Free Collected Stories by Gabriel García Márquez, Gregory Rabassa, J.S. Bernstein Page B

eating anything.’
    But the woman had stopped laughing now and was serious again, pensive, leaning on the counter. She watched the man go away. She saw him open the refrigerator and close it again without taking anything out. Then she saw him move to the other end of the counter. She watched him polish the shining glass,the same as in the beginning. Then the woman spoke again with the tender and soft tone of when she said: ‘Do you really love me, Pepillo?’
    ‘José,’ she said.
    The man didn’t look at her.
    ‘José!’
    ‘Go home and sleep,’ José said. ‘And take a bath before you go to bed so you can sleep it off.’
    ‘Seriously, José,’ the woman said. ‘I’m not drunk.’
    ‘Then you’ve turned stupid,’ José said.
    ‘Come here,I’ve got to talk to you,’ the woman said.
    The man came over stumbling, halfway between pleasure and mistrust.
    ‘Come closer!’
    He stood in front of the woman again. She leaned forward, grabbed him by the hair, but with a gesture of obvious tenderness.
    ‘Tell me again what you said at the start,’ she said.
    ‘What do you mean?’ José asked. He was trying to look at her with his head turned away,held by the hair.
    ‘That you’d kill a man who went to bed with me,’ the woman said.
    ‘I’d kill a man who went to bed with you, queen. That’s right,’ José said.
    The woman let him go.
    ‘In that case you’d defend me if I killed him, right?’ she asked affirmatively, pushing José’s enormous pig head with a movement of brutal coquettishness. The man didn’t answer anything. He smiled.
    ‘Answer me, José,’the woman said. ‘Would you defend me if I killed him?’
    ‘That depends,’ José said. ‘You know it’s not as easy as you say.’
    ‘The police wouldn’t believe anyone more than you,’ the woman said.
    José smiled, honored, satisfied. The woman leaned over toward him again, over the counter.
    ‘It’s true, José. I’m willing to bet that you’ve never told a lie in your life,’ she said.
    ‘You won’t get anywherethis way,’ José said.
    ‘Just the same,’ the woman said. ‘The police know you and they’ll believe anything without asking you twice.’
    José began pounding on the counter opposite her, not knowing what to say. The woman looked out at the street again. Then she looked at the clock and modified the tone of her voice, as if she were interested in finishing the conversation before the first customersarrived.
    ‘Would you tell a lie for me, José?’ she asked. ‘Seriously.’
    And then José looked at her again, sharply, deeply, as if a tremendous idea had come pounding up in his head. An idea that had entered through one ear, spun about for a moment, vague, confused, and gone out through the other, leaving behind only a warm vestige of terror.
    ‘What have you got yourself into, queen?’ José asked.He leaned forward, his arms folded over the counter again. The woman caught the strong and ammonia-smelling vapor of his breathing, which had become difficult because of the pressure that the counter was exercising on the man’s stomach.
    ‘This is really serious, queen. What have you got yourself into?’ he asked.
    The woman made her head spin in the opposite direction.
    ‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘Iwas just talking to amuse myself.’
    Then she looked at him again.
    ‘Do you know you may not have to kill anybody?’
    ‘I never thought about killing anybody,’ José said, distressed.
    ‘No, man,’ the woman said. ‘I mean nobody goes to bed with me.’
    ‘Oh!’ José said. ‘Now you’re talking straight out. I always thought you had no need to prowl around. I’ll make a bet that if you drop all this I’ll giveyou the biggest steak I’ve got every day, free.’
    ‘Thank you, José,’ the woman said. ‘But that’s not why. It’s because I
can’t
go to bed with anyone any more.’
    ‘You’re getting things all confused again,’ José said. He was becoming impatient.
    ‘I’m not getting