Free Winning the Game and Other Stories by Rubem Fonseca Page B

you saying, Pedro? Are you going to give up now that you’ve found your love? Oscar Wilde suffered like the devil, he was ridiculed, tried, sentenced, but he stood up to it. If you can’t get married, shack up. Make a will in each other’s favor. Defend yourselves. Use the law and the system to your benefit. Be selfish, like the others, be sly, implacable, intolerant, and hypocritical. Exploit. Plunder. It’s self-defense. But, please, don’t carry out any deranged gesture.
    I sent the letter and reply to Peçanha. Letters were published only with his approval.
    Monica Tutsi came by with a girl.
    â€œThis is Monica,” Monica Tutsi said.
    â€œQuite a coincidence,” I said.
    â€œWhat’s a coincidence?” asked the girl Monica.
    â€œThe two of you having the same name,” I said.
    â€œHis name is Monica?” Monica asked, pointing to the photographer.
    â€œMonica Tutsi. Are you Tutsi too?”
    â€œNo. Monica Amelia.”
    Monica Amelia stood chewing a fingernail and looking at Monica Tutsi.
    â€œYou told me your name was Agnaldo,” she said.
    â€œOn the outside I’m Agnaldo. Here inside I’m Monica Tutsi.”
    â€œMy name is Clarice Simone,” I said.
    Monica Amelia observed us attentively, without understanding a thing. She saw two circumspect people, too tired for jokes, uninterested in their own names.
    â€œWhen I get married my son, or daughter, is going to be named Hei Yoo,” I said.
    â€œIs that a Chinese name? “ Monica asked.
    â€œOr else Wheet Wheeo,” I whistled.
    â€œYou’re becoming a nihilist,” Monica Tutsi said, withdrawing with the other Monica.
NATHANAEL. Do you know what it is for two people to like one another? That was the two of us, Maria and I. Do you know what it is for two people to be perfectly attuned? That was us, Maria and I. My favorite dish is rice, beans, kale, manioc meal, and fried sausage. Guess what Maria’s was? Rice, beans, kale, manioc meal, and fried sausage. My favorite precious stone is the ruby. Maria’s, you guessed it, was also the ruby. Lucky number 7, color Blue, day Monday, film Westerns, book The Little Prince, drink Beer on Tap, mattress Anatom, soccer team Vasco da Gama, music Samba, pastime Love, everything the same between her and me, wonderful. What we would do in bed, man—I don’t mean to brag, but if it were in the circus and we charged admission, we’d be rich. In bed no couple was ever so taken by such resplendent madness, was capable of such a dexterous, imaginative, original, pertinacious, splendiferous, and fulfilling performance as ours. And we would repeat it several times a day. But it was not just that which linked us. If you were missing a leg I would continue to love you, she would say. If you were a hunchback I would not stop loving you, I would reply. If you were a deaf-mute I would continue to love you, she would say. If you were cross-eyed I would not stop loving you, I would respond. If you had a paunch and were ugly I would go on loving you, she would say. If you were all scarred with smallpox I would not stop loving you, I would respond. If you were old and impotent I would continue to love you, she would say. And we were exchanging these vows when a desire to be truthful struck me, as deep as a knife-thrust, and I asked her, what if I had no teeth, would you love me? And she replied, if you had no teeth I would still love you. Then I took out my dentures and threw them on the bed with a grave, religious, and metaphysical gesture. We both lay there looking at the dentures on top of the sheet, until Maria got up, put on a dress, and said, I’m going out for cigarettes. To this day she hasn’t come back. Nathanael, explain to me what happened. Does love end suddenly? Do a few teeth, miserable pieces of ivory, mean that much? ODONTOS SILVA.
    As I was about to reply, Jacqueline came by and said that Peçanha was calling