Free Everything is Nice by Jane Bowles

him. She decided to drop in at the shop now with Victoria.
    When she arrived, the boy's mother was behind the counter stamping some old bolts of material with purple ink. She saw Lilina and smiled brightly.
    "Enrique is in the patio. How nice of you to come and see him. Why don't you come more often?" She was very eager to please Lilina, because she knew the extent of Señora Ramirez's wealth and was proud to have her as a customer.
    Lilina went over to the little door that led into the patio behind the shop, and opened it. Enrique was crouching in the dirt beside the wash tubs. She was surprised to see that his head was wrapped in bandages. From a distance the dirty bandages gave the effect of a white turban.
    She went a little nearer, and saw that he was arranging some marbles in a row.
    "Good morning, Enrique," she said to him.
    Enrique recognized her voice, and without turning his head, he started slowly to pick up the marbles one at a time and put them into his pocket.
    His mother had followed Lilina into the patio. When she saw that Enrique, instead of rising to his feet and greeting Lilina, remained absorbed in his marbles, she walked over to him and gave his arm a sharp twist.
    "Leave those damned marbles alone and speak to Lilina," she said to him. Enrique got up and went over to Lilina, while his mother, bending over with difficulty, finished picking up the marbles he had left behind on the ground.
    Lilina looked at the big, dark red stain on Enrique's bandage. They both walked back into the store. Enrique did not enjoy being with Lilina. In fact, he was a little afraid of her. Whenever she came to the shop he could hardly wait for her to leave.
    He went over now to a bolt of printed material which he started to unwind. When he had unwound a few yards, he began to follow the convolutions of the pattern with his index finger. Lilina, not realizing that his gesture was a carefully disguised insult to her, watched him with a certain amount of interest.
    "I have something with me inside this box," she said after a while.
    Enrique, hearing his mother's footsteps approaching, turned and smiled at her sadly.
    "Please show it to me," he said.
    She lifted the lid from the snake's box and took it over to Enrique.
    "This is Victoria," she said.
    Enrique thought she was beautiful. He lifted her from her box and held her just below the head very firmly. Then he raised his arm until the snake's eyes were on a level with his own.
    "Good morning, Victoria," he said to her. "Do you like it here in the store?"
    This remark annoyed his mother. She had slipped down to the other end of the counter because she was
    "You speak as though you were drunk," she said to Enrique. "That snake can't understand a word you're saying."
    "She's really beautiful," said Enrique.
    "Let's put her back in the box and take her to the square," said Lilina. But Enrique did not hear her, he was so enchanted with the sensation of holding Victoria.
    His mother again spoke up. "Do you hear Lilina talking to you?" she shouted. "Or is that bandage covering your ears as well as your head?"
    She had meant this remark to be stinging and witty, but she realized herself that there had been no point to it.
    "Well, go with the little girl," she added.
    Lilina and Enrique set off toward the square together. Lilina had put Victoria back into her box.
    "Why are we going to the square?" Enrique asked Lilina.
    "Because we are going there with Victoria."
    Six or seven buses had converged in one of the streets that skirted the square. They had come from the capital and from other smaller cities in the region. The passengers who were not going any farther had already got out and were standing in a bunch talking together and buying food from the vendors. One lady had brought with her a cardboard fan intended as an advertisement for beer. She was fanning not only herself, but anyone who happened to come near her.
    The bus drivers were racing their motors, and some were trying to