Free Dona Nicanora's Hat Shop by Kirstan Hawkins

that it led to the threatened resignations of some of the most reliable amongst them. After that the Aguilars adopted a more minimalist approach to household interiors, keeping their ornaments permanently locked in the broom cupboard and starting a fashion that was much admired and copied by many in their social circle, with the exception of Loretta Camacho.
    Despite the upheavals caused to the Aguilar household by Claudia’s presence over the years, Arturo became increasingly besotted with her. By the age of twelve he was hopelessly in love. He became listless and unable to eat on the morning of a visit. As soon as Claudia arrived he would disappear with her into thefar reaches of the house or garden, and she would fill his mind with notions of a life he would never otherwise have dared dream of.
    â€˜I’m going to do something great when I’m older,’ she told him. ‘And I’ll only be able to love you if you come away with me and do something brave and daring as well.’
    â€˜Like what?’ Arturo asked, breathless with excitement.
    â€˜I’m going to the lead the revolution,’ Claudia said proudly. ‘And if that doesn’t work, I’ll become a film star in Hollywood.’
    â€˜But my father wants me to stay here and be a doctor,’ Arturo said meekly.
    â€˜Don’t be such a baby, Arturo,’ Claudia replied. ‘There’s a world out there, you know, in which people do heroic deeds. I’m not going to stay here and grow fat like your parents.’
    It thrilled and terrified Arturo to entertain the possibility that his father was wrong and that there could be another view of the world. He was consumed with guilt at the exhilaration he felt after one of Claudia’s long rants, which inevitably left his father lined up against the wall and shot along with all the other fascist pigs. Claudia was never very clear in her explanation of what a fascist pig was, except that she was certain that her mother was one and Arturo’s father was another.
    Claudia gave Arturo the courage to carry out unthinkably daring deeds, such as stealing swigs of his father’s imported malt whisky when their parents were in the garden having their afternoon tea, or breaking into his father’s study to look at the pictures of naked bodies that littered his medical books. Arturo never let Claudia know that the books filled him with the utmost horror and disgust, some of the bodies they giggled over having the most grotesque deformities and diseases imaginable. He became more and moreconvinced that the last thing he ever wanted to be was a doctor and spend his life looking at such monstrosities.
    Arturo’s friendship with Claudia came to an abrupt end one day when his father caught them in the study, Arturo with his pants around his ankles and Claudia with her blouse wide open. The adults had as usual departed into the garden to take tea, leaving the way clear for at least an hour. Claudia had convinced Arturo to take a swig of whisky before creeping up to the study, and he had impressed her by taking four, which had proved to be a fatal mistake, leading him to let his guard down completely. After ten minutes giggling at a book which contained pictures of pregnant women with huge breasts, Claudia had announced that she was now growing breasts herself and hers were much more impressive than anything in the books and she would show them to Arturo if he would take his trousers down and show her what lay beneath. Arturo, in a haze of alcohol, anticipation and fear, stood with his mouth open as she unbuttoned her blouse and showed him her small but perfectly formed breasts. He was transfixed. He reached out and touched them, gently, as if they were the shells of rare eggs about to break in his hands, and from that day on he was unable to get the image of Claudia’s breasts out of his mind. Unfortunately, at the point at which Claudia had demanded her side of the