Free B004L2LMEG EBOK by Mario Vargas Llosa Page B

would as soon as he got his third stripe and he’s keeping his promise, but now with this change in temperament, I don’t know anymore if doing our business morning and afternoon is to please me or just him. I tell you it’s enough to make you die laughing, he comes off the street like a little wind-up mouse and he circles and circles around me until he dares, can we take care of the little cadet tonight, Pocha? Ha ha, isn’t that cute? I adore him, Chichi. (Listen, I don’t know how I can tell you all these dirty things when you’re single.) Up till now, don’t breathe a word, Skinny, in spite of working at it, just yesterday my period came, what a pain, I thought this month for sure. Will you come take care of your sister when she’s got a big belly, Chichi? Oh, if only it was tomorrow you’d come, what a pleasure to have you here to gossip as much as we want. Of course, you’ll wear a dress for the men in Loreto, to find a handsome guy you have to search for him like a needle in a haystack, I’ll start giving anyone who’s worth it the once-over so you won’t get too bored when you come. (Have you noticed how this letter is pouring out of me by the mile? You’ll have to answer with the same number of pages, O.K.?) It’s not possible that I can’t have babies, is it, Chichi? It scares me so much that every day I ask God for any punishment but that one, I’d die of grief if I couldn’t have at least one little boy and one little girl. The doctor says I’m perfectly normal so I’m hoping it’ll be next month. Did you know that every time a man does his business millions of sperms come out of him and only one gets into the woman’s egg and makes the little baby there? I was reading a pamphlet the doctor gave me, explaining everything so well you could go crosseyed with the miracle of life. If you want me to I’ll send it to you, so you’ll learn about those things for when you get wise, marry, lose your virginity and learn what a soufflé is, you skinny little kid. I hope I don’t get too ugly, Chichi, some women look terrible when they’re pregnant, they puff up like toads, varicose veins pop out, really disgusting. I won’t please your horny brother-in-law anymore and when you least expect it he’ll be out looking for his fun on the street, I tell you I don’t know what I’ll do with him. I’ll bet with all the heat and humidity here pregnancy must be awful, especially not living on the army base but instead where we unlucky people do. I’m telling you, another worry gives me gray hair, I’m glad to have the baby, but what if on the excuse that I got fat that miserable Panta gets tangled up with some woman in Loreto, especially since now I let him have his way about doing a little business even when I’m asleep? I’m dying of hunger, Chichi, I’ve been writing you for hours, Mother Leonor’s already serving lunch, you can picture to yourself how happy my mother-in-law’s going to be with the idea of the grandchild, I’m coming, lunch and later I’ll continue, so you don’t kill yourself, I’m still not ending, ciao , Sis.
    I’m back at last, Chichi, I took years, it’s nearly six, I had to take a nap because I ate like a boa constrictor. Just think, Alicia made us a present of a plate of tacacho , a native dish here. Isn’t she friendly? It’s better that I’ve found a friend here in Iquitos. I’d heard so much about this famous tacacho , it’s mashed green bananas with pork, I had to go to the Bethlehem Market to have some, to a restaurant called Aladdin Panduro’s Lamp where there’s a great cook, so I pestered Panta until he took us there the other day very early, the market is open at dawn and closes early. Bethlehem is the prettiest place here, you’ll see, an entire neighborhood of little wooden houses floating on the river, people get from one side to the other in little boats, I’m telling you, it’s so original, they call it the Venice of the Amazon, even though