If he talked to the mayor. Invest fifty-fifty …
Partners worthy of something supersalacious … Still limping slightly, Demetrio made his way to the town hall. By hook or by crook he would get an appointment with Píndaro Macías. And he did. There to lay out his plans, dotting all the dirty i’s and crossing all the t’s. The mayor listened attentively to his diligent description of this seedy world. So many details, but the mayor, smiling stintingly, said, “No!”
Emphatically, it would seem. The “no” reverberated loudly.
Because Parras was not ready for such a radical change. People would rise up, first against him, then against Demetrio.
But even such well-established perversity: no!
Parras would have to grow to triple or quadruple its size for such a place not to be seen in a bad light.
And another stream of reasons for the rejection, though Demetrio would also be interested in starting up some other kind of business. More corrupt, less corrupt … Let’s talk … Another time …
Demetrio left the mayor’s office with a thunderous suite of ideas. Going into business with this mayor, hmm, better to become his good friend. Tactics piled on top of tactics. Perfidious and subtle utilization, and, of course, after, after …
Another meeting — when?
A difficult, because delicate, step.
Now it’s time to shrink time, for good news was going to flow like a wafting breeze (a weightless one), which is to say, nothing terrible was happening that would delay the multiple manifestations of a thousand and one simple situations. Nothing black, nor murky nor gray, hence whiteness, if you like, in all that he had to suffer or surfeit, made everything, therefore, turn out like never before. The mountains of money at the pool hall; for better or for worse each week the cash register filled to overflowing, and at home such remarkable pleasure: each day harmony more deeply entrenched, like a rosy and benevolent blob, something as normal as the sun shining large, or the sky clearing all about, or sweet aromas rising from who-knows-where, or when everything we see inspires us.
And the days passed with no apparent sadness: spring — how joyous! and summer — how peaceful! Add to that the truth about accretion: the charm of knowing that money makes even the most unpleasant things charming and that the servants Amalia and María Fulgencia, as well as the employees Ángel and Aníbal, had not lodged a single complaint for months, not the slightest, nothing, how fortunate, confound it. We’re doing very well, Demetrio commented to his mother with a surfeit of cynicism, and they said, cheers! clinking together their mugs filled with café con leche. It is perhaps fitting here to say that at that time Mayor Píndaro Macías occasionally frequented the pool hall, he played his games, and he lost over and again, but his leisure time — how delightful! He was not good at billiards because he had little practice hitting the ball; just consider all his responsibilities as municipal leader … completely overburdened. Nevertheless, the frequency increased, not so much to play, but rather … What if he managed to do some crooked business with …? Persuasion one small step at a time, persuasion recognized immediately by the successful man, then later ascertained, when the mayor told the big guy (straight out) that he wanted to talk to him in a relaxed and leisurely fashion, in his office, alone, about business, tantalizing demons, more and more suspect. Demetrio went out of inertia and listlessly listened to the lengthy proposals. Improvised twists and always unprecedented expectations for business deals that were not totally transparent. Surely he tired of listening, but as soon as he had a chance to respond, he was arrogant and almost smug when he exclaimed:
“I’d like to do business with you, but only after I get married. My wedding will be on the first Saturday in November. I will be gone from Parras for around three weeks, so we should talk around the beginning of 1950.”
“Where will you have your wedding?”
“In Sacramento, Coahuila. A much smaller town than Parras, very close to Monclova. It will be a simple affair. But if you’d like to come, please …”
“No, no, I just wanted to know where the wedding will be. No, thank you, I cannot go, I don’t have time.”
“Anyway, I want you to know I’m interested in working with you, but …”
“That’s fine, it’s not far off.”
“I just want to say that you can go to the pool hall whenever you like. I will leave instructions that you not be charged.”
“Well, well. Thank you!”
“If that’s all, and with your permission, I will take my leave.”
Office intrigue upon his departure: spying bureaucrats watching Demetrio’s every move (not limping, luckily). They thought this alliance with the mayor quite peculiar. His second time there and — how many more? And if ghoulish plans were afoot — how bad? Let’s end this with a less assonant dread. Disparate, rough hewn, something that was beginning to get tangled in the shadows, little by little, imbroglios of maggoty folk, nothing more. Because Demetrio’s reputation was already the subject of much comment. His business, the pool hall, it was all like some new and grandiose wave. A local harm evocative of My Lord Jesus or Sainted Virgin, and growing and voluminous and what kind of business was it anyway — would he close it? Did he and the mayor make a deal — or not? or was it an arduous diatribe — or what?
Better to say that the date for mother and son to go to Sacramento was approaching. For the first time they would drive in the blue pickup belonging to … They would arrive with pomp, surely. Airs, more airs of unbridled solvency. In that same vehicle the newlyweds would go on their honeymoon to Piedras Negras. An event that had already taken on a well-defined hue. Nevertheless, doubt lingered in the background, for no matter how honest and competent the two servants and the two employees were, it was risky to turn home and pool hall over to them, trust blindly, as well as give them money for … That’s why Demetrio took precautions and paid the mayor a visit (unannounced). A favor. Whatever it would cost — their first business deal? Friendship comes first — doesn’t it? That he hire eight policemen, four at each site, in shifts, to guard both properties while they were gone. Moreover: what was the daily rate? Calculations. Pencil to paper. The mayor had fun adding and subtracting, then erasing, then he wrote anew with greater resolve, and then, finally, the total, eloquence itself: advance payment of the full amount for at least three weeks, to avoid misunderstandings. The following day the money delivered. It wasn’t so much. But yes: men in uniform would keep watch night and day over the appointed places … And to inform the honest employees about the surveillance — understandable!? It was the prudent thing to do, given what had happened to them.
The date was approaching.