(GRANDFATHER stretches out his hand and takes hold of SEÑORA CARLOTA, as she brushes past him. She pretends to be surprised and get annoyed, but after a brief, silent struggle, she gives in to him. GRANDFATHER sits her on his knees, caresses her, as he continues to recite the letter.)
GRANDFATHER: ‘I’d sooner cause you pain than lie to you, my love. I could never live at peace in the knowledge that I’d deceived you. Yesterday, for the first time in five years, I was unfaithful to you. Forgive me, I beg you, on my bended knee. It was too strong for me. I was overwhelmed by an emotion which swept away all my principles, all my vows, like a hurricane rooting up everything in its path. I have decided to tell you this, although you may curse me. Your absence is to blame. Dreaming of you at night, here in Camaná, has been nothing but a torture to me, and still is. My blood starts to race at the very thought of you. I’m beset by notions of abandoning everything, jumping on my horse and galloping to Arequipa, to your side, where I can hold your beautiful body in my arms again, and carry you to the bedroom …’
(His voice slowly fades away.)
MAMAE: The young lady suddenly felt as if everything was starting to go round. The bathroom, where she was reading the letter, seemed to be turning into an enormous top that spun round and round — the house, Arequipa, the whole world became a giant wheel off which the young lady was falling, falling … as if from a precipice. She thought her heart and her head were going to burst. And her face was burning with shame.
BELISARIO: (Very seriously) Did she feel ashamed because she’d read about the gentleman beating a servant girl?
(GRANDFATHER and SEÑORA CARLOTA have now slid on to the floor.)
MAMAE: (Shaking) Yes, she did, very. She couldn’t imagine how the gentleman could so much as lay a finger on a woman. Not even a perverse Indian.
BELISARIO: (Very moved) Had she never read any novels in which men beat women?
MAMAE: She was a well brought-up young lady and there were certain things she did not read, my little one. But this was worse than reading about them in a book, because she knew the author of the letter. She read it over and over again, but still she couldn’t believe that the gentleman would have done such a thing.
GRANDFATHER: ‘Her name is not important. She was beneath contempt, one of those Indians who clean out hostels, a mere animal, an object almost. I wasn’t blinded by her charms, Carmen. It was you, the memory of you, your charms, your body — that was the reason for my nostalgia. Thinking about you, longing for you, that was what made me give in to such madness and make love to the Indian woman. On the floor, like a beast. Yes, you must know everything.’
BELISARIO: (Also trembling, now pronouncing the words as if they were burning him) So the gentleman’s wife went as white as snow, all because of a few lashes he happened to give the servant. Is that why the young lady felt the world was coming to an end? You’re not hiding anything from me, are you? The gentleman didn’t by any chance go too far, did he, and do the Indian woman in, Mamaé?
MAMAE: Suddenly, the young lady started to feel something else. Something worse than dizziness. Her whole body started to shake and she had to sit down on the bath. The letter was so very explicit that she felt as if she were receiving the thrashing that the gentleman gave the wicked woman.
GRANDFATHER: ‘And there in my arms, the little whelp lay whimpering with pleasure. But it wasn’t her I was making love to. It was you, my angel. Because I had my eyes closed, it was you I was seeing — and it wasn’t her smell, it was yours, that sweet rose-scented fragrance of your skin which intoxicated me so …’
BELISARIO: But in what way did that letter make the young lady sin in her thoughts, Mamaé?
MAMAE: (Distraught) She imagined that instead of thrashing Señora Carlota, the gentleman was thrashing her.
GRANDFATHER: ‘When it was all over and I opened my eyes, it wasn’t you I was looking at with your drowsy blue eyes, but that unfamiliar face with its coarse strange features … That was my punishment. Forgive me, forgive me, I know I’ve been weak, but it was all because of you, thinking about you, wanting you, that I finally failed you.
BELISARIO: So the young lady imagined that the gentleman was thrashing her. Where’s the sin in that? That wasn’t a sin, Mamaé. That was plain stupidity. And anyway, which Senora Carlota are you talking about? I thought she was the wicked woman from Tacna?
MAMAE: Of course it was a sin. Isn’t it a sin to hurt your neighbour? If the young lady fancied the gentleman was ill-treating her, then she must have wanted the gentleman to offend against God. Don’t you realize?
(GRANDFATHER gets up. With a gesture of disgust he dismisses SEÑORA CARLOTA, who goes away, casting a sardonic glance at MAMAE. GRANDFATHER passes his hand over his face, straightens his clothes.)
GRANDFATHER: ‘When I come to Arequipa, I’ll throw myself at your feet until you forgive me. I’ll demand from you a penance even harsher than my sin. Be generous, be understanding, my angel. I love you and adore you and want to kiss you more than ever. Your ever loving husband, Pedro.’
(He goes out.)
MAMAE: That evil thought was her punishment for reading other people’s letters. So be warned. Never pry into what doesn’t concern you.
BELISARIO: There are things that don’t make sense. Why did the gentleman beat the Indian woman? You said it was she who was the perverse one and he was goodness itself, and yet in the story he gives her a thrashing. Whatever had she done?
MAMAE: It must have been something dreadful for the poor gentleman to fly off the handle the way he did. She must have been one of those women who talk about passion and pleasure and nasty things like that.
BELISARIO: Did the young lady of Tacna go and confess her evil thoughts?
MAMAE: The terrible thing is, Father Venancio, as I was reading that letter I felt something I can’t explain. A sort of elation, an inquisitiveness, which made my whole body tingle. Then suddenly, envy for the victim of what was described in the letter. I had evil thoughts, father.
BELISARIO: The Devil is always on the lookout — he never misses an opportunity to tempt Eve, like in the beginning …
MAMAE: It had never happened to me before, father. I’d had a few warped ideas, vengeful feelings, I’d been envious and angry. But I’d never had thoughts like this before! Least of all about someone I respect so much. The master of the house I live in, my cousin’s husband, the very person who gave me a home. Ahhh! Ahhh!
BELISARIO: (Getting up, going towards his desk, starting to write) Look, young lady from Tacna, I’m going to give you Brother Leoncio’s remedy for evil thoughts. The moment they strike, go down on your knees, wherever you are, and ask the Virgin for help. Out loud, if necessary. (Imitating Brother Leoncio) ‘Mary, keep temptation away, like water keeps a cat at bay.’
(BELISARIO carries on writing.)
MAMAE: (To an imaginary BELISARIO still at her feet) When your Grandma Carmen and I were children together in Tacna, we went through a phase of being very pious. We did penances severer than the ones imposed at confessional. And when your Grandmother Carmen’s mother — my aunt Amelia — fell ill, we made a vow, so that God would save her. Do you know what it was? To have a cold bath each day. (Laughs.) At that time, it was considered madness to have a bath every day. That habit came in later when the foreigners arrived. It was quite a performance. The servants heated up pails of water, the doors and windows were all bolted, the bath was spiced with salts, and when you got out of the tub, you went straight to bed so you didn’t catch your death of cold. So in our efforts to save Aunt Amelia, we were ahead of our time. Every morning for a whole month, we got up as quietly as mice and plunged into icy cold water. We’d come out, our skin all covered in goosepimples, and our lips purple. Aunt Amelia recovered and we believed that it was all because of that vow we made. But a couple of years later she fell ill again and was in the most agonizing pain for months on end. She finally went out of her mind with all the suffering. It’s hard sometimes to understand God, my little one. Take your Grandpa Pedro, for example. Was it fair that everything should have turned out so badly for him, when he’d always been so upright and so good?