Free B004L2LMEG EBOK by Mario Vargas Llosa Page A

does think he’s very handsome; these people in Loreto have cockeyed taste. I caught him one day when I went to visit the Moronacocha aquarium, to see the tropical fish (very pretty, let me tell you, but I thought I’d touch an eel and he let out with an electric shock from his tail that nearly knocked me over), and Mother Leonor has also caught Panta in a restaurant with the Chink, and Alicia spied them walking across the Army Plaza and from her I found out that the Chink is well known as a big hood. He exploits women and he’s a parasite and a bum. Imagine your dear brother-in-law’s friendships. I’ve put it to him squarely and Mother Leonor more than me, because her son’s bad companions make her sicker than they make me, especially now that she believes the end of the world is near. Panta has promised her he won’t be seen on the streets anymore with either the woman or the dwarf or the Chink, but he’ll have to go on seeing them on the sly because it turns out that’s part of his work. I don’t know where it’s all going to lead with this assignment and with that sort of connections, Chichita, you’ll understand my nerves are upset and I’m very jumpy.
    Even though I really shouldn’t be like this, I mean about tomcatting and cheating, because—should I tell you, Sis?—you can’t imagine how Panta’s changed in regard to such things, the intimate ones. Do you remember how he’s always been so formal ever since we got married so you always joked a lot and told me I’m sure with Panta you must be doing without, Pocha? Well, you can’t laugh at your brother-in-law anymore in that respect, you bad-mouth, because since he stepped foot in Iquitos he’s become a savage. Something terrible, Chichi, at times I get scared and wonder if it isn’t an illness, because imagine that before, I’ve told you, I only got him to tend to his business once every ten or fifteen days (how embarrassing to talk to you about this, Chichi) and now the little bandit’s excited every two, three days and I have to put the brakes on his passion, because it isn’t right, no, really, with this heat and sticky humidity. Besides, it occurred to me it could hurt him, it seems it affects the brain. Didn’t everybody say that Pulpito Carrasco’s husband went out of his head from doing it so often with her? Panta says the climate’s to blame, a general already warned him back in Lima that the jungle turns men into blowtorches. I have to tell you it makes me laugh seeing your little brother-in-law so horny. Sometimes he’s itching to do a little business during the daytime, right after lunch, with the siesta as an excuse, but of course I don’t let him, and sometimes he wakes me at dawn with that craziness. Picture this, the other night I caught him with a stopwatch timing how long our business took us. I asked him about it and he got very confused. Later he confessed to me he had to know how long a little business like that took for a normal couple. Do you think he’s turning into a pervert? Who’s going to believe that he has to check that dirty business for his assignment? I tell him I don’t recognize you, Panta, you who were so very, very educated, it makes me feel I’m doing it with some other Panta. Well, my dear, enough dirty talk, since you’re a little virgin, and I promise you I’ll fight with you forever if it gets into your head to mention this to anybody, especially to those crazy Santanas.
    Sure, it half calms me down that Panta has gotten to be such a pest about doing his duty, it means his wife pleases him (ahem, ahem) and he doesn’t have to look for excitement out in the street. But after that, nothing doing, Chichi, because here in Iquitos women are taken very, very seriously. Do you know what’s the big excuse your brother-in-law has invented for doing a little business whenever he’s horny? Pantita Junior! Yes, Chichi, you heard right, at last he’s eager for us to have a baby. He promised me we