woke Conchita. She came out of her room wearing a dressing-gown.

      ‘You want some coffee?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘Only for you, I’m sure. Because she must be sleeping with those angels you’ve introduced her to.’

      ‘You know all about it, Conchita.’

      ‘My people have fire in their veins. You must have noticed it tonight. Maria has one touch of Negro, two touches of Indian and the rest Spanish. If you’re not happy with a mixture like that, go and hang yourself,’ she said, laughing.

      The splendid sun was high in the sky when it saw Maria wake up. I brought her coffee in bed. There was a question already on my lips. ‘Aren’t they going to worry, not finding you at home?’

      ‘My sisters knew I was coming here, so my father must have known an hour later. You aren’t going to send me away today?’

      ‘No, sweetie. I told you I didn’t want to set up house, but between that and sending you away is a long chalk, if you can stay without any trouble. Stay as long as you like.’

      It was close on twelve and I had to leave for the mine. Maria decided to go home, hitching a lift in a truck, and to come back in the evening.

      Hey there,’ said Chariot. He was standing in the door of his room, wearing pyjamas; and he spoke to me in French. ‘So you’ve found the chick you needed all by yourself. A luscious piece, too: I congratulate you, cock.’ He added that as it was Sunday tomorrow we might drink to the marriage.

      ‘Maria, tell your father and sisters to come and spend Sunday with us to celebrate this. And you come back whenever you like – the house is yours. Have a good day, Papi; watch out for the number three pump. And when you quit work, you don’t have to drop in on Simon. If you don’t see the stuff he is looking after so badly, you’ll feel it less.’

      ‘You dirty old crook No, I shan’t go and see Simon. Don’t you worry, mate. Ciao.’

      Maria and I walked through the village arm in arm, tight together, to show the girls she was my woman.

      The pumps ran sweetly, even number three. But neither the hot, wet air nor the beat of the motor stopped me thinking about Chariot. He had grasped why I was so thoughtful, all right. It hadn’t taken long for him, an old crook, to see that the heap of gold was at the bottom of it all. Nor for Simon either: and Simon must certainly have told him about our conversation. Those were the sort of friends a man should have – real friends, aglow with joy because I’d got myself a woman. They were hoping that this black-haired godsend would make me forget the blazing heap of loot.

      I turned all this over and over in my head, and in time I began to see the position more clearly. These good guys were now as straight as so many rulers; they were leading blameless lives. But in spite of living like squares they had not lost the underworld outlook and they were utterly incapable of tipping off the police about anyone whatsoever, even if they guessed what he was up to and they knew for sure it would mean bad trouble for them. The two who would be taken in straight away if the thing came off were Simon and Alexandre, the men who guarded the treasure. Chariot would come in for his share of the wasps’ nest too, because every single one of the ex-convicts would be trundled off to jail. And then farewell peace and quiet, farewell house, kitchen-garden, wife, kids, hens, goats and pigs. So I began to see how these former crooks must have quaked not for themselves but for their homes, when they thought how my caper was going to ruin everything. ‘How I hope he doesn’t go and bugger it all,’ they must have said. I could see them holding a council of war.

      I had made up my mind. I’d go and see Simon that evening and ask him and his family to the party tomorrow, and I’d tell him to invite Alexandre too if he could come. I must make them all think that for me having a girl like Maria was the finest thing in the world.

      The hoist brought me up to the open air. I met Chariot on his way down and I said to him, ‘The party’s still on, mate?’

      ‘Of course it is, Papillon. More than ever.’

      ‘I’m going to ask Simon and his family. And Alexandre too, if he can come.’

      Old Chariot was a deep one. He looked me straight in the eye and then in a rather flip tone he said, ‘Why, that’s a sweet idea, my friend.’ Without another word he stepped into the hoist, and it took him down to where I had just come from. I went round by the store and found Simon.

      ‘OK, Simon?’

      ‘Fine.’

      ‘I’ve dropped in to say hello, in the first place, and then to ask you to lunch with us on Sunday. Bring your family, of course.’

      ‘That’ll be great. What’s the party for? Your being let out?’

      ‘No, my marriage. I’ve found a girl. Maria from El Callao, José’s daughter.’

      ‘Congratulations, with all my heart. I truly hope you’ll be happy, mate, upon my oath I do.’ He shook my hand good and hard and I left him. Halfway down the path I found Maria coming to meet me and, arms round each other’s waists, we went up to the château. Her father and sisters would be there around ten tomorrow morning to help get the food ready.

      ‘So much the better, because there are going to be more of us than we had reckoned on. And what did your father say?’

      ‘He said, “Be happy, daughter, but don’t you kid yourself about the future. I only have to look at a man to know what he’s like. The man you’ve chosen is a good one, but he won’t stay here. He’s not the sort to put up with a simple life like ours.”’

      ‘What did you say to that?’

      ‘I said I’d do everything to keep you as long as ever I could.’

      ‘Come and let me kiss you: you’ve got a lovely heart, Maria. Let’s live in the present: the future can look after itself.’

      Having eaten something we went to bed; we should have to be up early the next day to help Conchita kill the rabbits, make the big cake, fetch the wine, etc. This night was even more splendid and passionate and enchanting than the first. Maria really had fire in her veins. Straight away she learnt to call up and increase the pleasure she had been taught. We made love long and hard until we fell fast asleep wrapped tight together.

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